Rosberg romps home in Germany

Hockenheim (Germany): World championship leader Nico Rosberg completed the happiest two weeks of his life on Sunday when he won the German Grand Prix.On a day of home celebrations, Rosberg cruised to an accomplished victory for Mercedes to increase his lead ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in this year’s championship to 14 points.The 29-year-old German, son of original flying Finn and 1982 champion Keke Rosberg, came home a comfortable winner 20.7 seconds ahead of Valtteri Bottas of Williams at the end of an enthralling 67-lap contest.

 

It was the Williams team’s 300th podium finish in Formula One and confirmed their recovery from a long period in the doldrums as a front-running outfit again. They were among seven Mercedes powered teams in the top ten. Hamilton came home third just 1.8 seconds behind Bottas, ahead of defending four time champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari and Australian Daniel Ricciardo, in the second Red Bull. 

 

Rosberg’s win, also his first podium appearance at a German race, came after a week in which he had married his long-term girlfriend Vivian Sibold, signed an extended contract with Mercedes and celebrated Germany’s World Cup victory. It was his fourth win of the season and the seventh of his career, but even such joyful supremacy was overshadowed in an incident-filled race by the bold passing pace of Hamilton, who started 20th on the grid following his crash in qualifying.

 

The Englishman delivered a thrilling series of moves on his way through the field, but in the end was unable to grab second place in the closing laps as Bottas hung on.“I feel really happy to be third time in a row on podium,” said Bottas, who was third in Austria and second at Silverstone two weeks ago. Bottas also became the first Williams driver to record three successive podium finishes since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2003. Hamilton was left not knowing if he should laugh or cry. “I had great fun. I did as good as I could. It was hard to get through the pack safely and I had a little bit of a collision with Jenson (Button),” said Hamilton.