Hamilton dominates German GPposted in F131 | 07 | 2016
LEWIS HAMILTON DOMINATED the German Grand Prix to win his sixth race in the last seven, and head into the summer break with a 19-point lead in the Formula 1 World Championship.
The three-time world champ, who has overhauled what was a 43-point gap to his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, took full advantage of the poor start the German made.
Lining up in pole position, with Hamilton alongside on the front row of the grid, Rosberg dropped back to fourth — behind his team-mate, and the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo — after his car suffered wheelspin as he left the line.
Hamilton led into the first corner, and proceeded to dominate the race from there, eventually backing off to win by 6.9 seconds to Aussie Riciardo, with Verstappen third.
Mercedes and Red Bull split strategies at the first round of stops, with Rosberg and Verstappen taking the super-softs and Hamilton and Ricciardo the softs. But as the race progressed, all the leaders eventually switched to a three-stop plan as the tyres suffered higher than expected degradation.
After his second pitstop, Verstappen emerged ahead of Rosberg, but the German got into the slipstream on the run down to the hairpin and dived down the inside.
Then, as the 19-year-old Dutchman moved in the braking room to give him room, Rosberg ran deep into the corner, pushing Verstappen wide and then off track. Stewards adjudged it to be a deliberate move and handed the Mercedes driver five-second penalty, to be taken at his final pitstop.
And whereas Verstappen and Rosberg had gone for softs at their second pitstops, Hamilton and Ricciardo went to super-softs after running longer. That allowed the Aussie to catch and pass his Red Bull team-mate.
When Rosberg did stop for tis third and final time, a glitch with the Mercedes stopwatch meant he sat stationary for more than eight seconds before his crew started to work on the car. That additional delay wrecked any faint hope he had to grabbing a podium position, and he eventually finished a rather tame fourth.
Ferrari’s performance left Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen a rather anonymous fifth an sixth respectively. In light of Red Bull’s two cars on the podium — its first double podium since Hungary 2015 — meant the Italian giant slipped to third in the Constructors’ Championship, 14 points behind the Milton Keynes outfit.
Jenson Button brought his improving McLaren-Honda home eight, behind the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg. The German’s team-mate Sergio Perez finished 10th, with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas ninth.
F1 — German Grand Prix (Hockenheim) Result:
1. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 67 laps 1h 30m 44.200s
2. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault +06.900s
3. Max Verstappen NED Red Bull-Renault +13.400s
4. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes +15.800s
5. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari +32.500s
6. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari +37.000s
7. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes +70.000s
8. Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda +1 lap
9. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
10. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
11. Esteban Gutierrez MEX Haas-Ferrari +1 lap
12. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda +1 lap
13 Romain Grosjean FRA Haas-Ferrari +1 lap
14. Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
15. Daniil Kvyat RUS Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
16. Kevin Magnussen DEN Renault-Renault +1 lap
17. Pascal Wehrlein GER Manor-Mercedes +2 laps
18. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari +2 laps
19. Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault-Renault +2 laps
21. Rio Haryanto INA Manor-Mercedes +2 laps
Retired
Felipe Nasr BRA Sauber-Ferrari 57 laps completed
Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes 37 laps completed
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Jim McGill