Nico Rosberg believes Sebastian Vettel can play a role in helping him to win the championship this season by taking points off of team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
The Ferrari driver’s win in Malaysia stopped Hamilton from extending his lead further by limiting him to just 18 points when he could have secured the full 25 as he did in Australia.
“Vettel can be a help, yes,” Rosberg said on Thursday. “Already in Malaysia he was in that sense because Lewis only took three points from me and not seven.
“But it depends; he can also become a big problem if he continues winning!”
The German admitted Vettel’s win came as a surprise given Mercedes’ advantage in Australia which saw him and Hamilton finish some 30 seconds up the road.
“It was a shock to us; shock might be too harsh a word but close to that anyway because we didn’t expect it at all. We were very, very confident we were the quickest so it was very surprising and a big wake-up call for us. You can really feel in the team, it’s given a fresh impulse, which is good also for us because it will push us to higher things.
“I want to win so of course having Sebastian win in Malaysia was not good and I hope to beat him and Lewis here, and that’s it. I’m sure also we will have a stronger car than in Malaysia. I’m expecting us to be the best again here [in China].”
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