He was beaten off the line by Hamilton and the Red Bulls and, struggling for pace throughout the race, was unable to make up the lost ground.
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In contrast, Rosberg will be desperate to forget a home race which turned sour from the moment the lights flicked to green.
“I didn’t know. It just felt like I was sitting there forever”, Rosberg, who finished fourth, said of the team malfunction. He did try hard to recover the loss, but suffered a five second penalty for forcing Max Verstappen off the track on Lap 30.
Maybe too much it seems as more controversy has emerged from the race after what some would class as an “aggressive maneuver” lead to a 5-second pit stop penalty to Rosberg.
Hamilton’s next race victory will take him onto 50 career wins, one behind Alain Prost. Twelve within a 12 month period results in a race suspension.
After the first round of pitstops, the same top six positions were maintained and only started to change halfway through the thrilling race, after the second pitstops. Wolff says the events just snowballed for Rosberg at Hockenheim.
Hamilton, who was hit by engine problems at the start of the season, thanked his team for preparing his auto and improving his starts, Sport24 reported.
“I definitely think I took one for the team today”, he added. “[Saturday qualifying] was not ideal, but you learn from those things”. “That cost me dearly”.
Wolff described Rosberg’s race as “a bad day”.
“I was very surprised [by the penalty], I didn’t expect it at all”.
It was discussed in the drivers’ briefing at Hockenheim, and when asked if that was a factor, Rosberg said: “For sure, that made it more hard”.
Yesterday’s result gave Hamilton, who trailed Rosberg by as many as 43 points following the Spanish Grand Prix in May, the crucial psychological edge in the title battle heading into the second half of the season.
“We saw him start the season extremely well, and at the end of the season in 2015 he was very good”.
Hamilton is now leading the drivers’ championship by 19 points, having won his fourth consecutive race and his sixth race in the past seven Global Positioning System.
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The home fans at Hockenheim did have another German to cheer as four-time champion Sebastian Vettel finished fifth ahead of his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen and compatriot Nico Hulkenberg, who was seventh on home turf for Force India. Sergio Perez claimed the final points position in 10th.
