Mercedes Formula One driver Nico Rosberg spoke on 29 March about his frustration at finishing third in Malaysia. Alarms sounded at world champions Mercedes after Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel beat them fair and square, taking top spot on the podium ahead of second placed Lewis Hamilton.
Mercedes had arrived in Sepang after a one-two in Australia that had rivals wondering whether the Silver Arrows could be beaten this season. Hamiltons pole on Saturday was Mercedess 13th in a row and the German constructor, dominant since the introduction of the V6 turbo hybrid power unit, had won the last eight races.
But Sepang did not go to plan, with Ferrari and Vettel claiming their first wins since 2013, while Mercedes struggled on the softer medium-compound tyres and made strategic errors.
Vettel stayed out when the safety car was deployed while the Mercedes drivers pitted, with Rosberg losing more time when he had to wait behind Hamilton for fresh tyres and then to be released.
Everything went wrong starting from the beginning being stuck behind Lewis in the pit lane, that was planned and for us it was the strategy at that point in time, we thought, but to just be stuck there and the time was just ticking and they couldnt let me out because there was so many cars coming so I was just stuck there with a red light. Not a great moment for me, quite tough to digest, said the German.
After that I was quicker than Lewis, that was a positive, but I was so far behind after that, I lost so much time that I couldnt quite catch up any more. I got back to like three and a half seconds at the end which wasnt enough.
Rosberg congratulated his compatriot Vettel for his winning drive.
Congrats to Sebastian and Ferrari, they really did an awesome job, the small good thing is that it was an awesome day for our sport today, thats a small positive anyways, and now full on attack for the next race, got to get back right to the front, he said.
