Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg has said that he is relieved to have finished on the podium after being at the back of the field during the Malaysia GP.
The German driver salvaged a third-place finish behind the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen after a strenuous race at the Sepang International Circuit.
Rosberg got away decently from the front row of the grid and was behind teammate Lewis Hamilton before suffering a first corner incident with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Vettel was on the inside of the turn, and as the space narrowed, his front left corner of his car hit the rear of the Mercedes.
This sent the Mercedes spinning around in a plume of tyre smoke.
No other drivers collided with Rosberg as they took evasive action when he was facing the opposite direction, while Vettel’s suspension was destroyed and he became the first retirement of the race.
A difficult race would become tougher as he went on to lunge Kimi Raikkonen up the inside after going through the first turn later in the race, with a touch between the two.
This manoeuvre gave the German a 10-second time penalty from the stewards, however, he was classified 15.5s behind Ricciardo and 28.7s ahead of Raikkonen at the end of the race.
Despite these dramas, Rosberg was not going to complain about his finishing position after the race, hailing the finish as a ‘good moment’.
“First of all at turn one, I thought it was all over,” Rosberg said.
“I’m really happy to fight back in such a way all the way to the podium, that’s been great.
“In general I wished for a better day today, but it’s the way it is sometimes. It’s a good moment in general and I’m looking forward to the next one and of course a big attack.”
Rosberg takes a 23-point championship lead going into the final five rounds of the season, moving onto 288 points compared to Hamilton’s 265.
This is the first time that he has led the championship with five races to go of a Formula One season having been three and 48 points behind Hamilton in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
