London, July 25 (IANS) Mercedes Formula One driver Nico Rosberg has admitted his disappointment after falling behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the first time this season in the world championship race, but insisted the battle is far from over.
Hamilton took a six-point lead in the standings following his victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, passing Rosberg on turn one of the first lap before cruising to victory, reports Sky Sports on Monday.
"I gave it everything in the race, I had super pace, really fast, and I was able to keep the pressure on Lewis all the time. At times it seemed that he was struggling a little bit so I was just trying to make sure I pushed him as much as possible so he wears out his tyres or makes a mistake, but in the end he made a mistake and I came really close but it wasn't enough to get past," Rosberg said on his YouTube channel.
"But that's the way it is, I've got to accept that and of course I've lost the championship lead now. But it doesn't really make a difference to me, I'm not counting points and there's still such a long way to go. I've got to now put this one behind me and there are lot of positives from the weekend again."
Rosberg, who had qualified on pole at the Hungaroring, also revealed he knew the race was lost early on after being passed by Hamilton into the first corner.
"The start was pretty good, but going into turn one Lewis was on the inside and he broke really deep, so he did well on that, and then Daniel Ricciardo was on the outside so I got stuck between the two of them and that's why I lost out and lost the win there really," he said.
"I was even third after turn one and I got second place back in turn two after getting Ricciardo on the inside returning the favour, but Lewis was already in front. So I already lost the win there and that was a big disappointment."
There was controversy during Sunday's race as Hamilton appeared at one stage to deliberately attempt to back-up Rosberg into Ricciardo's Red Bull.
Team boss Toto Wolff, however, denied the claims, insisting instead that Hamilton was just trying to manage his tyres.
"I'm sure Hamilton didn't want to back him up. The whole weekend we were discussing their need to be very cautious on the tyres," Wolff said.
--IANS
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