Max Verstappen believes Nico Rosberg was at fault after a collision between the pair resulted in a race-wrecking penalty for the Mercedes man at the German Grand Prix.
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Lewis Hamilton wins the German GP to extend his advantage in the rankings to 19 points.
Although Hamilton wasn’t on pole position, with his Mercedes AMG F1 team-mate Nico Rosberg having taken that distinction, the British driver got off to a good start when the five red lights went out.
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.
Rosberg crossed the line fourth-placed as Hamilton claimed his 49th Formula One win, the sixth victory this year.
Rosberg fought back however, and at mid-distance dived down the inside of Verstappen for second at the hairpin – only for the stewards to decide he had forced the Dutchman off track, and therefore deserved a penalty which dropped him back to fourth.
“I don’t know how the damage limitation will be, I don’t know how far I’m going to be able to get up”. Hamilton’s victory helped him stretch his championship lead to 19 points heading into the summer break. “I hadn’t really figured it out, but that’s just insane”.
Suggested that, based on his current record, Hamilton is only beatable when he strikes problems, Wolff said: “The guy has great talent and speed, and on a good day he’s unbeatable”. On the other hand, Rosberg had one of his worst starts and saw himself being passed by both Red Bull by the first corner.
“My engineers and mechanics all stayed super-focused and showed no signs of giving up and that has inspired me to do the same”.
Four of Rosberg’s five wins came in a purple patch at the start of 2016 and Wolff added: “I really admire the way it’s going, the ping-pong between those two, and the way they keep coming back”.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished second behind Hamilton at Hockenheim while Mex Verstappen clinched the final spot on the podium following another strong performance.
Lauda said: “Honestly I think it’s okay”.
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“Thanks to Red Bull Racing, I think it’s the first double podium for us in over a year, so it’s awesome to close out the first part of the season [like that]”.
