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Rosberg takes maiden win for Mercedes in China

SHANGHAI, China- One day after he took his team’s first pole in six decades, Nico Rosberg followed up on Sunday by taking his maiden and the manufacturer’s first win since 1955 by dominating the Grand Prix of China at the Shanghai International circuit. In a huge fight for the last two podiums, McLaren teammates Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton took second and third places, respectively.

“This is a very special moment for me.” Said Rosberg. “The whole weekend went perfectly. My first pole position, now my first win in Formula One – it really is fantastic. But it’s not only this; it’s the first win for the new Silver Arrow and for this great team. That is really special for me. Thanks to everybody in the team, here in China and in our factories in Brackley and Brixworth. It makes me very proud that we have improved the car so quickly. I will never forget this race, and the last 20 laps felt as long as if I was racing in the Le Mans 24 Hours! But then crossing the line was so intense. We will enjoy this success, but our feet are still on the ground .”

In a huge strategic move, Rosberg took the lead right on the first straight, supported by teammate Michael Schumacher as the seven time world champion held the field back to give Rosberg a good lead for the first nine laps, which the young German held to about five seconds. But four laps later, a mistake by one of Schumacher’s pit crew caused a front right wheel nut to come loose, ending Schumacher’s day in the race. It turned out, just as last season, that the Mercedes driver was the only retirement in the race.

After his first pit stop, Rosberg regained the lead again by passing Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and began to increase his lead to 4.5 seconds on lap 22 to 11.3 seconds by lap 27.

Jenson Button regained the lead on lap 34, but as the Briton pitted, he encountered problems with the rear left side jack and came out far behind Rosberg, who took the lead for good at this point on lap 42.

All along the entire race, with the exception of Rosberg, about eight cars battled each other for position, and with only ten laps to go in the race, it began to become a heated exchange. The driver who got the worse of this was Kimi Raikkonen, who was passed by 12 cars in a matter of two laps, ending his chance of a podium when the Finn was at one moment, in second place. Raikkonen ended up in 14 th . The Finn knew exactly what the problem was that made him lose so many positions.

“We tried to run two stops as it looked to be the fastest strategy and up until the last ten laps it was looking good, but we ran out of tire performance at the end.” He said. “I was stuck behind Felipe (Massa) for quite a while and couldn’t get past as I wasn’t fast enough in the right parts of the track to make a move. Even if I’d got past I don’t think it would have made the greatest amount of difference to the final result. We had good pace in the race, we tried a different strategy and it didn’t pay off today; it’s as simple as that.”

Vettel passed Raikkonen with seven laps left, but was then passed by Button, Hamilton, and then his teammate Mark Webber, who took fourth in the race. Vettel ended up in fifth, while Roamin Grosjean, who retired in the first two races, finally got his reward by taking sixth. The two Williams cars of Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldanado took seventh and eighth, respectively, while Fernando Alonso finished in a disappointing ninth. Kamui Kobyaschi took the last point position in tenth.

After three rounds, Hamilton leads Button by two points, 45 to 43, with Alonso in third at 37. Rosberg, meanwhile, will treasure the win, but realizes that there is still a long way to go.

“We are still not where we want to be,” he said. “we are still working hard to understand the car and the tyres in all conditions, and we will keep pushing to improve our race pace even further. We will see how that works out in Bahrain.”

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