Lewis Hamilton sovereign at Hockenheim

As in Hungary last week, this German Grand Prix was largely decided at the start, for the return of the F1 on the Hockenheim route. Placed in pole position, Nico Rosberg missed his takeoff and saw his teammate at Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and both Red Bull de Max Verstappen et Daniel Ricciardo come and overtake him at the first turn.

A clear loss for the German who will never be able to recover his position, nor threaten the two Milton Keynes cars for the final podium. The former championship leader tried to confront Max Verstappen, but a 5-second penalty at a pit stop, for forcing the Dutchman out of track limits, ruined his chances of finishing in the top 3.

At the front, Hamilton experienced the Grand Prix in complete peace, despite a few drops of rain which did not disrupt the end of the race, bagging his sixth success in seven races and consolidating his first place at the head of the championship with 19 points ahead, a position he seized a week ago at the end of the Hungaroring event.

Daniel Ricciardo, beaten at the start of the race by Max Verstappen, took advantage of a different tire strategy to regain second position just before the 40th lap, and finished second behind Hamilton but ahead of his Dutch teammate. The two drivers of the Austrian brand allow Red Bull to get ahead of Team Ferrari in the Manufacturers rankings.

Rosberg takes fourth place ahead of the two Ferrari SF16-Hs of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen, who was unable to contain his teammate at the start. The Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and McLaren of Jenson Button follow in the standings after benefiting from the complicated end of the race of Valtteri Bottas (Williams), delicate with his tires in the last loops.

Sergio Pérez (Force India) completes the top 10 and waited until the penultimate lap to get rid of the McLaren MP4-31 of Fernando Alonso, despite the resistance of the double world champion at the exit of the hairpin on the German track.

Esteban Gutiérrez places first Haas in 12th place ahead of his teammate Romain Grosjean. The Renault de Magnussen finished 16th while Felipe Massa (Williams) and Felipe Nasr (Sauber) retired.

Find the full report and analysis of the German Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in Hockenheim, in issue 2074 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.