As Hamilton shot off in front, Rosberg appeared to go backwards and by the first corner was in fourth place behind Red Bull pair Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen – a position Rosberg kept until the chequered flag.
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Hamilton, who has now won six of the last seven races, started from second, but a poor start by Rosberg enabled the defending champion to take the lead at turn one.
Hamilton has enjoyed a huge turnaround in recent weeks and a 43-point deficit to team-mate Nico Rosberg has now been turned into a 19-point lead in the individual standings.
At Hockenheim over the weekend, Hamilton (who started second) stormed past Nico Rosberg and romped home to victory, managing to secure a 19-point lead.
However, stewards adjudged Rosberg’s passing move on Verstappen broke the rules forbidding drivers from forcing a rival off the track and he was given a five-second penalty. He was also given a five second time penalty after having taken Verstappen off the track as he tried to overtake him.
Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finished fifth and sixth as Ferrari slipped to third in the constructors’ championship.
“Lewis doesn’t just seem strong in the recent Grands Prix, Lewis is strong – a big difference there”, said Rosberg.
“I think we did a good job on that today”.
“This is the first double podium for [Red Bull] in over a year and it is awesome to close out the first part of the season like this”.
“This is two weekends in a row now with a podium”, said Australian Ricciardo. “But that’s alright… I think Daniel and I have a good relationship so we can do that”.
“I’ve got great people round me who depend on me to be upbeat in the championship, not to give up, and I never did”.
Toto Wolff has even admitted that the team counted “one one thousand… two one thousand….three one thousand” just to make sure they remained in the pits the set time as to avoid any more penalties from the marshals.
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Seventh place went to Hulkenberg in the Force India, and Jenson Button managed eighth place for a couple of points for McLaren (although Alonso finished in 12th), with Bottas in the Williams and Perez in the Force India completing the points places in Germany.
