Rosberg forced to retire in Singapore after electrical glitch

Nico Rosberg’s hopes of winning the 2014 F1 world championship have taken a huge hit after he was forced to retire from the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix because of an electrical glitch on his car.

In the lead-up to the race, Mercedes found that there was problem with Rosberg’s steering wheel after his practice start, prompting the team to change to another setting.

After another change on the grid, he failed to pull away and was left stranded in his grid slot as the rest of the field streamed past.

Mercedes sent its mechanics onto the grid to wheel Rosberg back into the pit lane, where they changed his steering wheel once again before the start. When he eventually got away from the pit lane, he was right at the back of the pack in 21st position.

Rosberg then struggled to pass the likes of Max Chilton and Marcus Ericsson, shifting gears two at a time because of the electrical problem.

When Mercedes brought the German driver into the pit lane, the engineers told him to stall his car so they could replace the steering wheel again and try to resolve the issue. However, he could not pull away from his box, prompting the team to tell the world championship leader to park his car up and retire from the race.

Rosberg’s misfortune will come as a bitter blow, given that he was leading the championship by 29 points following the Belgian Grand Prix just three weeks ago. With Hamilton leading the race at the time of writing, the Briton is set to take the lead of the title race by three points ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.

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