The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Hamilton pulls away with win in Germany
Formula one: Rosberg’s woes continue with penalty in home grand prix
Lewis Hamilton will head into Formula One’s summer holiday with a smile on his face after extending his lead in the championship to 19 points by winning the German Grand Prix.
While deflated title rival Nico Rosberg endured a miserable home race at Hockenheim, in which he crossed the line only in fourth, Hamilton sauntered to his sixth win in seven races.
Indeed, having been 43 points behind Rosberg in May, Hamilton is now comfortably ahead of his Mercedes team-mate by virtue of an unbeaten July with victories in Austria, Silverstone, Hungary and Germany.
Hamilton was left kicking himself on Saturday after a mistake in qualifying paved the way for Rosberg to claim pole.
However, the Stevenage-born racer roared off the line to emphatically beat Rosberg on the short run down to turn one yesterday, and from there his victory never looked in doubt.
In contrast, Rosberg will be desperate to forget a race which turned sour from the moment the lights flicked to green.
The German was fourth after his sluggish start, and spent much of the opening phase of the race behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, who took second and third.
Rosberg emerged from his second pit stop behind Verstappen and on the run down to the hairpin on lap 29 he dived underneath the 18-year-old Dutchman.
But as with the Austrian Grand Prix, in which he dramatically collided with Hamilton on the final lap, Rosberg appeared to leave little room for the Dutchman, and he was hit with a fivesecond time penalty for forcing his opponent off the road.
“The problem is Rosberg did a pretty bad job of it,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.
“If he’d have locked up all four wheels and there had been a puff of tyre smoke, maybe he’d have got away with it.
“The golden rule in a job like that is to lock your fronts up and look as if you can’t stop. The problem was, it looked like he kind of stopped, and then kept going as if he was off to Cologne and that’s a bit naughty.”
With nine races left, Hamilton is now the overwhelming favourite to win title number four.
Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen crossed the line in fifth and sixth for Ferrari while Jenson Button was eighth for McLaren after passing the Williams of Valtteri Bottas on the penultimate lap.
British rookie Jolyon Palmer started 14th and made three places off the start line, but a clumsy collision with Felipe Massa on lap one saw him drop to last, and he ended the race only 19th.