Lewis Hamilton takes dominant victory at the German Grand Prix

At the German GP this afternoon at Hockenheim, Lewis Hamilton claimed his sixth win of the season ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen and extends his lead in the championship to 19 points heading into the summer break.

Before the start of the race, Nico Hulkenberg had a one place grid penalty after a tyre mix up in Qualifying and Carlos Sainz Jr had a three place grid penalty for blocking Felipe Massa in Q2.

The start of the race saw Lewis Hamilton get a really fantastic start and took the lead of the race and never looked back. Meanwhile, his team mate Nico Rosberg made an awful start from pole position after being bogged down and then saw his fightback hamstrung by a penalty for a botched overtaking move on Max Verstappen.

Rosberg will no doubt leave Germany feeling hard done by after he recovered from a poor start and a slow first pit stop to overtake Max Verstappen for second place on Lap 30. However, it was that passing move that led to the five-second penalty at his final stop and ultimately dropped him back behind Verstappen where he had to settle for fourth.

The overtaking move was a controversial one. Rosberg threw his car up the inside of the Red Bull at Turn 6 and deep into the corner, forcing Verstappen wide and off the track on the exit. When watching the onboard footage clearly showed that Rosberg did not apply full steering lock until Verstappen was running out of space at the edge of the track, and it was this for which Rosberg was penalised.

Rosberg took exception to Verstappen cutting across on him under braking ( this was a tactic the Dutch teenager was also criticised for at last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix)but the stewards saw no problem with the Red Bull driver’s defence.

Daniel Ricciardo was then shuffled ahead of Verstappen ahead of the final pit stop and was closing on Rosberg just before Mercedes called its driver in for his final pit stop. With his penalty hanging over him, Rosberg was required to sit stationary in the pit box for five seconds before his mechanics went to work changing his tyres. In reality, however, he stood there for over eight before a slow tyre change sent him back on track with a total stationary time of 12 seconds. Rosberg resumed in fourth place behind both Red Bulls but did not have the pace to challenge in the closing stages, bringing to an end a disappointing home grand prix.

Hamilton’s victory never really looked in doubt and the pressure is now on Rosberg heading into Formula One’s month-long summer break. Over the last seven races Hamilton has outscored his teammate by 62 points and in doing so turned a 43-point deficit into a 19-point advantage.

Although he has insisted again and again that he is not thinking about the championship as of yet, Rosberg now has a full month to contemplate the result ahead of the next grand prix in Belgium and regain the momentum he had at the beginning of the season.

But it was Lewis Hamilton who won the German GP, his sixth of the season ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in second place who was 6.996 seconds behind him and ahead of Max Verstappen in third place who was 13.413 seconds behind Hamilton.

The fantastic result that the Red Bull team achieved today meant Ferrari dropped behind Red Bull, which scored its first double podium since Hungary 2015, to third in the constructors’ championship, 14 points adrift.

Nico Rosberg ended the race in fourth place ahead of Sebastian Vettel in fifth place, Kimi Raikkonen in sixth place, Nico Hulkenberg in seventh place, Jenson Button in eighth place, Valtteri Bottas in ninth place and Sergio Perez who rounded off the top ten finishers.

Esteban Gutierrez finished the race in eleventh place ahead of Fernando Alonso in twelfth place, Romain Grosjean in thirteenth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in fourteenth place and Daniil Kvyat in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Kevin Magnussen ended the race in sixteenth place ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in seventeenth place, Marcus Ericsson in eighteenth place, Jolyon Palmer in nineteenth place and Rio Haryanto in twentieth place. Felipe Nasr and Felipe Massa did not finish the race.

The classification for the German GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.30:44.200s
2. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 6.996s
3. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 13.413s
4. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 15.845s
5. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 32.570s
6. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 37.023s
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.10.049s
8. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
9. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1 lap
10. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1 lap
11. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1 lap
12. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
13. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1lap
14. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1 lap
15. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1 lap
16. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1 lap
17. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 2 laps
18. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 2 laps
19. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 2 laps
20. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 2 laps
21. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, Not Classified
22. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, Not Classified

Lewis Hamilton still leads the Driver's Championship with 217 points, Nico Rosberg is in second place with 198 points, Daniel Ricciardo is in third place with 133 points, Kimi Raikkonen is in fourth place with 122 points, Sebastian Vettel is in fifth place with 120 points, Max Verstappen is in sixth place with 115 points, Valtteri Bottas is in seventh place with 58 points, Sergio Perez is in eighth place with 48 points, Felipe Massa is in ninth place with 38 points and Nico Hulkenberg is in tenth place with 33 points

Mercedes still lead the Constructors Championship with 415 points, Red Bull is in second place with 256 points, Ferrari is in third place with 242 points, Williams is in fourth place with 96 points, Force India is in fifth place with 81 points, Toro Rosso is in sixth place with 45 points, McLaren is in seventh place with 42 points, Haas is in eighth place with 28 points, Renault is in ninth place with 6 points and Manor are tenth with 1 point.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa