Indeed having been 43 points behind Rosberg in May, Hamilton is now comfortably ahead of his Mercedes team-mate by virtue of an unbeaten July with victories in Austria, Silverstone, Hungary and here in Germany on Sunday.
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The Briton crossed the line 6.9 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, on the podium for the second race in a row on his 100th grand prix appearance.
Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen joined Hamilton on the podium.
Lewis Hamilton will head into Formula One’s summer break with a 19-point lead over title rival Nico Rosberg after cruising to victory in Sunday’s German Grand Prix.
It was Hamilton’s sixth win in seven races, putting him 19 points clear of Rosberg with nine grands prix remaining.
Reigning world champion Hamilton took full advantage of the poor start by Rosberg, who also received a five second pit-stop penalty for an over-aggressive passing move, to deliver a flawless drive.
Behind the Mercedes and Red Bulls it was the Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen, whose fifth and sixth place finishes mean Ferrari now trail Red Bull in the constructors championship. “It’s still not enough because I’m not a race win ahead yet”, he said.
“I didn’t know. It just felt like I was sitting there forever”, Rosberg, who finished fourth, said of the team malfunction.
Suggested that, based on his current record, Hamilton is only beatable when he strikes problems, Wolff said: “The guy has great talent and speed, and on a good day he’s unbeatable”. Following an investigation, the Mercedes driver was handed a five-second time penalty to take at his final pitstop.
Rosberg had set a scorching pace under pressure to seize pole position in qualifying on Saturday but the German’s weekend began unravelling as soon as the lights went out.
“We do have a penalty up ahead”.
“It’s as good a buffer as I could get with the circumstances”.
“He didn’t turn in, he just kept driving straight, so I had to go off the track, otherwise he would’ve crashed”.
But Wolff believes the championship is still up for grabs for either of his drivers and is expecting the battle to reignite when racing resumes at Spa-Francorchamps after the summer break.
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“A first double podium for Red Bull in over a year, so it’s an awesome way to close out the first part of the season”.
