Nico Rosberg admits his strong run of four wins in the opening four races of the season were aided by his rivals hitting trouble, and now they're not encountering as much misfortune, he's lost that advantage.
The Mercedes driver opened up a 43-point lead to team-mate Lewis Hamilton after the Briton suffered a string of reliability failures. Meanwhile Ferrari handed victory to Rosberg in Australia after throwing away a win for Sebastian Vettel following a strategy error during a red flag stoppage.
That championship lead has now been cut to just one point as team-mate Hamilton's reliability has improved considerably, barring an engine blip at the European Grand Prix – and a crash in qualifying – which Rosberg would go on to win unchallenged.
"I've benefitted from the others having a very, very messy start [to the season], my direct competitiors. That's changed [now]," Rosberg told reporters including Grand Prix Times.
Since the Spanish GP, Hamilton has won four of the last five races to outscore Rosberg 110 points to 68, but the German insists he's happy to have outscored Hamilton when looking at the season as a whole so far.
"The glass-half-full version is that over 10 races I have scored one more point [than Hamilton]," added Rosberg. "I can live with that.
"But I don't want to speak about points; I don't focus or think on that. I've put [Silverstone] behind me – Lewis did a better job all weekend, and I'm already over it."
Rosberg is now looking to defend his lead not only to Hamilton but to Mercedes' rivals, namely Red Bull and Ferrari, at the upcoming races.
"We need to keep an eye on our opposition. We have some exciting races coming up. It's been going well for us though, and I'm sure it will continue to go well for us in future races."
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