Rosberg: I think I’ve just raised my game

Nico Rosberg scored his fifth win of the season with a faultless drive in the Brazilian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Carlos Pace, in Sao Paulo, where he also cemented second place in the 2015 Formula 1 world championship. The German spoke after his triumphant day at Interlagos.

Nico, your 40th time on the podium, surely one of the sweetest? Another great drive, your second victory in a row.
Nico Rosberg: Yeah, for sure, thank you very much. It was a great weekend for me here. Of course everything relative with what happened back in Paris. But still, very, very happy, it went perfectly. Lewis put on a good challenge but I was able to control it and never give him a chance, so I’m pleased with that.

Well, maybe Lewis was just mighty on the brakes then. It looked like you were pacing yourself, tyres, brakes, or were there any kind of issues you were carrying?
NR: No, no issues. It was just controlling the pace – never overdoing doing, not to risk doing a mistake and also to not risk having too much degradation. We saw Lewis dropping off a lot with degradation in the second stint and that confirmed that it was important to take care of the tyres.

We heard you on the radio saying ‘don’t talk to me anymore’, the pressure was intense, Lewis was trying his hardest towards the end.
NR: It just depends. Sometimes I need the information but at that point I just wanted to focus on driving and get the job done.

You’ve got to do this earlier in the year, so you can have a fight in the world championship....
NR: Thank you very much for that piece of advice, I could figure that out for myself!

So how can you do that, how can you change that?
NR: Well, I’m pushing now and I was pushing in the beginning of the season. I don’t have an exact explanation for why it's going so strongly now but I just want to keep it going.

You’re on a roll. It’s not through luck, it’s through speed, but maybe you should go to the casino or play the lottery or something – everything is running for you at the moment.
NR: Well, I’ve been working hard also, because Lewis had the upper hand for a lot of the season and I needed to try to turn it round, so at the moment it’s going really well, I’m pleased with that and next race now Abu Dhabi, I want to try to go for the win there again.

Another good reception from the crowd. Win number 13 for you, which confirms your second place in the Drivers’ Championship 2015. Does it good to be in control, second consecutive win from pole?
NR: It feels great to win the races, for sure. Two in a row now, with pole positions as well. It’s just going a lot better at the moment, which I’m happy about that. I don’t have an exact explanation unfortunately, otherwise it would make it all a lot more simple. But of course I’ve been working at it a lot, because Lewis had the upper hand for the first part of the season and so, yeah, I’m pleased that it’s turned around at the moment.

We’re all searching for explanations as to the turnaround in qualifying form. One of the things that someone’s pointed out today is that this has happened since the tyre pressures were increased from Monza onwards – I know you were on pole in Monza Lewis – but since then it’s been Nico all the way. Do you think that’s one of the influencing factors potentially?
NR: No, I don’t. I don’t think so. I think I’ve just raised my game. That’s it.

This track might be worse, but it’s not the only track where you can’t follow a car closely. Is it time for a fundamental change in the technical rules – so that you can actually follow closely?
NR: Yes, we always need to keep improving the sport – but I don’t know how the battles were further back. Up front I had the pace advantage over Lewis today so of course he’s not going to come by me because in the end of the race I was six seconds in front. So it’s normal he’s not going to pass me in that case. Behind, I don’t know how it’s going but of course it’s always difficult in F1 to pass – that’s why DRS has come onboard and that’s really made a lot of progress for us. So we’ve seen a lot of excitement because of that – but we need to keep working at it for sure, and keep thinking about it.