Nico Rosberg has admitted that the call from his engineer telling him that it was "critical" he pass Max Verstappen was not what he wanted to hear, the most difficult part of an already tough race.

Having been involved in a no-holds barred battle with the Dutch youngster earlier in the race, in the closing stages Rosberg was told it was now "critical" to get by the Red Bull driver again.

I heard Tony (his engineer) say it was critical to pass Verstappen for the championship, I thought 'Holy moly!'" he admitted. "That's not a nice thing to hear, that was bad, a horrible feeling.

Nonetheless, unlike some, the German followed his instructions, and despite a slight wobble when he made his initial attack, the Mercedes driver subsequently made it stick.

"It was not good but it worked out," he said. "The feelings I had when I realised I had passed him, I have never had that in a race car before."

But that wasn't the end of it, for as Hamilton continued to slow the pace, Rosberg now found himself under attack from Sebastian Vettel, on fresher, softer rubber, and the Red Bulls.

"I could see them coming close and with what Lewis was doing, we didn't know how far he was going to push it," he admitted. "He could have gone completely extreme and then it would have been a right mess. I didn't know what to expect so that was also very tough."

Despite the "anarchy" from the car ahead, Rosberg refused to condemn his teammate, despite his own radio warnings to the team, at one stage requesting to be allowed by and promising to hand the position back at the end.

"It is a pretty simple discussion, you can understand the team's perspective and understand Lewis' perspective, and that is it," said Rosberg.

"Lewis was using all his skill to do it perfectly so no way for me to get by. I thought about it but it was pointless. There was no way, he did it in a perfect way."

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