Nico Rosberg: “It was a big thrill during the race…”

Nico Rosberg learned valuable lessons from the Bahrain GP, where he fought closely with team mate Lewis Hamilton – but ultimately lost out in their wheel-to-wheel fight.

“I’ve reviewed Bahrain, and just tried to learn from it, picked out the good things from it, what can I do better,” said Rosberg in China today. “The key lesson from Bahrain – for sure I learned about battling, definitely a lot about that, because it’s not so common, to have many corner battles and things like that. That was very good experience, I definitely picked up many things there.”

Asked if he expected the rest of the season to see similar battles, he said: “If I had a choice I would say preferably not, I would prefer just going into the distance in the front. But it’s more likely that it’s going to be continue to be a close fought battle, which is also OK. It was a big thrill during the race, not after the race, but during the race it was, and really enjoyable. That’s what racing is about.”

Rosberg said he had no problems with Lewis Hamilton’s driving other than the one time he mentioned it on the radio.

“That was the only example where I came on the radio which I thought was above the limits, all the other examples were really tough racing, but with the necessary respect.

“[It was] the rate at which he was pushing me out, because the if the rate is too fast I will struggle to avoid the accident. If you’re on the inside you’re the boss, it’s your corner, as long as you’re in front. As soon as the other guy gets in front – and it was centimetres from me being in front in Turn 4 sometimes – but I just didn’t manage to get those 5-10cms in front, it was just even, and as long as you’re even it’s still the inside that has the say. So it’s the rate, and I found the rate above the limit, which is why I said it on the radio.”

Rosberg said he didn’t feel he had to be more aggressive in their next battle.

“I attacked quite a lot and went for it, even when I was not even close to being in a position, I just dived down the inside and give a go. I thought my attacking mode was pretty much there, anything more on more than one occasion meant that we don’t finish the race! Of course it was something I’ll keep adapting and keep reviewing, if there’s more battles like that.”