Nico Rosberg delivered his best-ever performance, says Toto Wolff

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has hailed Nico Rosberg's winning Singapore GP performance as the best he has seen from the new championship leader.

Rosberg reclaimed the lead of the Drivers' Championship from Lewis Hamilton for the first time since the British GP in July with a third race win in a row.

After qualifying on pole by nearly 0.6 seconds, Rosberg then comfortably led away from the start of the race and went on to claim his eighth win of the year. This included having to withstand a late onslaught from Daniel Ricciardo on fresh tyres in an unexpected grandstand finish, after Mercedes' third stop for Hamilton led Ferrari and Red Bull to follow suit.

And Wolff, who joined the Brackley team three years ago, said: "I've known Nico since 2013 and that is the best Nico Rosberg I have ever seen throughout the weekend since then."

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Hamilton's weekend, in which he ultimately finished third, was compromised by set-up problems with the world champion unable to dial his W07 into the Marina Bay circuit after limited practice mileage.

Rosberg's pole-winning margin was the third largest in Singapore GP history and Wolff says his drivers' weekends went in opposite directions from early on.

Brundle: Lewis now on the back foot

"We have the tendency of saying that Lewis has an awesome pace, and this is what we have seen with Nico this weekend - he was just blindingly fast," added the Austrian.

"He was six tenths quicker than P2 in qualifying - something we are not used to seeing at all here - and in the same way he drove the race.

"He had a great start, controlled the pace and, on the contrary, Lewis didn't have a clean weekend. He was lacking laps to find the right set-up and he couldn't really choose the direction and from then on it went backwards."

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Hamilton himself admitted Rosberg's performance had been "exceptional", with Wolff saying the Briton by contrast was on the back foot from early on in the weekend's running.

"In Singapore, if you are lacking laps in free practice and lacking direction where to take the set-up, it is a vicious circle," he said.

"Confidence is key around Singapore and then if your team-mate gets out of the block like Nico this weekend it gets very difficult. And I think Lewis is the first to acknowledge that." 

Don't miss the F1 Report for all the reaction and analysis from the Singapore GP. F1 technical expert Craig Scarborough joins Natalie Pinkham and Marc Priestley in the studio at 8:30pm on Wednesday on Sky Sports F1.