Rosberg: Hamilton killed tyres due to “way he was driving”

Hamilton claimed that it was impossible to follow his race-leading teammate closely enough to make a passing move.

After the race Rosberg was able to gloat about the way he’d been able to control the Grand Prix, and make Hamilton struggle for grip in his wake.

“It was a question of managing the race,” said Rosberg. “We were on for a two-stop at the time, and the way Lewis was driving, as you saw a couple of laps later, his tyres just completely died and he dropped off the back, he was finished.

“There was no way in this world that he was going to get anywhere near to a two-stop. And that’s why it forced us very quickly to a three-stop because the team saw his degradation, and he had no tyres left.

“It’s always a question of managing pace versus tyres. That’s what I was controlling.”

Ending season on a high

Rosberg has now won two races on the trot and wants to claim the Abu Dhabi finale to complete an impressive hat-trick of victories ahead of the winter.

“The most important thing for me is winning races,” he added. “On a side note, yes it’s nice to have finished second in the championship, it’s better than third, but I wanna win, so second is not really what I’m going for.

“It’s always better for next year to end on a high.”