Posted on 21st July 2014
Nico Rosberg wins the German Grand Prix to extend his lead in the Championship.
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Nico Rosberg made a good start from pole with Valtteri Bottas tucked in behind in second. Kevin Magnussen got off to a flier and made a daring move on Massa on the inside of turn One. Magnussen clipped the rear of Massa’s Williams and forced the Williams driver into a spectacular accident, flipping the Brazilian over before he came to a stop back on his wheels, shaken, but luckily not injured.
Hamilton, starting 20th following a high speed accident in qualifying, due to brake issues, made a cautious start, lying in 17th as the safety car was deployed for Massa's accident. As the safety car returned to the pits, Hamilton wasted little time and claimed 3 places in a matter of corners, moving up to 14th place. Lewis then made light work of a struggling Lotus and was now on the back of Ricciardo, who himself had to take drastic action to miss the incident involving Magnussen and Massa.
Down the order, a courageous move didn't quite pay off for Kvyat as he tried to go around the outside of Perez before squeezing the Sauber onto the inside kerb. The two made contact with Kvyat spinning off the track and losing several places in the process.
Hamilton made his way up to 10th before the cars in front, began to make their pit stops. Hamilton, who ran the soft tyre instead of the super soft, took advantage to find himself 2nd but yet to stop.
Battles began to heat up throughout the field with most of the action focussed around Fernando Alonso. Described as “the man who never gives in†on commentary, he was proving why. A great race was ensuing between the Ferrari driver and Vettel as the both tried to overtake Raikkonen into the hairpin, Vettel going around the outside, Alonso down the inside. They both squeezed Raikkonen who backed out with locked brakes. Vettel took the place with Alonso following through.
Rosberg, who was well out front, looked un-catchable barring a technical issue. The Williams were quick and Hamilton looked in good form, but the advantage he had seemed unassailable.
Following his pit stop on lap 26, Hamilton found himself back down the field squabbling for the minor points positions. His next target was his former team-mate Jenson Button. Button saw him coming down the inside into the hairpin and left room and seemed to be letting the Mercedes through, until he turned in thinking Hamilton was not making the move. The two cars collided mid-corner, taking off most of the Mercedes left front-wing endplate.
Lap 31 saw Adrian Sutil spinning his Sauber out of the last corner and being left stranded in the middle of the track for several laps. Hamilton seeing this darted into the pits the following lap expecting a safety car, hopefully righting the wrong from Monaco several months ago. Again the Mercedes team has miss calculated the situation, and within a couple of laps, the stewards under double waved yellows, managed to clear the stranded Sauber.
Hamilton emerged from his stop in fourth behind Rosberg, Bottas and Alonso. He passed Alonso very quickly and set about chasing Bottas for 2nd. He was 15 seconds behind the Williams with as many laps to go.
The pace of the Mercedes was such that within 8 laps he was within a second of the Williams of Bottas. Try as he did, Hamilton could not get the type of grip he needed from his 13 lap old tyres and on this day had to settle for 3rd place, an incredible drive from the back of the grid.
Rosberg was in a complete race of his own. Untouchable on the day as the supreme pace of the Mercedes kept him clear of any challengers for the whole race. A perfect weekend for the German.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel beat Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso to finish 4th, with team-mate Daniel Ricciardo sixth.
Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India followed the Red Bull of Ricciardo home in 7th, ahead of Jenson Button, a hard fought 8th, Kevin Magnussen recovering to 9th and Hulkenberg’s team-mate Sergio Perez rounding out the top 10.
Rosberg’s victory on home soil gives him the advantage in the championship of 14 points over his team-mate Hamilton, with nine races remaining
2014 German Grand Prix Results;
1) Rosberg
2) Bottas
3) Hamilton
4) Vettel
5) Alonso
6) Ricciardo
7) Hulkenberg
8) Button
9) Magnussen
10) Perez
11) Raikkonen
12) Maldonado
13) Vergne
14) Gutierrez
15) Bianchi
16) Kobayashi
17) Chilton
18) Ericsson
DNF: Sutil, Kvyat, Grosjean, Massa
