GERMAN GP – Hamilton dominates in Rosberg’s home race to build his lead in the championship
Lewis Hamilton has extended his lead over Nico Rosberg after taking a dominate victory at the German Grand Prix. The world champion lead every lap of the race after overtaking Rosberg at the start of the race to put a hand on his fourth and third back to back title.
Rosberg had to settle for fourth after being penalised for forcing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen off the track. The German finished behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Verstappen after being unable to make up the lost time. The German forced Verstappen off the track when he re-joined at the hairpin.
Hamilton said on the Podium “What a race, what a fantastic start. It was just about keeping it cool. This is a very proud position to be in and thank you to the team, who did a fantastic job.”
Adding “I didn’t make any mistakes so in my heart I’m happy with what I did. Yesterday was not perfect but you learn from those things.”
Hamilton did everything he needed to going into the race in four weeks’ time but it could be a tough weekend in Spa as he already knows he will need to take a penalty either at Spa or Monza for using more than the permitted number of engine parts.
Rosberg told Sky Sports “It was a really tough one today. It just completely went wrong at the start with a lot of wheel spin. I thought it was a good battle [with Verstappen]. I was very surprised I got penalised, I didn’t expect that at all.”
Red Bull had split there strategies between the two drivers with Verstappen’s supersoft snits proving much better than Ricciardo’s. This helped the Austrian team to leapfrog Ferrari in the constructors championship.
Rosberg was handed him a five-second penalty for forcing Verstappen off the track. Rosberg went into the hairpin getting alongside Verstappen forcing him to run wide as they turned in forcing the Red Bull off the track. The battle continued for the rest of the lap but Verstappen wasn’t able to re pass him.
Rosberg was later forced to defend his position after the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel who couldn’t get past his countryman in the closing stages which means they lost second to Red Bull in the championship.
Nico Hulkenberg was seventh ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button who put in a strong performance to take eighth. His team-mate Fernando Alonso lost out to Sergio Perez who recovered from a poor start to finish ninth after making a pass on the final lap.
Alonso did try to un-lap himself but was unable to pass Pere as the McLaren’s tyres were warn after locking up at turn six.
Felipe Massa and Felipe Nasr were the only two retirements. Massa had been struggling following first lap contact with Renault’s Jolyon Palmer and pulled into the pits in the middle of the race.
Carlos Sainz finished fourteenth ahead of team-mate Daniil Kvyat, Kevin Magnussen was ahead of Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein, Marcus Ericson’s Sauber, Renault of Jolyon Palmer and the second Manor of Rio Haryanto.
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- NOTEBOOK – German Practice
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- PREVIEW – German Grand Prix
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