Sunday: Rosberg and Mercedes AMG F1 secure a home victory
Nico Rosberg won the Formula 1 German Grand Prix quite comfortably, while his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, was carving a path to the podium, sometimes by the skin of his teeth, only to ultimately stumble against Valtteri Bottas.
Nico Rosberg (#6) – Victory
Winner at home and still the championship leader with a 14-point lead, everything is going well for the German at the moment: « Wow, what a superb day after so many important events for me this week! I came here hoping to win and it worked perfectly. My Silver Arrow was so dominant, thanks to the team for this fantastic car. Before the race, I was afraid that, without the FRIC, the gap would be smaller, but we were still the fastest. »
He is laconic in recounting his race, relatively discreet despite the victory: “I executed a two-stop strategy, which was difficult to manage at the end of the stints because the tires were almost gone.”
Lewis Hamilton (No. 44) – 3rd
After winning his national race two weeks ago, the Brit can only congratulate his teammate: « First of all, congratulations to Nico for winning his home race; it’s a special feeling and I’m very proud that we placed both cars on the podium for Mercedes in Germany. »
Despite his climb from 20th to 3rd position, he doesn’t forget the essential: « Personally, I can’t be too ecstatic about the race because it was a difficult weekend and ultimately, I lost more points to Nico in the battle for the championship. But I’m glad we limited the damage. »
He then recounts his eventful race: « To be honest, it was a fairly straightforward race for me, even though I had a few issues […] I had a nice battle with Kimi at the start, where I was lucky not to damage the front wing, then the incident with Jenson was just bad luck. […] I lost quite a bit of downforce with the damage, and it was difficult to take care of the left front tire. I had a lot of understeer, and the tire was degrading quickly, which is why I switched to a three-stop strategy. The team called me in early when I had the first set of super-soft tires because we were expecting a safety car – and I was surprised that wasn’t the case, to be honest. I caught up to Valtteri very quickly in the last few laps, but he had too much top speed for me to pass him. »
