Breakthrough win came at Shanghai in Mercedes began strongly with the W03 and at Shanghai, a circuit where Rosberg had performed well in the last two seasons, he planted the car on pole position and romped to victory. It looked like it was the beginning of a strong season for Rosberg.
He followed it up with second place in Monaco and chances for better finishes had been in the offing at Melbourne and Bahrain, only for him to make errors during qualifying. He ran his new world champion team mate close in the points standings as well. A second win at Silverstone was fortunate, though Rosberg also suffered at the hands of unreliability during the year. But team mate Hamilton scored more than twice as many at the wheel of the dominant Mercedes W06, and beat Rosberg to the title at the final race.
There were a few controversial run-ins between the pair earlier in the year. Rosberg scored his second consecutive Monaco Grand Prix victory largely thanks to starting from a pole position which he earned in contentious circumstances. In Belgium he clipped Hamilton while battling for position, giving his team mate a puncture which ruined his race, while Rosberg collected a useful 18 points for second place.
Crucially the advantage he enjoyed in qualifying deserted him: over the first 12 races Hamilton took pole position 11 times. While Hamilton built up a healthy lead in the championship Rosberg managed just three wins: in Spain where he took a rare pole position, in Austria where he beat Hamilton off the line, and in Monaco where Hamilton threw away victory with an unnecessary pit stop.
Technical problems in Russia while he was leading and Italy pushed the pendulum further in favour of his team mate. Rosberg, however, had already begun to turn his season around. The United States Grand Prix was the third race in a row where he had beaten Hamilton to pole, and not only did he sustain that over the final three races he won every time too. His frustrated team mate pressed the team to allow him to use more unorthodox strategies to take on Rosberg, but even when Hamilton had that chance in Abu Dhabi it was Rosberg who triumphed again, raising hopes of a closer contest between the pair in A string of decisive wins while Rosberg struggled, notably in wet races in Monaco and Britain, helped Hamilton to a point lead.
Rosberg returned from the summer break with renewed energy. Another series of setbacks hit Hamilton and Rosberg set about restoring his championship lead. His run was almost derailed in Malaysia, where Vettel tipped him into a spin at the start. But Rosberg fought back to third place while a power unit failure put Hamilton out while he was leading.
Hamilton unleashed a fresh onslaught in the championship run-in, taking a clean sweep of all the remaining races. But Rosberg could afford to finish second every time to secure the crown, which is exactly what he did. Despite a tense conclusion in Abu Dhabi, where Hamilton backed off to slow Rosberg down at the start and end of the race, Rosberg finally prevailed and took the title by a five-point margin.
What happened next took everyone by surprise. I pushed like crazy in every area after the disappointments of the last two years; they fuelled my motivation to levels I had never experienced before. And of course that had an impact on the ones I love, too — it was a whole family effort of sacrifice, putting everything behind our target. I cannot find enough words to thank my wife Vivian; she has been incredible.
She understood that this year was the big one, our opportunity to do it, and created the space for me to get full recovery between every race, looking after our daughter each night, taking over when things got tough and putting our championship first. On Sunday morning in Abu Dhabi, I knew that it could be my last race and that feeling cleared my head before the start.
I wanted to enjoy every part of the experience, knowing it might be the last time I took my decision on Monday evening. But Toto understood. He knew straight away that I was completely convinced and that reassured me. My proudest achievement in racing will always be to have won the world championship with this incredible team of people, the Silver Arrows. There is time to savour the next weeks, to reflect on the season and to enjoy every experience that comes my way. After that, I will turn the next corner in my life and see what it has in store for me He has chosen to leave at the pinnacle of his career, as World Champion, having achieved his childhood dream.
The clarity of his judgement meant I accepted his decision straight away when he told me. But Nico has a special combination of natural talent and fighting spirit that have brought him to where he is today. Throughout his career, people have thought he was on a golden path to success just because his father was a World Champion; in fact, I think in some ways that made the challenge greater — and meant he had to fight even harder with the weight of expectation on his shoulders.
Since , he has poured competitive energy into our team and we have grown stronger because of it. USA 9. FRA GER Ret. HUN Ret. TUR Ret. ITA Ret. CHN JPN BRA Ret. AUS 7. BHR ESP 6. MON CAN FRA 9.
GBR EUR Ret. HUN 7. TUR 7. ITA 6. BEL 6. JPN Ret. BRA 4. AUS 3. MAL BHR 8. ESP Ret. TUR 8. GER HUN EUR 8. BEL ITA SIN 2. BRA AUS 6. BHR 9. ESP 8. MON 6. TUR 5. GBR 5. GER 4. HUN 4. EUR 5. BEL 8. SIN JPN 5. ABU 9. BHR 5. AUS 5. MAL 3. CHN 3. MON 7. CAN 6. EUR GBR 3. GER 8. ITA 5. SIN 5. KOR Ret. BRA 6. ABU 4. CHN 5. ESP 7. GBR 6. GER 7. HUN 9.
SIN 7. KOR 8. IND 6. ABU 6. BRA 7.
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