- Mercedes
Finishing second not bad for Nico - Lauda
Mercedes chairman Niki Lauda says Nico Rosberg should not linger on his mistake at the Italian Grand Prix and should be content with second place at Monza.
After his Mercedes team-mate and title rival Lewis Hamilton made a poor start, Rosberg took the lead at the first corner and held it for 28 laps. However, on lap 29 he made a mistake at the first corner after coming under pressure from Hamilton and lost the lead as he took to the run-off area.
His championship lead was reduced from 29 points to 22 as a result, but Lauda says Rosberg can afford the error.
"For sure there is a lot of pressure but they both did incredible, equal lap times," he said. "They were both on the limit and in the end he got by. And for Nico to lose seven points is not bad. If you are in the lead of the championship with 29 points, I would have been happy with second place in my time."
Lauda said he was happy to see Hamilton win the race after the issues he has had at recent rounds with reliability and the collision with Rosberg at Spa-Francorchamps.
"Lewis did a perfect job and Lewis has had problems in the past - especially in Spa and some other technical issues - so I'm happy he won the race, no question.
"Nico said he made a mistake [at Turn 1]. The first one was no problem because he stayed in the lead, but it's more complicated there because if you brake to late and too hard you flat-spot your tyre and the race is over. Therefore you have to go more into the exit than in other place, so in the end of his mistake he made the right decision. It made Lewis' life easy but that's it."
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