German Nico Rosberg Wins 2016 Formula One World Championship

German driver Nico Rosberg became the Formula One World Champion in 2016, five days before surprisingly announcing his retirement. He led Mercedes to their third consecutive championship title in the highest category of motorsport, with his teammate and rival, Lewis Hamilton, finishing in second place.

Rosberg, 31, joined the ranks of his German compatriots Michael Schumacher -the record holder for F1, with seven titles- and Sebastian Vettel -four-time winner-, becoming the third German and the second son of a champion to win the championship.

He emulated his father, Keke, who won the World Championship for Finland in 1982. The Rosberg family became the second family of champions since Damon Hill of England won the title in 1996, following the footsteps of his father, Graham, who won the title in 1962 and 1968.

Rosberg, who is multilingual and spends time in Ibiza, demonstrated his fluency in Spanish. He had finished as the runner-up in the previous two years, both times behind his British rival. But this time, he seized the opportunity. In the longest season in history, Mercedes only conceded two victories in 21 races: one to Red Bull's Max Verstappen -who became the youngest winner in history at the age of 18 in Spain- and one to Daniel Ricciardo of Australia, who won in Malaysia.

Rosberg won the first four races of the year -in Australia, Bahrain, China, and Russia- which gave him a lead of 43 points. Although Hamilton turned the tables and entered the summer break with a 19-point advantage -after winning six of the seven races prior to the break in August-, Keke's son managed to recover.

He won the first three races after the break, in Belgium, Italy, and Singapore. He considered his third-place finish in Malaysia, where Hamilton retired, as a victory. He then won in Japan and increased his lead to 33 points. This was enough to withstand Hamilton's late attack, as Hamilton won the last four races in Austin (USA), Mexico, Sao Paulo (Brazil), and Abu Dhabi. Rosberg won the championship with a five-point difference: 385 points compared to Hamilton's 380. Despite winning one less race (9) than Hamilton during 2016.

Hamilton, with 53 victories, is now second on the all-time list, surpassing the 51 wins of French four-time world champion Alain Prost. However, he is still far from the astronomical record of 91 wins set by the 'Kaiser'.

Five days after winning the championship, Nico surprised everyone by announcing his retirement. He achieved his personal Everest and aims to have a peaceful family life. This decision, however, caused stress for the Woking team, who began the accelerated search for a replacement for the driver from Wiesbaden.

EFE