Toto Wolff says Nico Rosberg was "at his best" in the Bahrain Grand Prix despite only finishing third in the race.
Rosberg started from third place and dropped to fourth at the start before fighting his way past both Ferraris at Turn 1 later in the race. Rosberg actually had to pass Sebastian Vettel on three occasions due to strategy but lost out to Kimi Raikkonen on the penultimate lap as a result of a brake-by-wire failure. Wolff says the attacking drive showed both Rosberg and the sport at its best, which tempered the disappointment of Mercedes missing out on a one-two.
"It was a good race and the changes we put on the car after a hard Friday into qualifying proved to be the right ones," Wolff said. "The car was the quickest car out there on both tyres and nevertheless it’s a pity … first of all we must be happy with one and three, no doubt about it, but losing second place with Nico, everybody who ever doubted Nico saw Nico at his best, fighting hard and overtaking.
"Losing that position because of a brake failure is a bit of a pity, but all in all a one, three must be satisfactory and that is Formula One at its best I would say."
With Lewis Hamilton also suffering the same brake issue, Wolff confirms Mercedes will have to take a different approach in future races.
"It is never one single solution, so you try to tackle the problem that we had on the Friday and the Saturday afternoon with a couple of adjustments. One of them was linked to the capability of brake wear, so in hindsight and knowing that this caused a problem and nearly cost us the race and P2 we will probably look at things again and do things differently in the future."
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