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F1 Singapore GP: It’s going down to the wire - Wolff

Toto Wolff has reiterated his belief that the 2016 Formula 1 World Championship title fight will go 'down to the wire' as Nico Rosberg notched up his third win of the season to move ahead in the standings.

Having resumed action from the summer break 15 points behind Hamilton having commanded a 43 point lead earlier in the season, Rosberg's three commanding wins in Belgium, Italy and Singapore have completed a 27 point swing to put him eight points ahead.

Invigorating a title battle that many felt had erred towards Hamilton following a run of strong form mid-season, Mercedes boss Wolff feels Rosberg's eighth win of the season is testament to the close competition established between the two drivers.

"It's what I always said," he told Sky Sports F1. "They are so close to each other in terms of performance and one bad weekend is enough and you are losing an advantage like Lewis did. It's going to go down to the wire I guess.

"Nico was really great all weekend. You can see in the race that they both struggled with the brakes, we were probably a bit marginal, or too marginal and he got it under control well and managed the pace."

Reflecting on a tense final few laps as Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo rapidly closed on Rosberg after savvy stop for super-soft tyres in the closing stages, Wolff says he was pleased to see Mercedes' rivals take the fight to the them.

"We nearly peed our pants at the end," he joked. "It was so close and how it should be in Formula One. Four really quick cars, different strategies and I must really take my hat off to Red Bull as well, they pulled off a great strategy at the end.

"We couldn't do that because we would have lost the lead and Ricciardo out of the blocks with an amazing pace, it was really exciting at the end." 

Zdroj: crash.net