Rosberg has had his share of problems as well, particularly at his home race in Hockenheim.
Advertisement
Nico Rosberg is a happy man after cutting Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton’s Formula One championship lead down to two points. Max Verstappen also made a poor start, dropping to 12th but managed to pass Pascal Wehrlein’s Manor on the opening lap. “Nevertheless it’s still going to be a challenge”.
However, Hamilton started to climb back up the racing order when he passed Ricciardo on lap two while on lap 11 he overtook Bottas on Turn One.
Gobbled up by Rosberg, both Ferrari drivers and then the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo on the long run down to the opening chicane, Hamilton was left facing an nearly impossible task of winning for a third year on the trot in Italy. I remember a bunch of cars going by.
A 19-point lead looked nice and comfortable for Hamilton as the season returned, but two wins in two races for Rosberg has brought the smile back onto the German’s face, with the champion now looking the anxious man.
Hamilton eventually battled back to finish second, with Ferrari duo Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen taking third and fourth respectively to the delight of the Ferrari fans.
Today’s result means Hamilton leads the championship by just two points from Rosberg.
The race was won and lost at the start and that is where intrigue was focused afterwards.
At one stage Rosberg led by 43 points and now, after two victories in a week, has all-but drawn level with his team-mate with just seven races to go.
“I lost a lot of time as Nico went clear “easy-and-breezy” and he did a great job-and I had to try and get back to second”.
“What role I play is my decision”, he said.
“This is the best crowd we get all year”, said Hamilton.
He said: “To be honest, I said that to reassure my engineers who I knew would be feeling nervous”.
“I was pretty close to Bottas in the middle of the race and knew I could race hard from that position”.
We all give McLaren a lot of (deserved) stick because of the unreliability of their auto in recent years, but credit where it’s due – Fernando Alonso logged the quickest lap time of the race.
When Rosberg suggested the 2016 rule changes meant variable starts were normally down to driver performance, Hamilton argued that there were still many technical reasons why a getaway might be slow.
Max Verstappen finished as he qualified, though he almost came to blows with Sergio Perez late on as the pair diced for seventh at the Roggia chicane.
Advertisement
Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein then retired on lap 26 when he suffered a drop in oil pressure, before Daniil Kvyat parked his Toro Rosso some 10 laps later.
