Spanish GP: Nico Rosberg reckons he needed one more lap to win
Nico Rosberg believes he needed just one more lap to overtake Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton for Spanish Grand Prix victory
Hamilton assumed the 2014 F1 world championship lead by beating Rosberg at Barcelona.
But it was a close-run thing, as Rosberg used an alternate tyre strategy to close in on Hamilton in the final laps, finishing just 0.6 seconds behind.
Asked how many more laps he felt he needed to pull off an overtaking move, Rosberg replied: "I think one more to be honest. I could have given him a go.
"I wasn't close enough but with one more lap I would have been.
"I'm a bit gutted."
Rosberg feels he urgently needs to address his starts, having failed to jump his polesitting team-mate off the line.
"The start was unfortunately poor," he said. "It is a bit of a weakness I have at the moment. Three bad starts in a row and that has cost me. It is not good and we need to work on that."
Live reaction to the Spanish GP
He switched to hard tyres in his first pitstop while Hamilton stayed on mediums, meaning the opposite scenario applied in their final shootout for the win.
Rosberg was happy that his strategic switch had paid off, and just rued running out of time to try a proper passing move.
"The race pace was good, the best thing to do was switch strategies and it worked out perfectly," said Rosberg.
"But this is a really difficult track to get close to the guy in front.
"I got close, and at Turn 10 on the last lap I could have gone for a kamikaze move, but it wouldn't have worked so not much point.
"Lewis did a great job all weekend and was a little bit ahead, but there are a lot of positives to take out of it.
"I am fully motivated to take that bit extra and edge him out next time and it is doable."
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