Hamilton has turned a 43-point deficit to team-mate Nico Rosberg into a 19-point lead with six wins in the last seven races – a 62-point swing.
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Celebrating the 49th victory of his career, Hamilton said: “Today I didn’t make any mistakes, so in my heart I am happy with what I did today”.
“Fantastic job guys, awesome pitstops and just throughout the weekend as always, well deserved”, Hamilton replied.
“My mechanics have all stayed super focussed which has enabled me to do the same”.
“At one point I thought he was going to run into me so I opened up”.
Formula One now heads into its annual summer break before reconvening for the Belgian Grand Prix. “It was not a flawless qualifying”, he said. “Yesterday was not flawless but you learn from those things”.
Reacting to whether he feels Rosberg can battle back, Wolff says his driver understands he had a race to forget in Germany but holds strong belief the former championship leader can react strongly after the summer break at Spa. Tough is losing the race in the way I did today. So I’m still not properly ahead.
“[It was] different positioning, I was clearly ahead this time”, he said.
“I’ve got great people round me who depend on me to be upbeat in the championship, not to give up, and I never did”.
“But then it’s still a mechanical sport and he’s a human and you can have bad days and worse days and this is why he is not winning every single race”.
The day got even worse for Rosberg, as he was handed a five-second penalty for forcing Verstappen off the track.
He sat out the penalty on his third pit stop but the team appeared to have kept him behind for longer than the five seconds.
It was a day to forget for Rosberg at his home race. However, it looked like the pendulum was swinging back in Rosberg’s favour as he returned home to Hockenheim, having dominated practice and beaten Hamilton to pole position after overcoming an electrical glitch that threatened his session.
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The turnaround since the Spanish Grand Prix, when the Mercedes pair collided on the first lap, has been remarkable and in July Ham-ilton became the first person to win four times in a calendar month.
