Rosberg rues start after losing championship lead

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Nico Rosberg believes that the Hungarian Grand Prix was all but decided in the rush to the first corner, in which Lewis Hamilton took the lead.

Rosberg started from pole but was passed by both Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo in the first corner. The Mercedes driver managed to take back second place in turn two, but was unable to challenge his team mate for the win.

“It was all down to the start in the end,” explains Rosberg. “I lost out a little bit and then into turn one, with Daniel [Ricciardo] on the outside and Lewis on the inside, I ran out of space and had to bail out of it. That was it, really.

“I was happy to take Daniel back at turn two and from then I was trying to put as much pressure as possible on Lewis. But of course it’s not possible to pass on this track.”

Hamilton’s victory meant that he now heads the drivers’ championship for the first time this season. But despite losing the lead, Rosberg says he is not too concerned just yet.

“It’s very close,” says Rosberg. “It’s been a good season for far up to now, it’s been a good battle with Lewis.

“As I’ve always said, I’m not counting the points. There’s a long, long way to go. Anything is possible. I just want to focus on winning races – that’s what I wanted to do today. But it didn’t work out, unfortunately.”

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix

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    Will Wood
    Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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    23 comments on “Rosberg rues start after losing championship lead”

    1. “As I’ve always said, I’m not counting the points.”

      But Nico…… it’s the points that will determine the World Drivers Championship!

      1. @stubbornswiss shush man, you will anger some unbiassed technical analysts… how dare you ignore Ros’s superior form at the start of the season, it wasnt luck, it was pure skills for far up to now :)

        1. @mysticus Yup……. trying very hard not to anger those “unbiassed technical analysts”.

          But sometimes it’s difficult not to…. :)

          1. everytime i watch this i chuckle :_
            today Lewis with Ros was like :)
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIjQ_hBiZxQ

            1. It’s funny because it’s true… LOL!

    2. It needs more than cheating to win races Nico.

    3. Nico will still F Lewis up this year! lewis had had his lucky break. End of summer, lewis will be eating his words.

      1. MG421982 (@)
        24th July 2016, 17:33

        Hope so! This is getting really…… booooooooring!

      2. How has this recent run of success been luck?

      3. Bottleberg is just not good enough to challenge Hamilton. He needs to up his game otherwise he will never be world champion.

    4. I liked how everybody played nice and we all got through the first corner without incidents.

      1. Yeah, people seem to like it, but I don’t. We need tracks better for over taking and less 1st corner incidents.

        1. There was turn one incident so I don’t see how you could have any less.

    5. MG421982 (@)
      24th July 2016, 19:06

      He looked a lot more relaxed now that he lost 1st place in the WDC and the pressure of having all spotlights pointed at him is gone…

    6. Rosberg’s championship lead is like holding Hamilton in a race.once Hamilton got passed its difficult to catch him.nw he will start to pull away into distance . Now onwards Rosberg needs luck in terms of Hamilton’s mechanical failures,potential grid penalties ham facing,more support from his beloved fia race stewards for not taking any actions as usual ie,double the privilage and preferencial treatments that he is enjoying so far and for new upcoming rip offs.and even he gets all this still Rosberg didnt look like geniune title contender.

      1. Rosberg Looked like a genuine contender few races ago, when he was actually beating Hamilton..

        Going forward if he is to do any championing he needs to beat Hamilton, not by much but still beat him every race. When was the last time Nico won properly? Feels like ancient history.

        1. Australia

    7. It’s amazing how this is almost a replica of the 2015 start. Hamilton is on pole and gets squeezed by Rosberg on the inside and Vettel on the outside.

      Although after turn 1 it got a lot worse for the Mercedes guys in 2015 and this time around they managed to stay ahead of the other teams.

      Still, my point is, is this a bad place to be on pole? Like we saw in Spain. The rundown to turn 1 is so long that even when Hamilton had the better start, Rosberg simply slip-streamed past. Just as Verstappen slip-streamed past Vettel.

      1. Fun fact: Hamilton is the only driver to win here from pole since 2007, doing it thrice. Hamilton wins here from pole, from 2nd, from second row. Maybe the conclusion is simply that this is hamiltons track. Pole is a bad place to be if you are not Hamilton.

    8. Game over. Rosberg is a defeated man..

      Hamilton has the psychological edge.

      Bring on 2017.

      1. Bit early for that comment but I will admit Nico has benefited a lot in the first half of the season, not so much from mistakes by Lewis but by crap reliability and if what goes around comes around then Nico is going to suffer in the same way … then it could be game over.

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