Nico Rosberg may have finished second to teammate Lewis Hamilton at Monza, but the German still retains a handy 22-point lead in the World Championship.
Rosberg's race was notable for two trips down the first corner escape road while leading the race. The first cost valuable time, and the second allowed Hamilton to pass him for the lead.
“It was just Lewis was quick, coming from behind,” Rosberg admitted. “I needed to up my pace and then as a result just went into the mistake. That was very bad and that lost me the lead in the end. Definitely very disappointing from that point of view.
“Monza is one of the most difficult tracks for braking because of low downforce and the highest speed of the year. That isn’t any excuse or anything, that’s just the way it is. It is one of the challenges of this weekend here. Unfortunately I got it wrong. Two times in the race.”
Rosberg didn't blame the brakes.
“The brakes were no problem at all, up towards the end when you first heard it on the radio. And it wasn’t a massive problem, just something that you have to manage a little bit. That’s always going to happen, because opening up the front brake ducts you lose quite a lot of aerodynamic performance. You always try to bring that to a certain limit, and that may then put you slightly over in the race, so it’s not the first time and last time that something like that is going to happen and I think it was just pretty much optimized for here.”
Asked why he didn't seem to be downbeat Rosberg said: “Spa is behind me. I put it behind me before the weekend. In today’s race, just came to the mistake because Lewis was fast from behind. That’s it. There’s nothing unusual or anything. And me not being downbeat, I am very, very disappointed inside.
“But there’s no point now to go hanging mouth down and things like that. It’s still a one-two for the team and that’s a great day. And it’s not a disaster, that is a fact. I need to quickly look at the reality: second place, it’s OK. There’s a lot worse than that. I lost seven points to Lewis, that’s the frame of mind that I’m trying to take.”
