Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg wins the Brazilian GP ahead of world champion Lewis

Rosberg held position as the cars ventured through the first sector, with Hamilton in second place and Sebastian Vettel third in the red Ferrari.

Although this was Rosberg’s second win in a row it was still only his fifth of the season – half that achieved by his team-mate. “I was raring to go again”, he told Sky Sports F1.

“No issues”, he added, when quizzed on why he seemed a bit slow at one stage into Turn 1, “it was just [about] controlling the pace – never overdoing it to not risk a mistake and also to not risk having too much degradation. That’s it. And, no luck – not one strategy working better than another”.

Rosberg said Hamilton’s request was particularly futile in Brazil because there wasn’t a viable alternative plan – especially after the Briton had attacked in the middle stint.

The German clocked a fastest lap time of one minute 11.282 seconds at Interlagos, the fifth time in a row that he has topped qualifying. However the Frenchman Romain Grosjean and the rest of the drivers draped the French flag on their truck during the pre-race tour of the circuit.

Hamilton came out from their final stop 1.5 seconds behind and with 20 laps to go.

Hamilton made slightly the better start but was forced to the outside at the first corner and had to settle into second place in the early laps. This left Hamilton with no opportunity to try passing his teammate, despite requesting a differing strategy over team radio…any shot at all that might allow him a chance.

“I could not get close enough so it was relatively boring”. “Not very exciting, I didn’t have anyone to fight with, but a good race”.

“Nico has been doing fantastically well”.

That may not prove entirely the case, with Mercedes always wanting a one-two and the Austrian leaving no doubt that the team would continue to make major strategy calls, but there is room for hope.

Wolff’s admission that the team’s main goal is for Rosberg to secure the runner-up spot in the championship comes after sceptics speculated that his victory in Mexico was orchestrated by the team.

After Hamilton clinched the championship in Austin last month and Mercedes sealed the team title in Russian Federation, Wolff was asked what his target is for the rest of the campaign. Beyond that Mercedes are reluctant to split their strategies for fear of upsetting the losing driver. Can Rosberg finish his season with three straight wins?

“It was a great weekend for me here, of course everything is relative because of what happened in Paris”, he said.

Nico Rosberg won the Brazilian Grand Prix as he continued to look stronger than Lewis Hamilton in the run-in to the 2015 Formula One season.