While pole sitter Nico Rosberg got a horrible start, teammate Lewis Hamilton got an excellent start and put on a dominating performance as he scored the victory at the Hockenheimring.
“Well first, let me start with a big thank you to all the fans that have come out today in Germany,” Hamilton said on the podium. “To see so many people here is very sportsman from the people here. I got a lot of flags out here. I just appreciate you all coming here.
“What a race. What a great start. My engineers did a fantastic job. The balance was amazing and it was just about keeping it cool and looking after the engine. I’m just so happy I could up here for Mercedes-Benz, who I’ve been with since I was 13. So this is a very proud position for me to be in.”
It’s his 49th career win in Formula 1, sixth of the season, third in the German Grand Prix, second at the Hockenheimring and 96th career podium finish.
Daniel Ricciardo came home second in his No. 3 Red Bull Racing car.
“It was a race of strategy at first,” Ricciardo said on the podium. “It was really close on the first corner with myself and Max (Verstappen). He had a good run on the outside. On the super soft’s (tires), I was much more comfortable and we had good pace for the last half of the race. We really capitalized on a good day. We had a good day. Obviously, we couldn’t win, but second and third isn’t too bad.”
He decided to celebrate his runner-up finish by chugging champagne from his shoe during the podium celebration.
Max Verstappen rounded out the podium in his No. 33 Red Bull.
“We had a good start. From there on, I think the pace was pretty good. I was enjoying it. We chose to do two different strategies on the car, so I let Daniel by. From there on, we played really well as a team. To get a double-podium out of it was the main target and to score more points than Ferrari. That’s what we definitely did today.”
It’s his fourth of the season and third in the last four races. This completed the first double-podium finish for Red Bull since the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Rosberg brought his No. 6 Mercedes AMG Petronas car home to a fourth-place finish.
“The start, yeah, we lost the race at the start definitely,” Rosberg said of his start following the race. “Just massive wheel-spin. I don’t understand it. It’s not something I foresaw.”
Compounding his lousy start was a five-second time penalty he was handed halfway through the race after running Verstappen off the track limits at the hairpin.
“Just a great battle and a great move I thought,” Rosberg said of the incident with Verstappen. “I was really happy about it and I didn’t expect a penalty at all. The penalty came through and that was very surprising.”
He was asked if his move on Verstappen was “too much on the edge” like his run-in with teammate Hamilton in Austria.
“Well, according to them (race stewards), yes. It was too much on the edge, but I don’t think so.”
Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top-five in his No. 5 Scuderia Ferrari.
Kimi Räikkönen finished sixth in his No. 7 Ferrari. Nico Hülkenberg’s No. 27 Sahara Force India Mercedes was the last car to finish on the lead lap in seventh. Jenson Button finished eighth in his No. 22 McLaren Honda. Valtteri Bottas finished ninth in his No. 77 Williams Martini Racing Mercedes. Sergio Pérez rounded out the top-10 in his No. 11 Force India Mercedes.
The two Haas F1 drivers finished 11th (Esteban Gutiérrez) and 13th (Romain Grosjean).
Felipe Massa and Felipe Nasr were the only retirements from the race.
Hamilton leaves Germany with a 19-point lead over Rosberg in the drivers’ championship standings.
Mercedes leaves with a 159-point lead over Red Bull in the constructors’ championship standings.
Formula 1 goes on its annual summer holiday during the month of August. For the next two weeks, teams are forbidden from being in the shops and doing any work on the cars.
“I won’t be going skydiving, but definitely relaxing,” Hamilton said of his plans for the summer holiday. “I’ll have my dogs with me and with family and friends. I think the whole team, everyone back at the factory and everyone here that works so hard this season, they all need a break. We all need a break. So I think I think it’s really well earned.”
F1 returns to action on August 28th for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
