Nico Rosberg has not given up hope of catching Lewis Hamilton

07 September 2015 03:31

Nico Rosberg has not given up hope of reeling in Lewis Hamilton in this season's championship race despite his retirement from the Italian Grand Prix.

Rosberg has been cast 53 points adrift of his Mercedes team-mate after his engine expired with only two laps of the Monza race remaining.

The German, who had already deferred to an old, less powerful engine after a failure with his new-specification power unit in Saturday's morning practice session, was on course to finish third.

But his engine gave up on him in the closing stages as Hamilton, despite a post-race investigation into a tyre pressure infringement, recorded his seventh win of the campaign.

It means Rosberg could triumph at all of the seven remaining races and still miss out on the title.

"This weekend was very tough for me," said Rosberg. "There were just too many problems with my car which made it impossible to fight for the win.

"It hurts a lot when you have to retire with just two or three laps to go. A few corners earlier, I felt already that I had lost some power but was still hoping I could make it.

"Today was a massive step in the wrong direction for me in the championship - but to complain doesn't help in these situations. I just need to keep pushing and come back even stronger.

"Giving up is not an option for me. I will push hard to turn things in the right direction."

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff revealed that they turned up Rosberg's engine in a bid to get past Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in the closing stages.

"P2 looked possible and Nico was pushing hard to close in - we pushed the power unit very hard and, in hindsight, too far for the high mileage it had," said Wolff.

"It's a bitter pill to lose a podium finish just three laps from the end and with P2 in your sights.

"Overall, this has been an extremely challenging race but after so many ups and downs, it's very satisfying to come away with a strong win.

"However, like we always say, small details decide between success and failure, and we had more evidence this weekend of how hard we must keep pushing to maintain our level of performance in every single race."

Source: PA