Formula 1 meets next for the German Grand Prix, now consistently at the Hockenheimring after a decade of alternating the date with the Nurburgring GP-Strecke, in one week.
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Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg of Germany steers his auto during the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix, at the Hungaroring racetrack, in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, July 24, 2016.
After attempting to pressure the Mercedes drivers with an early second pit stop, Ricciardo compromised his strategy slightly and finished just 0.6s ahead of Sebastian Vettel in fourth.
Rosberg led by 43 points at one stage after winning the first four races of the season as Hamilton was hit by bad starts in the first two races in Australia and Bahrain and then failures of engine parts that left him down the grid in China and Russian Federation.
It means the reigning world champion has overturned a 43-point deficit since the pair collided at the Spanish Grand Prix. In the end the penalty did not affect the Mexican’s overall finishing position of thirteenth place, a result Gutierrez will be hoping to improve upon in Hockenheim this weekend. He has 192 points, while Rosberg in second has 186.
The Briton has won five of the last six races, including the last three.
Following a hard qualifying session, when Raikkonen was rather predictably eliminated from Q2 in hard conditions and Vettel was isolated in fifth, both drivers recovered well in the race.
Back then, Rosberg was paired with the F1 legend and multi-time World Champion Michael Schumacher.
“I managed a good start and spent the first two laps fighting for position and moving up the grid”. Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Ferrari were quite close in terms of performance at Hungary.
Rosberg said after the race, “It was all down to the start and I lost out a little bit”.
Sunday’s win puts Hamilton 6 points ahead of Rosberg, who finished second in the eleventh stage of the Championship.
“It’s very close”, he said.
Nico Rosberg says there is still a “long way to go” in the battle for the drivers’ title after he slipped off the top of the standings.
“I’m just still in the same mentality of chasing, I’m still chasing”, he told reporters.
Hamilton maintained his pace for most of the race with the gap extending to 4 seconds.
“I don’t really want to get back to there”.
“I like it very much, and I think they looked fantastic”, Hamilton said.
It was, for Hamilton, a fairly easy race, given that the dicing was limited to the first corner.
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McLaren’s Fernando Alonso took seventh while his teammate Jenson Button endured a frustrating afternoon, dropping to last place due to a hydraulic problem before retiring with seven laps to go.
