Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Rosberg doesn't care if Vettel beats him in standings

Nico Rosberg is not focusing on Sebastian Vettel in the drivers' championship, saying he sees no difference between finishing second or third.

With Lewis Hamilton 41 points clear of Rosberg, the German has a big gap to try and close in the remaining six races of the season. While Vettel is now just eight points behind Vettel following the Ferrari driver's victory in Singapore, Rosberg says he only cares about winning the championship and is not concerned by Vettel closing in.

“Well he’s a threat for sure and we’re all keeping an eye on him, definitely, and on Ferrari in general because they have been very strong at times this year and they have been our closest competitor," Rosberg said. "They are capable of anything so we need to be careful.

"But championship-wise I’m not looking backwards, I’m just looking forwards because if it comes to that then third or second is not really a difference to me. I’m going for first place this year - second I’ve already been last year - and so only first place counts.

"I’m just looking forwards, so Sebastian being a couple of points closer or further away doesn’t really make a difference for me, I’m just looking at the 41 points to Lewis.”

And Rosberg believes it will only need a small improvement from himself to be able to get the better of Hamilton in the closing races.

“I just have to do a great job and get my weekends together and be at my best. That’s what I’m aiming for anyway, it’s so small that it just takes Lewis to have a bit of a worse weekend and me to have a bit of a better one and then it will be enough to turn it around.

"It’s been within a tenth our qualifying now for the last races - Monza is difficult to judge because of different engines but it has been very, very close so it doesn’t take much.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.