Nico Rosberg has admitted his title fight is all but finished for the season, but he will continue to push for race wins in the final four Grands Prix of the season.
The German had led the Russian Grand Prix after securing pole position on Saturday, but a sticky throttle ended his race and title hopes as he now sits 73 points adrift of team-mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton, with just 100 points up for grabs.
“You have to be realistic now,” said the Mercedes driver. “It is a lot of points but it doesn’t change my approach. I am still pushing to the maximum, and committed, and going for it mentally. So it doesn’t change much.
“It is disappointing in the respect that I was looking to close the gap. But then anyway, going to the next race and I want to win there. That is the goal.”
Discussing his season so far, Rosberg admitted he was frustrated by the amount of points he’s lost through reliability failures.
“It is just disappointing to see how this year has gone,” he added. “There was a lot of bad luck now in the last couple of months.
“Just when I needed to launch an attack and it go the other way, it is one thing after another. And many small things and some major things, race stoppers, derailed it in the last months, It is tough.”
As well as Russia, Rosberg was robbed of a podium in Italy when his engine blew in the closing laps of the race.
