Lewis Hamilton has extended his lead in the driver’s championship after breezing to victory during the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
While Hamilton started the race behind Nico Rosberg in pole position, he sprinted off the line much better than his teammate and took the lead into the first corner, just like the Hungarian GP. From there, Hamilton never once fell off the pace and maintained his lead throughout the entire race.
Rosberg’s poor start was so slow that he also lost his place to the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, falling from 1st to 4th in the blink of an eye and just ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in 5th and 6th.
After the first round of pitstops, the same top six positions were maintained and only started to change halfway through the thrilling race, after the second pitstops. Verstappen dropped back and was involved in a heated battle with Rosberg and after the German pushed the young rising star off the track, he was slapped with a five second penalty.
Order was restored after the cars came into the pits for the third time but this time around, Ricciardo jumped his teammate in the standings claiming 2nd ahead of Verstappen, Rosberg, Vettel and Raikkonen.
By the end of lap 67, the top six positions went unchanged. Hamilton’s victory helped him stretch his championship lead to 19 points heading into the summer break.
Image via Reuters
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