Nico Rosberg drove a perfect lights to flag win at the German Grand Prix in the Silver Arrows.
The championship leader extends his points lead with a home victory at Hockenheim, scoring his fourth win of the season in a thrilling race full of action and overtaking.
Valtteri Bottas continued to impressed with a second place finish, achieving the Williams team’s 300th podium.
Bottas was able to resist the pressure from Lewis Hamilton, who was charging from P20 following a qualifying crash.
Hamilton’s journey to the podium was risky, as the 2008 world champion survived repeated contact at the Turn 4 hairpin as he raced his way through the pack.
Hamilton got away with hitting Adrian Sutil’s Sauber and Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari, but damaged his front wing after a late dive up the inside on Jenson Button’s McLaren.
This compromised his second stint on Pirelli’s soft tyre and the Mercedes had to switch Hamilton’s strategy onto a three-stop.
The Mercedes driver made up the time lost in the pits but took too much out of his final set of tyres and fell short of claiming second position from Bottas by just 1.7 seconds.
Bottas executed a two-stop strategy to claim his third consecutive podium finish for Williams after starting second.
The same cannot be said to team-mate Felipe Massa, who only made it to the first corner before contact with Kevin Magnussen’s fast-starting McLaren tipped the Williams into a race-ending roll, and meant the first lap finished behind the safety car.
Magnussen, who started fourth and was trying to pass Massa for third when they came together, fell to the back of the field, while the incident also delayed Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull, which had to take avoiding action across the Turn 1 run-off.
This incident promoted defending world champion Sebastian Vettel to third and the Red Bull racer converted that into a fourth placed finish after another duel with Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.
Alonso was another driver who tried to make a two-stop strategy work, but the Spaniard could not manage it and a late third stop dropped him out of the top six.
He passed Jenson Button’s McLaren for sixth with relative ease, but found the recovering Red Bull of Ricciardo a real challenge.
The Australian defended hard, but Alonso – running on the faster super-soft tyre – eventually found his way by just four laps from the finish.
Ricciardo came back at the Ferrari on the final lap, though, and fell just eight hundredths of a second shy of stealing fifth position back on the run to the finish line.
Button lost seventh to Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India after being forced to make a very late third tyre stop, while McLaren team-mate Magnussen salvaged ninth after his first-lap incident.
Sergio Perez scored the final championship point for tenth place, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who twice survived contact while being passed into the Turn 4 hairpin – once with Hamilton and also with Vettel.
So an action-packed German Grand Prix with a win for a German driver and team.
It has been an incredible week for Nico Rosberg. Got married, watched Germany win the World Cup, signs a new Formula 1 contract, pole position and now race victory. Let see if he achieve that championship title as the season moves into the second half.
German Grand Prix, race results after 67 laps:
1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1h33m42.914s
2. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +20.789s
3. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +22.530s
4. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault +44.014s
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +52.467s
6. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault +52.549s
7. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +1m04.178s
8. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +1m24.711s
9. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes -1 lap
10. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes -1 lap
11. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari -1 lap
12. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault -1 lap
13. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault -1 lap
14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari -1 lap
15. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari -1 lap
16. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault -2 laps
17. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari -2 laps
18. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault -2 laps
Retirements
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 47 laps
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 44 laps
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 26 laps
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 0 laps
Drivers’ championship
1. Nico Rosberg 190
2. Lewis Hamilton 176
3. Daniel Ricciardo 106
4. Fernando Alonso 97
5. Valtteri Bottas 91
6. Sebastian Vettel 82
7. Nico Hülkenberg 69
8. Jenson Button 59
9. Kevin Magnussen 37
10. Felipe Massa 30
11. Sergio Pérez 29
12. Kimi Räikkönen 19
13. Jean-Éric Vergne 9
14. Romain Grosjean 8
15. Daniil Kvyat 6
16. Jules Bianchi 2
Constructors’ championship
1. Mercedes 366
2. Red Bull-Renault 188
3. Williams-Mercedes 121
4. Ferrari 116
5. Force India-Mercedes 98
6. McLaren-Mercedes 96
7. Toro Rosso-Renault 15
8. Lotus-Renault 8
9. Marussia-Ferrari 2
10. Sauber-Ferrari 0
11. Caterham-Renault 0
Next race: Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungaroring. July 25-27.
