Rosberg wins home Grand Prix in dominating fashion

Mercedes’ driver, Nico Rosberg managed to achieve double success on home turf this weekend and went on to convert his pole position into race victory at the FIA Formula One 2014 German Grand Prix today. Rosberg’s result today means that he has picked up his maiden home race win at the Hockenheimring in front of the locals. Rosberg has now won four times this year, and seven times in his career.

Williams’ driver, Valtteri Bottas finished the race where he started in second place behind Rosberg. The Finnish driver has now appeared on the podium for the third consecutive race this season and picked up the 300th podium result for the famous team in the process.

Lewis Hamilton ripped through the pack after starting back in 20th, finishing an impressive third. Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top five. Behind them, it was Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg, Jenson Button, Kevin Magnussen, and Sergio Perez.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel seemed to keep out of the limelight for the majority of the race.  The reigning World Champion improved by two places in the race from his sixth place in qualifying yesterday.  The German driver missed out on a podium spot but pipped his team mate, Daniel Ricciardo to take fourth place, while the Australian driver finished in sixth place.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso found himself in a Red Bull sandwich as the Spaniard picked up fifth place for himself.  Alonso’s team mate, Kimi Raikkonen had a few scraps for position with other drivers in the race, which led him to lose a few bits of the front wing on his car.  The Finnish driver made it to the end of the 67 lap marathon, but was the only one of the usual front runners to end the race out of a top 10 point scoring position.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was the third German driver in the field who also ended the race in the points.  Hulkenberg crossed the finish line just behind Ricciardo to secure seventh place for himself.  

Button ended the race with an eighth place finish and the 2009 World Champion managed to beat his team mate, Kevin Magnussen as a result, who followed just behind him to take ninth place.

The Mclaren duo of Button and Magnussen split the Force India pair, as Sergio Perez picked up the 10th and final point scoring position for himself.

Magnussen had a lucky escape on the first lap following contact with Bottas’ team mate, Felipe Massa.  Magnussen continued in the race despite reporting via the team radio that he had concerns over left front tyre damage.  Massa was the unfortunate victim in the incident and was flipped over in his car before landing back on the ground again.  Massa instantly retired from the race and it has been reported that he is ok.  The incident led to the appearance of the safety car on the track for the first two laps, in order for the stewards to clear the debris and Massa’s car.  The stewards initially investigated the incident between Massa and Magnussen but no further action was taken.

Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne caught the attention of the stewards on lap 24, together with Lotus Renault’s Romain Grosjean for the purpose of leaving the track and gaining an advantage.  Out of the two drivers, Vergne was the one issued with a five second stop and go penalty by the stewards.

Grosjean became the second retiree in the race on lap 28, when he stopped at the side of the track and reported via the team radio that he had lost power on his car.

Vergne’s team mate, Daniil Kvyat joined Massa and Grosjean in retirement on lap 46.  The Russian rookie driver’s car suddenly burst into flames and he had to quickly pull off the track and make a swift exit from it.  

Sauber’s Adrian Sutil did not have the best end to his home race, as the German driver spun on lap 50 on the start/finish straight and retired from the action, as he was not able to get his car going again.  Sutil’s incident on the track did not lead to a second safety car period, but the marshals quickly removed his car from the track under double waved yellow flags.

Aside from those who finished the race in the top 10 and four drivers who retired from the proceedings, the rest of the field were left to battle over the remaining places from 11th to 18th position.

Following the conclusion of the German Grand Prix, Rosberg remains in control at the top of the Driver’s Championship and has increased the gap between he and team mate, Hamilton, who is currently in second place and is 14 points adrift now.  

Rosberg has shown by his performance and race result today that he, like Hamilton, did not buckle under the pressure of racing in front of his home crowd and went on to pick up the race win.  It remains to be seen how the inter-team battle will unfold between the pair and their closest Championship rivals, when they participate in the Hungarian Grand Prix in just one week.