Black day for Rosberg

Nico Rosberg failed to reach the podium at the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim won by his teammate Lewis Hamilton who imposed himself before the Red Bull de Daniel Ricciardo et Max Verstappen.

The German had started on pole, but the driver Mercedes dropped to fourth following a bad start on the dirty side of the track which penalized several drivers. “I don’t understand what happened at first, it was very bad. We will have to study this with the engineers”, confided Nico Rosberg at the microphone of Canal+.

Nico Rosberg could hope to salvage a second place after regaining the advantage over the Red Bulls, but the Mercedes driver received a five-second penalty for overtaking Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver had to go out of track limits after changing lines while braking to resist the W07 Hybrid. The stewards added two penalty points to his first at the end of the race.

“I was very surprised by this penalty, I rather thought that it was Verstappen who was going to be penalized, explained Nico Rosberg. However, the commissioners indicated that it was forbidden to change lines during braking phases, but the debates will not change anything. »

Nico Rosberg will have to wait until August 28 at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps to try to stop the winning streak of his rival Lewis Hamilton who is now ahead of him by 19 points.

“These times are very difficult, although that won’t stop me from enjoying my vacation.”, said the German.

German Grand Prix results

Discover the analysis of the German Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2074 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.