Mercedes' Nico Rosberg also suffered puncture en route to his British GP victory

Nico Rosberg of Germany and Mercedes GP celebrates with his team after winning the British Formula One Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit

Nico Rosberg revealed that he suffered a tyre failure en-route to victory in the British Grand Prix but was able to pit before being affected.

The race was notable for four tyre failures as Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Sergio Perez and Jean-Eric Vergne all suffered problems with their left rear tyres. Rosberg said that he was concerned his race would be affected too but said he was lucky to be able to pit before a puncture exploded in the same manner.

“To have that pace in the race – we were quick – but it was such a difficult race with the tyre failures it was so worrying,” Rosberg said. “Every little vibration that you get you think ‘Ah no, it’s happening for me now and I’ve got a tyre problem too’ but I just got lucky that I got back to the pits before it exploded.”

Asked about his emotions having won at Silverstone, Rosberg said it showed how much Mercedes has improved.

“It’s great, what makes it really special is that it’s the home for the team and to be able to win the home grand prix for the team is great and I hope all the team members can celebrate a lot with their families tonight because this really is for them. We’ve made so much progress; fastest car in qualifying, really quick car now in the race, getting better and better even in the race, it’s so nice to see,” he said.

With Hamilton having led comfortably, Rosberg did admit he felt sympathy for his teammate to miss out on victory in front of his home fans, saying:

“Lewis was doing a great job until his puncture, and it was a big pity for sure for him and for all the British fans with him getting that problem and robbing him of a possible win.”

Rosberg also dismissed any talk of launching an assault on the championship having closed the gap to Sebatian Vettel to 50 points.

“I’m not really thinking about that for now, I’m just taking it race-by-race, trying to make the most of it as we are at the moment and then let’s see how it goes.”