Australian Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo has celebrated his second place in the German Grand Prix by drinking champagne from his boot on the podium.
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Rosberg surrendered his lead from pole to the Briton, who stormed away to claim his sixth win in seven races and strengthen his grip in the title chase.
Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo also capitalised on Rosberg’s shaky getaway and went second and third respectively to leave the German down in fourth by the first corner.
“It’s been a hard slog for everyone in the team, for the whole year and obviously with ups and downs and the difficulties that we’ve had”, said Hamilton, who trailed Rosberg by 43 points after May’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The 18-year-old took the last place on the podium behind race victor Lewis Hamilton and Ricciardo after been put on a different strategy to his stablemate driver during the first round of pit stops.
His Red Bull team-mate Ricciardo marked his 100th Grand Prix by finishing ahead of Verstappen because he had the best of their alternative strategies for tyres, as they out-raced Ferrari to move ahead of the Italian team in the constructors’ championship.
Though Verstappen said he could have finished second himself as Rosberg still had a time penalty to take, he understood why he should move over for Ricciardo.
Sebastian Vettel was fifth on his first appearance in Ferrari colors on home soil, crossing the line 32.5 seconds adrift of Hamilton, with Finnish teammate Kimi Raikkonen capping a disappointing weekend for the Italian team in sixth. “Lovely start, fantastically managed”, the Briton’s Mercedes team said to him over the radio on the slowing down lap. I was very happy to get the position because that would have meant second at least, and damage limitation of that sort.
That turned into an eight-second penalty because the stopwatch Mercedes used to time it broke and although he returned to the race less than five seconds behind Verstappen, he was not able to catch him.
The result is a 19-point championship lead for Hamilton, his first lead of more than the difference between the points awarded for a win and a podium finish of the season. I had an awesome qualifying and was really optimistic I could bring it home today, so I’m disappointed that everything went wrong. “So many things went wrong today”.
“I thought it was a good battle [with Verstappen] and I was very surprised I got penalised”, said Rosberg.
“That will take me some time to digest”.
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Formula 1’s crowded summer stretch has come to a close, and for the next month the series enters its four-weeks Summer break.
