YAS MARINA, Abu Dhabi -- Nico Rosberg has praised the skill Lewis Hamilton displayed when he tried to back him into the chasing pack at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and force one last twist in the 2016 championship tale.
In his last throw of the dice, Hamilton lapped over a second off the pace in an attempt to back Rosberg into Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen behind. If both drivers found a way past Rosberg, Hamilton would have been back on track for the title, but ultimately it did not pay off.
When it was put to Rosberg that he could have attempted to pass Hamilton, the newly-crowned world champion praised the way in which Hamilton executed his tactics.
"Lewis was using all of his skill to do it perfectly so there was absolutely no way for me to be able to get by, of course I thought about it but it was just pointless," he said. "There was no way [for me to get past Hamilton]. He did it in a good way. In a perfect way."
When he was asked whether he thought Hamilton's tactics were correct, Rosberg added: "That's a pretty simple discussion. You can understand the team's perspective and you can understand Lewis' perspective so that's it."
Hamilton's slow pace earlier in the race meant Rosberg briefly fell behind Verstappen and was forced to make a decisive overtaking manoeuvre to keep his championship challenge on track. Rosberg said it was one of the best passes of his career as he went wheel-to-wheel with the teenager through both apexes of the chicane.
"Oh for sure it was great. Definitely a great one, fair play to him also. He went full on aggressive, he didn't give an inch, as usual but fair play. We didn't collide and I got by. It felt amazingly good. It was an awesome feeling at the time. So intense, unbelievably intense, never felt anything like that in the car before."
Rosberg said the combination of the overtake, Hamilton's tactics and what was at stake made the race one of the most stressful of his career.
"The feelings out there in that battle with Max, unreal. Really unreal. I hope I don't experience that again anytime soon. The same again at the end, pressure on from behind, Lewis driving slow in front and really, it was a tough one. It was so Intense, the race. It was really intense out there and so tough. In the end those last couple of laps with those two guys behind me, if I dropped behind them it's over so not enjoyable."