German GP 2016: Hamilton wins, Rosberg slumps to 4th

Lewis Hamilton won the 2016 German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring without losing the lead once. Behind the Mercedes driver, Red Bull secured a double podium, with Daniel Ricciardo in 2nd place and Max Verstappen in 3rd. The race was decided at the start, where pole-sitter Nico Rosberg dropped to 4th within the first few metres. A time penalty and a botched pit stop followed. In the end, he had to settle for 4th place at his home race.

From grid position 2, Hamilton got away much better than his team-mate, moved ahead and was already leading after the first corner. Rosberg suffered wheelspin. According to grandprix.com, the clutch had bitten too hard. Both Red Bulls went past him. Verstappen went around the outside of Ricciardo at Turn 1 and was then running in 2nd place.

Further back, the start was also messy. According to formula1.com, Sergio Pérez made the worst start of his career, slipping from grid position 9 to 16th. Felipe Massa was hit on the opening lap by the Renault of Jolyon Palmer. Palmer had to pit as early as lap 2 and finished 19th.

Hamilton pulled away at the front straight away. According to grandprix.com, he was already 1.5 seconds clear of Verstappen after the second lap. He had things under control for the rest of the afternoon.

Tyre wear was high, so the top six drivers all made three stops. Rosberg came in for his second stop on lap 27 and tried to get ahead of Verstappen with the undercut. The Red Bull driver stayed out one more lap and pitted on lap 28. The pair then fought for position on track. Rosberg forced his way past Verstappen on the inside at the hairpin, pushing him beyond the edge of the track. The stewards ruled that he had forced the Red Bull off the track at Turn 6. That earned him a five-second penalty, which Rosberg had to serve at his next stop. Sources differ on which lap the duel took place.

Rosberg defended himself, saying he already had full steering lock on and had no room left. The stewards were not convinced.

It got worse. Rosberg served the penalty at his final stop on lap 44, but Mercedes held him far longer than necessary. The reason was a stopwatch that had not started properly. Team principal Toto Wolff explained that the team had then decided to play it safe. As a result, Rosberg was stationary for around eight seconds instead of five. Our data shows what that cost him: Rosberg needed 28.4 seconds to get through the pit lane, compared with less than 20 at his other stops. Before the stop he was in 2nd place; three laps later he was 5th.

Red Bull split its two drivers on tyre choice. Later in the race, Ricciardo quickly closed in on Verstappen on fresh tyres. The teenager let him through on lap 40. Verstappen later said the supersoft was “definitely not the race tyre” and complained of oversteer. Ricciardo also set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:18.442 and closed to around seven seconds behind Hamilton in the closing stages. He was never able to threaten him, though. Hamilton had made his stops on laps 14, 34 and 47 and rejoined in the lead each time.

Ferrari had a disappointing day. Sebastian Vettel finished fifth ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, and both were more than half a minute behind the winner. Vettel said his car had been sliding too much, which put too much strain on the tyres. Team principal Maurizio Arrivabene pointed to shortcomings in mechanical grip and downforce.

The best-placed German was Nico Hülkenberg in 7th place. Force India had switched him from two stops to three early in the race. After his poor start, Pérez fought his way back up to 10th, so both Force India drivers scored points. Jenson Button took his McLaren from grid position 12 to 8th and finished ahead of both Williams cars, despite having to save a lot of fuel at the end. Team-mate Fernando Alonso also struggled with fuel consumption and lost the final points-paying position to Pérez.

On places gained, Romain Grosjean was the strongest driver of the day. He took his Haas from 20th on the grid to 13th, a gain of seven places. Button and Marcus Ericsson each gained four places.

Williams, on the other hand, lost out. Valtteri Bottas was the only front-runner on a two-stop strategy. His tyres faded badly towards the end, and Hülkenberg and Button got past him. He had to settle for 9th place.

Only two drivers failed to finish:

• Felipe Massa (Williams) retired after 36 laps with suspension damage. He had been struggling with his car's handling ever since the first-lap collision with Palmer. Compared with his grid position of 10, Massa lost more places than any other driver.
• Felipe Nasr (Sauber) retired after 57 laps with a power unit failure. That left Sauber as the only team still without a championship point this season.

According to the FIA, it was the 49th Grand Prix win of Hamilton's career, his sixth of the 2016 season and his fourth in a row. The championship had turned around: after five races, Hamilton had been 43 points behind Rosberg. Now he went into the summer break ahead by 217 points to 198. Ricciardo followed with 133 points, ahead of Räikkönen (122), Vettel (120) and Verstappen (115). It was a special weekend for Ricciardo, who started his 100th Grand Prix at Hockenheim. He celebrated the milestone on the podium with a “shoey” from his racing boot.

In the constructors' championship, Mercedes extended its lead to 415 points. With the double podium, Red Bull (256 points) moved ahead of Ferrari (242). According to formula1.com, that put the Bulls ahead of the Scuderia in the constructors' championship for the first time in almost two years. You can find the full standings in the 2016 Standings.

At the time, Hamilton seemed to have the momentum firmly on his side. After his slip-up at his home race, Rosberg needed to turn things around after the break. Next stop was the Belgian GP.