Ferrari errors led to comfortable win - Rosberg

Nico Rosberg is not reading too much in to his margin of victory at the Chinese Grand Prix after more errors from Ferrari.

The championship leader took his third consecutive win of 2016 in China, beating Sebastian Vettel by nearly 40 seconds having led from the third lap of the race. Vettel collided with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen at the start of the race, with both requiring new front wings. Rosberg was never troubled once he passed Daniel Ricciardo - who had jumped him at the start - but says the problems at Ferrari continues to mask its true pace.

"What we take away is that we are still the quickest car out there at the moment, but really Ferrari haven’t shown what they can do," Rosberg said. "They have had so many issues in the first three races, so we need to keep on it and keep pushing because I think they are closer than they have shown. We will push and I am looking forward to the next races and I think we will go well there."

Understandably after such a dominant victory, Rosberg was full of praise for Mercedes' strategy and performance across the weekend.

"I am happy with the day, it was a great weekend in China.It’s a special place for me, first pole and first win here. It was a pleasure to drive out there today.

"The start wasn’t too bad but then [Ricciardo] got an even better one. After that I was a lot quicker when the super-soft tyres began to degrade and I can just fly past them because I didn’t expect it to be that easy at the beginning. After that I was just pushing to get the best gap that I could and I am glad it worked out so well."

REPORT: Rosberg cruises home ahead of chaos in China

Relive the Chinese Grand Prix lap-by-lap as it happened!

Eric Silbermann has breakfast with photographer Crispin Thruston

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.

Recent Posts

Piastri salvages silver ling despite Madrid misery

Spain was supposed to be a weekend of consolidation for McLaren, but for Oscar Piastri,…

7 hours ago

Audi junior Slater lands 2027 F2 seat with powerhouse Invicta

Freddie Slater’s rapid rise through the junior ranks is taking another significant step forward, with…

8 hours ago

Lawson opens up on the ‘tricky’ challenge of Red Bull double duty

Liam Lawson has spent the past three Formula 1 weekends with an unusual problem: preparing…

10 hours ago

Mekies defends Verstappen order: ‘Better to take the pain’

Laurent Mekies says Red Bull had little choice but to order Max Verstappen to hand…

11 hours ago

A wet-to-dry masterclass performance at Spa, à la Senna

On this day in 1985, Ayrton Senna won the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, skillfully…

13 hours ago

Vasseur: ‘Staying on track made no sense’ for Hamilton

Ferrari’s decision to pull Lewis Hamilton out of the Spanish Grand Prix after just seven…

14 hours ago