By Jens Marx, dpa
Hockenheim, Germany (dpa) – Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton extended his roaring comeback to a sixth win in seven races on Sunday after shooting past Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg at the start of the German Grand Prix.
The Briton led the driver standings for the first time this season after last weekend’s victory in Hungary and produced exactly the same trick at Hockenheim by passing polesitter Rosberg before the first corner to go 19 points in front overall.
Rosberg ended up fourth after another shocker of a start, being overtaken by Hamilton and the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, who finished second and third.
Rosberg’s slowness on the grid in his home race and later incurring a five-second penalty for an illegal move followed an otherwise strong weekend where he had topped practice in all three sessions and pulled off a marvellous lap to clinch pole.
But yet again the German, who had a storming start to the season, failed to make the most of his chance and pundits will again question whether he has the bottle to fight for the title having been eclipsed by Hamilton in the previous two years.
An early Rosberg pitstop to try to boost speed with new tyres made little difference despite a fastest lap, with the supersofts actually degrading quicker than expected and forcing him to soon switch to softs.
Rosberg then forced Verstappen off the track when overtaking the Red Bull, prompting the five-second penalty from the stewards.
«Can you explain to them I was full lock in steering and he moved when braking and that is not allowed,» Rosberg said on the radio after several drivers moaned about Verstappen’s driving in previous races.
He was second before the penalty which Mercedes appeared to take too long over and he slipped back to fourth.
It was all a kick in the teeth for German Grand Prix organizers, who had to scrap the 2015 race at the Nuerburgring because of financial issues and had hoped a German winner could boost the popularity of the flagging event on its return to Hockenheim this year.
Four-time German world champion Sebastian Vettel also had a disappointing weekend and finished fifth with Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen sixth.
With Michael Schumacher’s son Mick watching on from stands, German F1 fans can only have been thinking back to the glory days.
Hamilton had looked disgusted with himself on Saturday for allowing Rosberg to gain pole and having suffered himself from poor starts in the past, the three-time world champion was desperate to get past Rosberg as early as possible just like in Budapest.
The decision of Hamilton to use soft tyres after his first change rather than the supersofts which degraded quickly for Rosberg and Verstappen further strengthen his hand.
Verstappen had been third after doing well to jump Ricciardo early on but he quickly complained about the tyre choice and slipped back.
