Hamilton takes the victory in the German GP

Lewis Hamilton gets his sixth victory of the season in Hockenheim, the fourth consecutive, to start his holiday with a difference of 19 points over Rosberg, who ended up in the fourth position after a terrible start and a controversial penalization for overtaking Verstappen. In the podium, together with Hamilton, were both Red Bull drivers; Ricciardo second and Verstappen, third.

All the drivers started the race with super-soft tyres, except Esteban Gutiérrez, with soft tyre, and starting from the eleventh position. Rosberg took a horrible start which made him go down to the fourth position. Hamilton became the leader, followed by Verstappen and Ricciardo. Vettel overtook Räikkönnen and got the fifth position. Palmer slightly crashed into Massa, which obliged him to get into the pitch and changed to the soft tyres.

As laps were going on, Hamilton started getting an advantage over Verstappen, Ricciardo and Rosberg. The Ferraris kept their fifth and sixth position, followed by Bottas, Hulkenberg, Button and Alonso. Sainz overtook Massa in order to get the eleventh position on lap nine, and both of them got into the pits just at the end of that lap. Toro Rosso made their umpteenth mistake in the season with the Spanish driver making him lose the position in favour of the Brazilian once again.

On lap 12, Verstappen and Rosberg stopped in the pits to get a new set of supersoft tyres. The Dutch one quickly left Button behind him but the German one came back to the track behind both Mclarens. On the other hand, Ricciardo, Vettel, Räikkönnen and Hamilton chose the soft tyres for the next laps. There were no changes in the leading positions.

In the middle of the chart, Button passed Gutiérrez to gain the ninth position on lap 18, as well as his teammate, Fernando Alonso, who reached the eleventh position after overtaking Sergio Pérez. Magnussen passed Massa a lap later, reaching the thirteenth position. The Brazilian one went on suffering on the next laps, eventually losing his position in favour of Sainz and Grosjean.

Alonso left Gutiérrez behind and got the tenth position on lap 22 after a great overtake at turn 11. Pérez took advantage of this situation and overtook his compatriot on the next lap. Hamilton was still the fastest on the track and there were no changes at all in the leading positions.

Rosberg got to the pits for his second stop on lap 28, getting soft tyres. A lap later, Verstappen also stopped and managed to keep his position with Nico. Nevertheless, the Mercedes driver did an aggressive move at turn 6 and passed the Red Bull driver. This got under investigation by Race Direction after Max’s complaint on the radio. Rosberg was penalised with 5 seconds for it.

Hamilton, Ricciardo and both Ferraris got their supersoft tyres on their second stop. The positions were as follows: Hamilton, Rosberg, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Vettel, Räikkönnen, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Button and Alonso. Massa eventually abandoned in the middle of the race after a weekend-to-forget.

Daniel Ricciardo overtook his teammate in their fight for the third position on lap 40 and made a great distance fastest lap after fastest lap getting nearer Rosberg. The German one made his third stop four laps later, accomplishing the punishment of 5 seconds and leaving all his way over the track in favour of the Australian one. Two laps later, Verstappen changed for the supersoft tyres, and a lap later, Ricciardo got a new set of supersoft tyres, whereas Hamilton chose the soft tyres on lap 48.

When there were ten laps to go, the top 10 was: Hamilton, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Rosberg, Vettel, Räikkönen, Bottas, Hulkenberg, Button and Alonso.

At the end of the race, it started to rain. However, it wasn’t enough to enter the pits and change into the intermediate tyres. Fernando Alonso was being lapped by the leaders, a situation which allowed Sergio Pérez to overtake the Spaniard for the tenth place.

Lewis Hamilton crossed over the finish line in the first position, getting his sixth victory of the season and making his advantage in the Champioship bigger over Rosberg. Ricciardo ended on the second position, followed by his teammate Verstappen. Rosberg got on the fourth position with Vettel and Räikkönnen fifth and sixth. At the end of the top ten were Hulkenberg, Button, Bottas and Pérez.