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Rosberg Takes Home Win In Germany

Nico Rosberg celebrates his home win Sunday at the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Rosberg now has a 14 point lead in the world championship. [Photo by Sutton Images]

HOCKENHEIM, Germany- A World Cup design displayed on his helmet and the fact that he was at his home track gave Nico Rosberg the incentive to take Sunday’s Grand Prix of Germany from start to finish. Rosberg, who has the series lead and won pole the previous day, did not have much of a fight from second place Valterri Bottas, while the best move up the grid came from third place Lewis Hamilton, who managed to take the final podium place after starting the race in 17th place.

Rosberg afterwards thought there might have been one part of the race that could have ruined his home victory.

“Yes,” he replied. “I definitely got a bit worried when I saw Sutil’s car out there because I was sure there was going to be a safety car. That would have made it a lot more difficult at the end.”

The start was clean only for a few feet when only on the first turn, Felipe Massa, who had began the race in the race in third positon, got clipped from McLaren’s rookie Kevin Magnussen, which spun the Williams around and put it on it’s top. Although Massa escaped uninjured, the race resumed a lap later, and Rosberg slipped back into his lead position. Hamilton, on the other hand, moved up quickly and after a few more laps began to get up to Red Bull’s Daniel Riccairdo, where he ended up being stuck in back of. But Hamilton had a good strategy at the beginning by using soft tires, and the plan worked well, which was enough to have the Briton place as high as third before coming into the pits on lap 26.

Most of the race was calm until Adrian Sutil spun his Sauber in a bad part of the track, bringing out the safety car for the only time in the race. Hamilton was hoping he could get a free pit stop at this time, but race officials came out quickly and retrieved the German’s car, spoiling the chance for Hamilton to obtain fresh rubber.

But the problem did not phase Hamilton, who by coming into the pits, got an added cushion of 16 additional laps on his car, which had him close up on Bottas, but the Finn managed to get a good amount of straight line speed, which was enough for Hamilton to close up, but not catch him.

Sebastian Vettel, who won here last year, was never in the hunt, and ended up finishing fourth, while Fernando Alonso was fifth in his Ferrari. Riccairdo was sixth, while Hulkenberg took seventh. The McLaren duo of Jenson Button and Magnussen were eighth and ninth, respectively, while Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten.

Rosberg was pleased about the race but was not expecting the pace by the Williams.

“Yeah, definitely I was a bit surprised [by their lack of pace]. They were close in qualifying so I didn’t expect to have such a big advantage in the race. He said. “I will be celebrating a little bit for sure! I look forward to the next race in Hungary with the car that we have at the moment. I’m very, very grateful to Mercedes for the car that we have.”

Rosberg will take his series lead to the Hungaroring with a 14 point lead over Hamilton, with the circuit made mostly over twists and turns overall.

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