OTD: Rosberg Prevails Inspite of Hamilton’s Tactics

On 27th November, history was made two years ago, involving Nico Rosberg. Half a decade before that, Sebastian Vettel was forced to settle for 2nd, allowing teammate Mark Webber to win.

A minor gearbox problem denied Sebastian Vettel a 12th win of the season, but he still harried Webber for the whole race as the Aussie took his only win of the year. Jenson Button finished third to claim the runner-up spot in the championship, while Fernando Alonso finished fourth, losing third in the championship to Webber in the process. Vitaly Petrov finished 10th, the final point of his career.

Nico Rosberg only had to finish second to win the championship, regardless of what Lewis Hamilton did. In normal circumstances that would have been easy but Hamilton had other ideas. With Mercedes being so much faster than everyone else, Hamilton drove deliberately slowly at certain points of the track to try and back his teammate into the chasing pack. If Rosberg dropped to third and Hamilton won, he’d be the champion.

Despite protestations from his team not to do it Hamilton continued with his tactic, making for a tense finale as a Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo followed the Mercs in a five-car train. It wasn’t enough – Rosberg did enough to finish second and clinch the championship he’d missed out on for the past two years. In the process he joined Damon Hill as the second son of a former world champion to win the title himself.

Graham Hill and his son, Damon, won the F1 title in 1962 and 1996 respectively. Keke Rosberg and son, Nico, won their titles in 1982 and 2016 respectively. Coincidentally, both father-son pairs won their titles, exactly 34 years apart. It certainly was history in the making.