Well the German GP wasn’t quite as good for the Germans as they would have hoped.
Nico Rosberg topped FP1, FP2, FP3 and then qualified on pole, but by the second corner he was already down to fourth place. Hamilton took the lead from the start and kept it throughout, leading every lap. Daniel Ricciardo finished the race in second and set the fastest lap of the race on his 100th GP, celebrating by drinking champagne from his shoe, as you do.
Max Verstappen came in third and Nico Rosberg fourth, though if Rosberg didn’t have his five second penalty (which ended up being closed to 9 due to stopwatch issues) he would have been on the back of Ricciardo for second. And that brings me to my next point, the stewards this weekend. Personally I don’t feel the five second penalty for Rosberg was warranted, while he did push Verstappen to the edge of the track I think he was expecting him to slow down further and go for a cut-back (just like Gutierrez did later on in the race) and by the time he realised it was too late to do anything different.
On top of that Lewis Hamilton was awarded a €10,000 fine for an unsafe release during FP3, since I’ve been collecting data and stats I have never seen a driver get away with a fine for an unsafe release during practice except Jolyon Palmer last year when he was only a Friday driver. While the penalties for such a thing vary due to the wide variety of things that count as unsafe release usually a reprimand is at least the minimum and if Lewis didn’t already have two reprimands for the season (third resulting in a 10 place penalty) I can almost guarantee he would have been given a reprimand rather than the fine.
Only one driver moved up in the championship after Germany and of course it was Hulkenberg, who has still changed position after every single race this season. Hulkenberg moved up two places to 10th, dropping Sainz to 11th and Grosjean to 12th. After a few races with no change the Constructors’ finally has a change, Red Bull have taken second for the first time this season, dropping Ferrari down to third.
Pos | Driver | Team | Nation | Points | Laps | Fastest Lap | Grid |
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | GBR | 25 | 67 | 01:18.746 | 2 |
2 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | AUS | 18 | 67 | 01:18.442 | 3 |
3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | NED | 15 | 67 | 01:18.910 | 4 |
4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | GER | 12 | 67 | 01:19.122 | 1 |
5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | GER | 10 | 67 | 01:18.710 | 6 |
6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | FIN | 8 | 67 | 01:19.572 | 5 |
7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | GER | 6 | 67 | 01:20.056 | 8 |
8 | Jenson Button | McLaren | GBR | 4 | 66 | 01:19.781 | 12 |
9 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | FIN | 2 | 66 | 01:20.442 | 7 |
10 | Sergio Perez | Force India | MEX | 1 | 66 | 01:19.606 | 9 |
11 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | MEX | 0 | 66 | 01:19.883 | 11 |
12 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | ESP | 0 | 66 | 01:20.132 | 13 |
13 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | FRA | 0 | 66 | 01:20.250 | 20 |
14 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | ESP | 0 | 66 | 01:19.957 | 15 |
15 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | RUS | 0 | 66 | 01:19.585 | 18 |
16 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | DEN | 0 | 66 | 01:21.649 | 16 |
17 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | GER | 0 | 65 | 01:20.710 | 17 |
18 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | SWE | 0 | 65 | 01:21.212 | 22 |
19 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | GBR | 0 | 65 | 01:21.127 | 14 |
20 | Rio Haryanto | Manor | IDN | 0 | 65 | 01:21.845 | 19 |
RET | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | BRA | – | 57 | 01:21.420 | 21 |
RET | Felipe Massa | Williams | BRA | – | 36 | 01:21.476 | 10 |