SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium -- Nico Rosberg admits he was shocked when Mercedes told him Lewis Hamilton had driven from the back row of the grid to finish third at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Rosberg turned in a faultless drive to win from pole at Spa, converting pole to victory on a weekend which saw his teammate and nearest title rival take a hefty grid penalty for engine changes. The German admitted the race was made easier in his absence, though Rosberg did have to manage a restart after the race was red flagged on lap 11.
Asked what he thought when Hamilton was fifth at the red flag after 11 laps, he said; "That I didn't see, I just saw the result at the end and I saw that Daniel was behind me and HAM was in P3 and I was like 'What! Seriously?' But I didn't know until after the race where he was.
"He's done a great job. A great job, for sure yes. A great job to come all the way through."
Rosberg arrived in Belgium 19 points behind, having seen his teammate win six of the seven races prior to the summer break. Hamilton's drive to third meant he only cut that gap by ten points, though Rosberg is not getting distracted by how many points he has to make up.
"That's not what I'm focusing on. I came the Belgium Grand Prix wanting to win it and the opposition was unusually close this weekend. Not eventually in the race, but up until then they were very close, but it worked out with a perfect weekend for me and Lewis did a great job to finish third."