Rosberg cruises to win as Hamilton charges in Germany

Nico Rosberg capped a great week for Germany and himself as he cruised to victory at his home race having seen Germany win the world cup and then got married. From pole position he led into the first corner and from then on was never headed, only going as fast as he needed to keep out of reach of his pursuers to win by 20 seconds.

The win brought him a 14 point championship lead as we pass the half way mark of the season and with just one race left next weekend before a four week hiatus for the summer, he’ll look to maintain this momentum as his Mercedes stable mate Lewis Hamilton suffered a difficult weekend while Nico enjoyed a perfect few days from the car and his driving matched it.

Hamilton and Rosberg looked evenly matched through practice and when it came to qualifying it could have been either one of them who took pole position, but having at that point set the fastest time in Q1 a brake failure threw Lewis into a 30g impact with the barriers ruling him out of contention for the top slot.

The crash also meant a gearbox change which cost him a further five places on the grid meaning he started just 20^th. In parc ferme conditions they also changed his brake discs from Brembo to Carbon Industrie which apparently annoyed some other competitors as they believed that should have meant he started from the pit lane but the FIA approved it, they did the same with Rosberg’s rear brakes.

Anyway it was a joy to watch as Lewis does what he does better than anyone else and charged through the field. It helps if you have a Mercedes which is sometimes two seconds a lap quicker than anyone else but it was a fantastic drive as he went wheel to wheel with most of the grid to race up to third place.

His brief dice with Kimi Raikkonen (who endured another disappointing weekend with just 11^th place despite a fine mid-race charge on super-softs) was great, battling it out with Daniel Ricciardo too was fantastic as he came across the Australian far earlier than he might’ve, the Red Bull driver having taken avoiding action for Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen’s accident at the first corner which resulted in Massa barrel rolling out of the race which brought out the safety car for a couple of laps at the start.

His moves into the turn six hairpin nearly resulted in contact with first Adrian Sutil as Lewis followed Ricciardo through, before he made contact with Kimi then dived up the inside of Jenson Button’s McLaren when suddenly the door was closed. Button says he doesn’t know what Lewis was doing but it looked for all the world like he was leaving the door open. Lewis put a hand up when he did get by as if to say sorry, but I think it should have been the other way round, whatever though, that incident cost him later in the race.

Lewis had started on the soft tyre while most others started on the super-soft, so while everyone pitted he had moved up to second by lap 17, pretty impressive even in a Mercedes. His first stop came on lap 26 dropping him back into the pack again. He’d make two further stops but such was his pace that by the end of the race he was charging after the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

Bottas was on a two stopper and looking after his last set of tyres as Lewis caught him at up to a second a lap, sometimes more. Hamilton had come in for his third and final stop on lap 51, slightly earlier than he planned after Sutil spun his Sauber at the final corner and got stuck there. It looked like certain safety car territory but as marshals crossed the track the pace car was not forthcoming. That would have set up an interesting end to the race but it wasn’t to be. In the end it didn’t take much to move the car but I’m not sure you ever want marshal’s crossing the track even if the corner is under double waved yellows.

It meant Lewis’ tyres weren’t as optimal as they could have been at the end and with front wing damage suffered on Button’s car he couldn’t quite get into position to make a move. Perhaps if he’d known what the ‘menu magic’ setting was that his race engineer told him to go to earlier in the race it might have helped! However, he’d got to the podium with a great aggressive drive but he should have had second to minimise the losses to Rosberg.

I’m not taking anything away from my star of the race though, Valtteri Bottas took his third consecutive podium and second second place in a row in another brilliant display that is making him look like a potential world champion and confirming William’s continued revival. If they can maintain this into next season we know they’re back and with the people they’ve recruited and the Mercedes power unit there’s no reason why this can’t continue.

Bottas held Lewis back expertly, slowing the car in the middle of the corners to stop the Mercedes switching back, then using the Williams superior straight line speed to not even have to bother defending into most corners, eventually he managed to stretch the gap out to almost two seconds by the flag.

It was another classy and controlled drive and he’s certainly the real flying Finn out there now. While Bottas is claiming the podiums he is bringing the team around him as Massa continues to find trouble. A lot of the time it’s not of his own making but this one I’ve got to say was his fault. Massa blamed Magnussen for the first corner incident but it looked to me like he just didn’t give enough space to the McLaren driver leaving him with nowhere to go other than to tip the Williams upside down. A shame for both as Massa had qualified third and Magnussen equalled his best starting position of fourth.

Magnussen ended up finishing ninth behind his annoyed team mate Button who seemed quite lonely a lot of the time or getting passed or looking like he was allowing people passed and then turning in on them...

The Force India’s claimed a double points finish with the ever reliable Nico Hulkenberg maintaining his season long points scoring streak with seventh and Sergio Perez making his point for tenth despite Daniil Kvyat pretending he wasn’t there and bashing into the Mexican. Kvyat impressed again with another top 10 quali slot but what looked like it could have been an amazing move around the outside of Perez sent him into a spin when he failed to give enough room. The day ended with his Toro Rosso on fire while Jean-Eric Vergne could only get 13^th.

There was more thrilling action centred around the fun and games of Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Ricciardo. All were in inspired form as they fought over the minor points placing’s although originally Vettel and Alonso appeared to be hanging on well to Bottas.

In the end they dropped back but yet these world champions and Ricciardo battled bravely especially Vettel who has to be commended, he’ll never lift off as the road runs out if he thinks he can still make the move as demonstrated when he kept his foot hard to the floor clipping the grass as he charged down the inside of Kimi with Alonso squeezing on the other side as they shot down to turn 6. It kept Vettel in fourth at the time.

Earlier Kimi had also been sandwiched between Lewis and Ricciardo with some more fantastic three abreast racing. In both incidents Kimi lost bits of his car, it was a struggle to keep up with the amount of body work falling off these machines over the race.

Alonso got ahead of Vettel after the second pit stops but Vettel pitted earlier while the Spaniard tried to make a two stop work although he eventually succumbed to the inevitable third tyre stop which brought him out behind the other Red Bull of Ricciardo on worn tyres.

Ricciardo didn’t just let him go, he made Alonso work for it the position, just when you thought the Ferrari was ahead back would come the Australian. Eventually Alonso made it but it was yet more exciting tough but clean racing. Ricciardo really impressed witht that, even more than his podiums. Battling it out with the likes of Alonso so confidently confirms he is the real deal, along with Bottas surely a world champion of the future.

By the end Vettel made it across the line in fourth with Alonso and Ricciardo in fifth and sixth, not the positions they want to be fighting for but great to see they’ll still battle as if their lives depended on it.

Lotus and Sauber had another horrible day, while I liked the fact Max Chilton got ahead of Hamilton at the start for Marussia. Caterham brought up the rear.

The predicted rain failed to materialise which was a shame, I’d love a wet race soon as it’s been such a long time. Despite all the great racing this weekend a bit of wet might have mixed it up at the front although the best car is the best car whatever the weather, but it’s so much easier to throw it off track... The FRIC suspension ban also made no real upheavel in the competitive order although Lotus have been running it longest since they were called Renault and they seemed to struggle even more. 

Next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix is a race where Hamilton has won four times including the past two years. This championship is still wide open as we race towards the summer break but at a track which he has made his own he’ll want to dominate Rosberg, finally get his qualifying back on track and cruise off into the distance as Rosberg did today. No more failures, no more mistakes, a clean weekend where he can show just how much better he is. Trouble is, Rosberg won’t want to let him. While behind, it’ll be do or die for any position going.

all LAT & XPB photo's taken from autosport.com, all others taken from BBC F1