Nico Rosberg was stunned by the throttle failure which ended his Russian Grand Prix after just seven laps.
The Mercedes driver began to experience trouble with his throttle while leading the field behind the Safety Car after the start of the race, and retired a few laps later.
“It’s not nice when there’s a problem with the throttle pedal, that’s a bit of a worry,” Rosberg told reporters afterwards, “especially because it was coming more and more in my direction, the pedal.”
“So in the end I had to lift my complete leg off the pedal to come off throttle. And then I can’t steer any more when I lift off my leg because the knee is in the steering wheel. Unbelievable that something like that had to happen.”
Rosberg’s retirement has dropped him to third in the championship, 73 points behind team mate Lewis Hamilton.
“I don’t think about that at the moment,” he said. “I’m just disappointed today and I’ll think about the rest afterwards.”
2015 Russian Grand Prix
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- Russia’s second grand prix gets higher rating
- 2015 Russian Grand Prix team radio transcript
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
11th October 2015, 14:46
Do you have the part about him losing the win today. He looked so sure on that but wanted to re-read it.
Dom (@3dom)
11th October 2015, 14:50
I’m a lewis fan but it’s a shame that nico’s attempt at a championship fightback has been hit with a reliability problem, I know that’s part of motor racing, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’ve been robbed of some great battles between the Mercedes’ due to mechanical problems
matiascasali (@matiascasali)
11th October 2015, 20:41
It Would be a hell of a championship ir nico had less reliability problema. I can se e him easily winning tris one. It Would also be great if he and Lewis tangle with each other and hand vettel with a victory may add some spice yo the WDC finita
Jay
11th October 2015, 21:23
Mercedes already spiced it up a bit in the form of pitting Hamilton an extra time unnecessarily and it handed the Malaysia win to Vettel and Monaco win to Rosberg. HAMILTON has clearly been the driver of the season and he should romp the rest of the way.
ireni
11th October 2015, 22:28
I thought @matiascasali was kidding, you take the ridiculous trophy.
matiascasali (@matiascasali)
12th October 2015, 1:00
Of course i was
Albrecht
11th October 2015, 14:51
It was a shame. Bit still, Nico didn’t lose the championship in this race, nor in Spa. This has been a season-long path to defeat. This only made it shorter and faster.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
11th October 2015, 15:01
Crofty and Brundle were pointing out how unlucky Nico was, and how this was the turning point in the championship…
As if it was the 10th time it happened this year… Nico has been incredibly disappointing this year, this is just something that brings the conclusion of this year’s “battle” for the title a lot closer.
mickey18 (@mickey18)
11th October 2015, 15:05
I don’t know but I’d probably be right in saying this was the closest they’d been together on track for more then a few laps since Brazil last year. And then something had to take it away again.
As a Rosberg, Grosjean, Ricciardo and Vettel fan this was largely a disappointing race! Much better then last year’s edition though.
lethalnz
12th October 2015, 12:12
ive noticed its only ever close between the two Merc’s when Lewis is behind,
what would that tell you?
when ever Lewis is in front then it’s bye bye Nico, or is that wrong?
Egorov (@egorov)
11th October 2015, 16:05
Did the Merc team say something like, its our fault, we have to apologize to Nico. Or was it something out of the team’s control.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
11th October 2015, 16:41
Toto Wolff explained on the BBC that something mechanical broke in the throttle pedal.
lethalnz
12th October 2015, 12:18
i thought he said on SKY TV after the race that it was a rubber grommet which helps guides the cable which had failed, been know to be wrong before, so don’t take my word for it..
Jure
11th October 2015, 16:50
Nico was on for a cracking race, Lewis would at least struggle to pass…
Nico won start and first restart, and per Mercedes he would have perfered strategy.
Hammertime would be fun.
Cannot blame mechanical failure on Nico.
To bad.
manas
11th October 2015, 19:47
Feel sorry for Nico.He did good job througout the weekend keeping Hamilton honest but I seriously doubt he can overhaul Hamilton ‘s challenge if he was not retired.He was not good as laat year.This year Hamilton totally outperformed him.It is 9-3 but technically he has two wins to Hamilton’s 10.(monaco)
He is still a good driver not a webber for sure but when you deal with the best you have to do your maximum.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
11th October 2015, 20:22
Actually, today evened out Monaco.
Albrecht
11th October 2015, 20:35
It happened too early in the race to say that. For all we know Hamilton would have passed him like the other n-times. Monaco is much more clear cut.
medman (@medman)
11th October 2015, 20:57
Not really…Monaco is Monaco, and Lewis was leading by daylight in that race, having sown that thing up well and truly until a very late safety car. This race hadn’t even started, so we have no idea how Rosberg would have done throughout the race. Also, let’s not forget Lewis had a failure in Singapore and other such niggling problems from the car also.