Making good on his attempt at defending his Formula 1 world championship title, Lewis Hamilton took another victory, this time at the 2016 German GP at Hockenheim.
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Indeed having been 43 points behind Rosberg in May, Hamilton is now comfortably ahead of his Mercedes team-mate by virtue of an unbeaten July with victories in Austria, Silverstone, Hungary and here in Germany on Sunday.
Meanwhile, team-mate Nico Rosberg finished at fourth position, behind the Red Bull duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
Hamilton, a three-time Formula One champion who has won the title the last two seasons, now takes a 19-point lead over Rosberg into the four-week break.
Hamilton is now leading the drivers’ championship by 19 points, having won his fourth consecutive race and his sixth race in the past seven Global Positioning System.
The day got even worse for Rosberg, as he was handed a five-second penalty for forcing Verstappen off the track.
Behind the Mercedes and Red Bulls it was the Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen, whose fifth and sixth place finishes mean Ferrari now trail Red Bull in the constructors championship.
Rosberg said he has an issue with the consistency of decisions from the FIA Stewards, following his latest brush with officialdom on Sunday.
Nico Rosberg set a scorching pace under pressure on Saturday to seize pole position, ahead of Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.
Rosberg won at Hockenheim in 2014 and a repeat would allow him to put the brakes on Hamilton, who has won five of the last six races.
“I didn’t know until I got into the pen afterwards that I was 19 points ahead”, Hamilton said.
Maybe too much it seems as more controversy has emerged from the race after what some would class as an “aggressive maneuver” lead to a 5-second pit stop penalty to Rosberg. “First the penalty. I think you will find lots of opinions but what we really look for is consistency in the decision making”.
“It will either be Spa or Monza, because I’m going to run out of engines soon”, he said.
Ricciardo celebrated his second place by drinking champagne from his boot on the podium.
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The next race is the Belgian Grand Prix on August 28. “So it’s awesome to close out the first part of the season”.
