Sunday: Hamilton deserved his victory according to Rosberg, Mercedes drivers think of Bianchi
Despite a double at the Japanese Grand Prix F1, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were not celebrating, as they were worried about Jules Bianchi's health condition. The German, however, acknowledged the superiority of the Briton at Suzuka.
Lewis Hamilton (#44) – Victory
The winner of the day naturally has a thought for Jules Bianchi after his accident: « Our first thoughts go to Jules: it takes precedence over everything else when one of our colleagues is injured, and we pray for him. »
In terms of sport, he believes he had a better race pace than his teammate, Nico Rosberg, whom he overtook at the end of the pit straight on the 29th lap: « The race result does not seem significant at all. Nico and I had a tough battle, we were pushing really hard. I had quite a scare when I released the DRS too late because I was pushing so hard, but luckily I was able to get back on track. The conditions were difficult throughout, but I had a better pace than Nico today and could follow him quite easily at the start. It’s not an easy circuit to follow another car or to overtake, but he made a mistake exiting the last corner and I was able to pass. The whole approach after that needed to be modified to take care of the tires and ensure I stayed in the lead until the end of the race. »
« But, as I said, that’s not what matters today: our thoughts are with Jules, » he concluded.
Nico Rosberg (No. 6) – 2nd
Like his teammate and all the drivers, the German does not forget Jules Bianchi: « My thoughts are with our colleague Jules and his family and his team, and we hope for positive news. »
Regarding the race, he acknowledges Lewis Hamilton’s superiority and explains that he struggled with the intermediate tires: « Today, it was a really tough race with the wet conditions. I had a lot of trouble with the balance of my car on the intermediate tires, so I had to push hard to keep Lewis behind me. I experienced a lot of oversteer, which made the rear of my car very nervous. It was really strange, and I didn’t have the necessary confidence in the corners; we need to look into this in the coming days. This resulted in Lewis being faster today and deserving to win. It was damage limitation with only 7 points lost to him. For the team, it was a good result with another one-two finish. »
