Nico Rosberg says his victory at the Belgian Grand Prix was made "a little easier" without having to battle recovering Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.
With Hamilton starting from the back row of the grid after incurring a huge grid penalty for a series of power unit changes throughout the weekend, Rosberg was left relatively unchallenged throughout as he led from start to finish on his way to claiming his sixth win of the season and his first victory in Belgium, ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Hamilton.
"I just had an awesome car out there and Lewis was not there to battle it out so that made it a less-difficult weekend," Rosberg said.
"It's been great of course to get the win today and it's a special track, but Lewis starting at the back made it a little easier this weekend. I'm sure he's going to be back in Monza and it's going to be a big battle as always."
Rosberg believes other than the start, a red-flag period to repair barrier damage after a hefty shunt for Renault's Kevin Magnussen at Eau Rouge and subsequent safety car restart, he had the race under control.
"It wasn't the toughest race of course because Lewis wasn't there, that's for sure. Of course everything still needs to come together. The start is critical and with the red flag and everything it becomes a bit more complicated and messy.
"But once I got ahead I got a little bit of pressure from Daniel [Ricciardo] in the second stint, because he was on the soft tyre, but after that I really had good control on everything."
The German had hoped to make the most of his opportunity to eek into Hamilton's championship lead, which was 19 points heading into the grand prix. While Rosberg did everything he needed to do by winning in Spa, Hamilton's third place finish means the gap between both drivers stands at nine points ahead of next weekend's Italian Grand Prix.
Asked whether he was disappointed not to have made a bigger indent into Hamilton's points advantage, Rosberg says he sees no reason to feel disheartened.
"It's not disappointing, I'm happy with today. I'm happy to have won the race, it's been a great weekend for me, that's it, and fair play to Lewis he did a good job."