The champions had given notice at Silverstone on Sunday that they meant to appeal the 10 second penalty that dropped the German from second to third in a race won by triple champion Hamilton.
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Rosberg finished under two seconds in front of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen after overtaking the Dutchman for second place late in the race.
Rosberg now leads the championship on 168 points with Hamilton on 167. His team told him to avoid seventh gear – amongst other pieces of advice – and more than three hours after the race, he was suitably punished.
Nico Rosberg was demoted to third in Sunday’s British Grand Prix after he was found to be in breach of the sport’s strict radio rules.
The stewards deemed the German was given instruction on how to operate the W07, which meant he did not drive the vehicle alone or unaided, as stipulated under article 27.1 of the sporting regulations for 2016.
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No direct congratulations for Hamilton from team-mate and rival Nico Rosberg on his Twitter feed though – he saves those for the Silverstone crowd and for Portugal’s Euro 2016 victory over France. While Rosberg was pursuing Hamilton, he received a message via the team radio informing him that he’d lost seventh gear. Indeed he spent much of the race in third after Verstappen pulled off a miraculous move around the outside of the German at Chapel.
“It was a very critical problem”, said Rosberg, explaining that it was a safety matter. This situation was shown during the European Grand Prix where Hamilton had engine issues and didn’t receive any help from his engineer.
“I tried to calm them down”, said Hamilton, who knows he may be on the receiving end come the German GP at the end of the month. Nearly every driver went off the track at the first and last turns of Silverstone.
Kimi Raikkonen finished fifth for Ferrari ahead of Sergio Perez and his Force India teammate Nico Hulkenberg.
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Star performer, Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) A fine afternoon’s work from the Dutchman. “It’s just insane to think that I’m up there with him”, said Hamilton. “Unfortunately we didn’t quite have enough pace in the dry conditions to stay ahead but it was very satisfying to get both cars to the finish”.
