Nico Rosberg clinched his fourth win of the season at his home Grand Prix in relatively easy circumstances as chaos unfolded behind him.
Rosberg, who added to wins in Australia, Monaco and Austria, led from the start and barely had to lift a finger-obviously he had to lift a finger, F1 drivers have various buttons which they push on their steering wheels and not to do so would be incredibly idiotic-as he won by 20 seconds and extended his lead at the top of the World Drivers’ Championship to 14 points over teammate Lewis Hamilton, who managed to finish third, having started 20th.
The race was filled with drama: on the first lap a collision between Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Massa caused the Brazilian’s car to flip over in a spectacular manner. He was unhurt, but retired from the race without posting a lap.
Hamilton began his charge up the field and his decision to pit much later than those in front of him paid dividends as he moved up to second behind Nico Rosberg before pitting on lap 26. Hamilton looked like a safe bet for second before his attempt to overtake Button for sixth ended in the latter trying to get out of Hamilton’s way, but moving back into him when thinking his former McLaren teammate was too far back.
Hamilton had to take an extra pit stop, due to his tyres not performing as well as expected, and this hindered his chances of getting second. However, Hamilton found himself in fourth and easily overtook Fernando Alonso for third and left himself with fifteen laps to make up the fifteen second gap between Valtteri Bottas and himself. With five laps left it seemed Hamilton would get second and form yet another Mercedes one-two, but his tyres let him down once again and he could not quite get past the Williams driver, who will be delighted with his result.
Behind the podium drivers, Sebastian Vettel managed to hold off Fernando Alonso for fourth, thanks largely to his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo’s brilliant stalling of Alonso’s charge as the two were embroiled in a wheel-to-wheel battle for fifth. Eventually Alonso got past but did not have enough time to overtake defending World Champion Vettel. Nico Hulkenberg, Jenson Button, Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez made up the rest of the points.
Life is going rather well for Nico Rosberg at the moment: he recently got married; saw his country win the World Cup and now leads the Drivers’ Championship by fourteen points. However, Hamilton’s brilliant drive means that he is much closer to his teammate than he might have been at the end of today. Hamilton is now a win or two away from retaking his place at the top of the Drivers’ Championship. If he can win in Hungary, as he did last year, and Nico Rosberg finishes lower than fourth then Hamilton will go into the F1 break on top of the tree. Safe to say that the Hungarian GP will be an enthralling contest for all concerned.
FIA World Drivers’ Championship Standings:
1 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)- 190 points
2 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)- 176
3 Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)-106
4 Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)- 97
5 Valtteri Bottas (Williams)- 91
6 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)- 82
7 Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)- 69
8 Jenson Button (McLaren)- 59
9 Kevin Magnussen (McLaren)- 37
10 Felipe Massa (Williams)- 30
11 Sergio Perez (Force India)- 29
12 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)- 19
13 Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)- 9
14 Romain Grosjean (Lotus)- 8
15 Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso)- 6
16 Jules Bianchi (Marussia)- 2
17 Adrian Sutil (Sauber)- 0
18 Marcus Ericsson (Caterham)- 0
19 Pastor Maldonado (Lotus)- 0
20 Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber)- 0
21 Max Chilton (Marussia)- 0
22 Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham)- 0
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