Having been in a Championship winning vehicle of the Mercedes woks team for the past two years and not having won a Championship and what we’ve seen so far this season seems to tell me that Nico might not be a match to Lewis.
Advertisement
Second was Daniel Ricciardo, with Max Verstappen, his young Red Bull team-mate, third. The 49th win of the reigning champion’s career left him two adrift of Frenchman Alain Prost’s mark of 51.
Nico Rosberg admits it will “take a while” to recover from his disappointing result in Germany, one which sees him head into the summer break 19 points down on Lewis Hamilton.
“That guy has great talent speed and on a good day, I think he is unbeatable”, said Hamilton’s Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
“I think we’ve worked, and worked and worked, and just consistency and really trying to be precise with the whole procedure”.
“It’s a difficulty that we have in the sport, because no two incidents are the same, and we can’t have the same stewards going round the world with us”, he said. “So it’s awesome to close out the first part of the season”.
Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen settled down for fifth and sixth places respectively early on in the race. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India came in seventh, while McLaren’s Jenson Button secured the eighth spot.
Williams driver Valtteri Bottas was ninth ahead of Sergio Perez who gave Force India a double-points finish with 10th.
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg of Germany steers his vehicle during the German Formula One Grand Prix in Hockenheim, Germany, Sunday, July 31, 2016.
Hamilton started second but flew past Rosberg off the start and led going into Turn One, never surrendering the lead thereafter.
As for Rosberg, he was convinced the five-second penalty cost him second place: “I was very surprised to get the penalty”.
Having won the last F1 race at Hockenheim in 2014, Rosberg was expected to put up a tough fight to the current season leader Hamilton and things did look promising till qualifying. “I always felt I was pushing myself as hard as I could but maybe we really are finding a bit more out of it”.
Rosberg won the opening four rounds of this year’s championship, but – since his dramatic crash with Hamilton on the opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix in May – he has won on just one occasion with his Mercedes team-mate scoring 62 more points.
Advertisement
The Briton won at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit previous year.
