Lewis Hamilton won an eventful German Grand Prix and movied 19 points clear of his championship rival and teammate Nico Rosberg.
Here’s what we can take away from the action in Hockenheim.
HAMILTON ON TRACK TO FOURTH TITLE
Lewis Hamilton's fourth successive win and sixth in seven races has given him a 19-point lead over Nico Rosberg. pic.twitter.com/H8h9LkA7v1
— SuperSport (@SuperSportTV) August 2, 2016
Lewis Hamilton was already on something of a hot streak heading to Germany and while he fluffed his lines in qualifying, the defending champion made no mistake on race day. With six victories in seven races – four of them in succession – Hamilton has taken 160 points from 175 available.
The Briton became the first driver to win four races in a calendar month following his triumphs in Austria, Silverstone, Hungary and in Germany on Sunday.
With 49 career victories he is now just two shy of Alain Prost, who is behind only Michael Schumacher’s 91 on the all-time list. Surely, a fourth world title will now follow, too, joining Prost and Sebastian Vettel.
NO HOME COMFORTS FOR ROSBERG
@F1 @nico_rosberg summed up in one picture @MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/JuJ2z2SSXb
— Ben Guilfoyle (@Ben_Gilly5) August 1, 2016
For Rosberg it was another disappointing race with the German crossing the line only fourth. Rosberg was already enduring an arduous home race when he was hit with a five-second time penalty for an illegal overtake on Max Verstappen.
To make matters worse, a stopwatch error led to the German being held for three seconds longer than was required. “Even in Formula One, if you take out the instruments you don’t usually use, like a stopwatch, they can fail,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff explained. “We relied on the stopwatch and it let us down.”
THE CURIOUS CASE OF JENSON BUTTON
It was not the most straightforward weekend for Jenson Button, who was taken to hospital on Friday night with an eye complaint, while also battling a number of issues on his McLaren.
But the 2009 world champion was quietly content to finish eighth after he passed the Williams of Valtteri Bottas on the penultimate lap.
The British driver said: “It feels satisfying to have beaten both Williams, but eighth was as good as it was going to get. We were 20 seconds behind the car in front, and there’s still quite a bit to go before we catch those guys.”
FUTURE BLEAK FOR FOUL-MOUTHED KVYAT
Does @Dany_Kvyat losing grip on rear tyres also mean poor guy is also losing grip of @f1_tororosso drive? #F1 #GermanGP
— Yas Marina Circuit (@ymcofficial) July 31, 2016
Once one of the sport’s rising stars, the future appears bleak for Daniil Kvyat, the Russian driver who was dropped by Red Bull earlier this season.He has scored just two points in the seven races following his demotion to Toro Rosso and he finished a lowly 15th on Sunday.
Responding to a Russian report which claimed Kyvat would be dropped at the end of the season, he fumed: “First of all, Russian media has no f****** clue about anything. These are rumours. I am not in the mood to waste my f****** time for bull****.”
