Hamilton extended his lead to 19 points by winning Sunday’s German Grand Prix.
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Home hero Rosberg surrendered his lead from pole with a terrible start to the Briton, who stormed away to claim his sixth win in seven races and strengthen his grip in the title chase.
Two-time defending champion Hamilton now takes a 19-point lead over Rosberg into the almost month-long break.
It is a run of form that matches Hamilton’s best in F1, when he won six of the final seven grands prix in 2014 to clinch his second world title, and first with Mercedes.
Ricciardo, on his 100th grand prix appearance, took second and Verstappen third while Ferrari duo Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finished fifth and sixth respectively.
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.
“It feels like only a couple of weeks ago I was finding it hard to think how I could find my way through the trees”, he said. His teammate Perez recovered from a poor start to end the race at 10th and took one point. “It was just about keeping it cool and looking after the engine”, said Hamilton, who says he will go into the long mid-season break to relax and spent time with his family and friends.
Rosberg said he has an issue with the consistency of decisions from the FIA Stewards, following his latest brush with officialdom on Sunday. “So I was trying to stay within five seconds to get him back at the pit stop”.
“Being 19 point behind is not tough, tough is losing the race in the way I did and that will take some time to digest”, Rosberg continued. When your day goes completely wrong, these things come together.
Rosberg’s miserable afternoon contrasted with that of Hamilton, who cruised to a comfortable fourth win in succession. He forced me off the track.
Ricciardo celebrated his second place by drinking champagne from his boot on the podium.
The 31-year-old English driver heads into the holiday break with 217 points before racing resumes toward the end of August at the Belgian circuit of Spa-Francorchamps.
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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”.
