'Naive' Rosberg wasn't expecting Hamilton's Abu Dhabi tactics
Nico Rosberg says he wasn’t expecting Lewis Hamilton to back him up him Abu Dhabi – but conceded that he understood why his teammate would follow that strategy.
However, the possibility had been discussed internally before the race.
“I wasn’t expecting it, no,” he said. “Maybe that was a bit naive, but I wasn’t expecting it. It’s really not something we need to discuss a lot. It’s really easy to understand the team’s side, because we’re doing a certain thing all year and it doesn’t change at the last race just because of whatever.
“At the same time you can also understand Lewis, because it’s the World Championship, and we’re out there fighting, we’re drivers, and you can understand that he wants to try something. And we can just leave it at that, and we don’t need to discuss that anymore.”
Rosberg said it was impossible to pass Hamilton: “I couldn’t, I was trying at times, but Lewis was doing it really well. He pushed flat out from Turn 21, all the way to the first sector and halfway through the second sector, and that’s where you overtake. I couldn’t get close enough, he has the same car as me and everything, so through the fast corners there’s no way to get close enough. And then he just backed off in the next part, where I can’t overtake, so he was doing it perfectly and there was no way for me.”
Earlier in the race, Rosberg had been told that he had to pass Max Verstappen.
“That was not a nice thing to hear. Really. Critical to pass Verstappen? Honesty, that was bad, that was really bad. That was a horrible feeling!
“The feelings that I had in the battle and right after when I realized that I’d passed him, I’ve never had that in a race car ever in my life. And I don’t want ever want to have them again, I don’t think...”
He admitted the finish was also stressful: “The last 10 laps I could see them coming really close,” said Rosberg. “And with what Lewis was doing, I didn’t know how far he was going to push it also. I could just go completely extreme, and then it would have been a right mess. I didn’t know what to expect, so that was also very, very tough.
“I had Vettel and Verstappen right behind, so I wanted to try and hang onto second. Once I dropped one, who knows what kind of mess they are going to get into, those two in front, and Verstappen’s right behind. I didn’t want to have Verstappen right behind again.”
Asked if it was the toughest race of his career, he said: “Yeah, yeah, for sure. I couldn’t not think about what’s at stake, and it didn’t work. I had to. Tony saying it’s critical to pass Verstappen for the championship, holy moly, seriously. Not good. But it worked out.”
