Lewis Hamilton extended his lead in the Formula One drivers’ championship after winning the German Grand Prix easily today, with Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg only fourth.
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Three-time world champion Hamilton, victor of the last two titles, has won five of the last six races and leads Rosberg by six points in the standings.
Rosberg’s five-second penalty served during his pit stop sees him come out behind both Ricciardo and Verstappen – and with five seconds to make up and both Red Bulls clocking fine lap times, his hopes of a podium place are fading.
Rosberg’s German Grand Prix pole is his second in a row, but despite beating teammate Hamilton at a crucial time, his runner-up finish in last weekend’s Hungarian GP after a disastrous start doesn’t leave reason for optimism.
“My engineers did an incredible job – the vehicle was perfectly balanced and we got off to a great start”, said a buoyant Hamilton.
“Get in there Lewis, great work mate”.
Behind Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, McLaren’s Jenson Button passed Williams’ Valtteri Bottas for eighth place on the penutimate lap, just after team-mate Fernando Alonso had lost out to Force India’s Sergio Perez for the final point after a mix-up with Verstappen as the Red Bull lapped the McLaren and then slowed down.
The German, who was quickest in all three practice sessions before claiming pole, was fourth after his sluggish start, and he spent much of the opening phase of the race behind the Red Bull drivers with Verstappen initially running in second after a bold overtake around the outside of his team-mate at turn one.
“First please let me start with a big thank to the fans”, a beaming Hamilton said on the podium, with the absence of the boos that greeted him in Austria clearly leaving him somewhat surprised.
“I’m moving forwards now and tomorrow I can make a difference”. “That’s something I have to handle and deal with … when you kind of kick yourself a little bit”. “He had a good run on the outside”, Ricciardo said. Down in fourth after the 320 metres rush down the straight, Rosberg battled to regain a place on lap one without reward as the field stretched and settled.
Lewis Hamilton may still have him beat in races, but in qualifying, Nico Rosberg’s finally getting his speed back.
Keke Rosberg, Nico’s father, won pole in Hockenheim 30 years ago.
“That cost me dearly”.
“Being 19 points behind Lewis now is not tough — tough is losing the race in the way that I did”.
“When a day goes completely wrong all those things come together”, he said.
With regards to the continuing improvement and evolution of the auto and team, once more Ricciardo could only speak positively, praising the morale of the team and that the Red Bull’s pace in Friday’s long runs seemed to have improved.
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“That will take me some time to digest”.