Williams driver Felipe Massa blames Kevin Magnussen for the crash at Turn 1 on the opening lap. Autosport.com has the story.
Felipe Massa has blamed Formula 1 rival Kevin Magnussen for causing their first corner crash at the German Grand Prix.
Massa was flicked upside down after clashing with Magnussen’s McLaren as they battled for position at the first corner.
Although the race stewards decided that neither driver had done anything wrong, Massa had no doubt that Magnussen could have avoided the crash.
“I was in front, I was doing the corner in front of him,” said Massa. “If anyone needs to watch, it is the car behind.
“I didn’t see yet the accident [on television], but normally the car behind has to brake.
“At that the corner you cannot have three cars side-by-side, and I backed off a bit to not be side-by-side with my team-mate.
“It is normally a guy who comes from GP2 who causes this accident….”
Massa suffered no injuries in the crash, which comes just a fortnight after he was forced out of the British Grand Prix on the opening lap after a crash with Kimi Raikkonen.
“It was a bit more scary watching than being inside” he explained. “I am fine. I didn’t have any impact.
“The only thing is I am so disappointed with what happened – another race where a car put me out. So I am really disappointed.”
While Kevin Magnussen added that he had nowhere to go. Autosport.com has the details.
McLaren Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen said he had nowhere to go in his first-corner accident with Felipe Massa’s Williams in the German Grand Prix.
The duo made contact right after the start, with Magnussen’s left front tyre launching the Williams and sending it into a roll.
Massa escaped unscathed, but the Brazilian blamed Magnussen for the accident.
The race stewards investigated the incident and deemed no action was needed.
Magnussen said he was yet to see a replay of the accident, but claimed there was no way he could have avoided Massa.
“For sure if I had another place to go I wouldn’t have had contact,” said Magnussen.
“I didn’t see the replay. It’s a bit difficult to comment if you haven’t seen the accident.
“I’m sorry about the situation, but I did my best and tried to avoid him, but I didn’t really have anything to do.
“I wasn’t really trying to do anything with Felipe so to have contact with him was very unfortunate.”
The Danie, staring from fourth, spun and lost several positions as a result of the crash, but recovered to finish in ninth place.
“Not really enjoyable,” he said of the race. “I think we could have had a decent race if we hadn’t had that accident in the first corner. Not the best thing that could happen.
“I’m happy to come away with some points, and hopefully we can keep up the pace in Hungary and have a good race.”
McLaren’s Jenson Button was left feeling baffled by Lewis Hamilton’s driving in the German Grand Prix, which resulting in contact. Autosport.com has the news story.
Jenson Button described Lewis Hamilton’s driving as “strange” after their collision in the German Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s Mercedes made contact with Button’s McLaren at the hairpin as the younger Briton made his way through the field after his qualifying problems.
Both were able to continue, although Hamilton sustained damage to his front wing.
The title-chasing Mercedes driver said he had thought Button was pulling aside for him.
“I had a bit of collision with Jenson but I thought he was letting me past – my bad judgement there,” said Hamilton.
But Button was left baffled by the incident.
“Why would we let anyone through? I don’t know if you’ve noticed but a lot of drivers do that line to get a good exit from the corner,” he said.
“I think the problem with Lewis is he expected me to let him past.
“I don’t think I’m the only person he drove into today. It’s strange, when the car’s so much quicker you’d think he wouldn’t get into so [many] fights but there you go.
“He drove into my rear wheel, that’s all I’ve got to say and I don’t know much else about it.
“I’m out there doing my race. It would make it boring if we all let him past when he was coming through the field.”
While Hamilton eventually made it through to third, Button finished only eighth after having to make a late switch from a two to a three-stop strategy.
“I think we pitted way too early on the second stop,” he said.
“An aggressive strategy, but to do 37 laps on a set of tyres at the end was always going to be very difficult round here.”
Jean-Eric Vergne has been handed a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits during his battle with Romain Grosjean in the German Grand Prix.
The Toro Rosso Formula 1 driver, who had already been given a five-second stop-and-go for exceeding track limits during the race, has also been awarded a penalty point for the incident.
Race stewards deemed Vergne had gained an advantage by going off the track while fighting with Lotus driver Grosjean at Turn 6.
The time penalty does not affect Vergne’s position, however, with the Frenchman still classified 13th. He had a gap of 6.3s back to 14th-placed Esteban Gutierrez before the extra sanction.
Source: Autosport.com