Nico Rosberg expressed his frustration over not converting his pole position into a victory.
After qualifying on pole position, Nico Rosberg would have been hoping to convert that pole position into a win as he looked to close the gap on his teammate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton as well as fending off the challenge from Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari.
However, it was not to be for Rosberg, who had to settle for second place behind Hamilton after he was overtaken down into the first corner and went off the track trying to overtake Hamilton around the outside of turn two.
“A tough day for me. It was very close throughout the corner and on the exit I had to go off the track to avoid a collision, which cost me speed and pushed me back to fourth place. After that, I was fighting for P2 today rather than the win. But I was able to push then and overtake Valtteri, which was great.”
“The team did also a great job with the undercut of Sebastian, this worked out perfectly with a really hard out-lap on the new tyres. So second place is damage limitation for me, as I had to win here in Japan to close the gap to Lewis. But I will keep pushing and try to win in Sochi now. I had lots of positives this weekend. So I will be back strongly.”
