Wednesday 3 August 2016 08:13, UK
It was an excellent reflection of the new, mature Lewis Hamilton we've seen so much of recently as he recorded a 49th career win at the German Grand Prix on Sunday. While he may deny that he's got an advantage in the title race, a few more displays like this and Hamilton will be nailed on for a fourth world championship crown.
In truth, it didn't even take an awful lot for Hamilton to get past Rosberg, and even less for him to keep the Red Bulls at arms length and coast towards a 19-point championship lead at the summer break.
A sixth win in seven races - and this time, he made it look easy. "On a good day, I think that he's unbeatable," concluded Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. Rating out of ten: 8.5
The spring has returned to Daniel Ricciardo's step thanks to back-to-back podiums - and Mercedes' drivers should probably beware ahead of the second half of the season as Red Bull's renaissance gathers pace.
Barring one or two exceptions, Ricciardo has consistently driven as well as anyone so far in 2016 and his haul of three podiums is now a little more reflective of the performances he has been delivering. Unlike in Spain, when a win went begging, the Australian was on the more favourable end of Red Bull's split strategy at Hockenheim as his supersoft-soft-supersoft-supersoft tyre plan trumped Max Verstappen's supersoft-supersoft-soft-supersoft route to the chequered flag.
"I genuinely believe we're pushing each other to another level," remarked Ricciardo afterwards of a team-mate rivalry which is turning into one of the closest on the grid. As Red Bull continues to improve, the stakes are only going to get higher.
Rating out of ten: 9
Rounding off Red Bull's first double podium finish in a year, Max Verstappen did his team a power of good in their battle to usurp Ferrari and, in his own words, "took one for the team" after being put on what proved to be a slower tyre strategy than Ricciardo.
The excuse did, though, have an air of convenience around it: Ricciardo appeared to have the edge over the teenager on pace all weekend and his 7-1 lead in qualifying is becoming a serious matter. So, too, we suspect, will the Ricciardo-Verstappen rivalry next year.
Rating out of ten: 8
While his team-mate has made history with four F1 victories in a single month, Nico Rosberg has had the month from F1 hell.
Rosberg's latest penalty was his third meted out by the stewards this month and condemned him to a lowly fourth behind the two Red Bulls. The penalty, harsh but not exactly unreasonable, was a critical explanatory factor but told only half the story of his defeat - almost literally so given that Mercedes' bizarre stopwatch error, turning a five-second penalty into eight, only accounted for 50 per cent of Rosberg's 15-second deficit to Hamilton at the chequered flag.
As in Hungary, a poor start - "the clutch was over-
engaged," reported Wolff - was Rosberg's ultimate undoing, relegating him to a series of frustrated laps behind the Red Bulls after he failed to make an early move on Ricciardo stick. His general lack of pace even when running in clean air was also one of the grand prix's most peculiar features. A poor end to a very poor month.
Rating out of ten: 5
It wasn't meant to be like this for Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, was it?
Pre-season predictions that F1 2016 would witness a colossal Vettel v Hamilton battle for the title look rather misplaced now, particularly after the German trailed in half a minute behind the leading Mercedes at Hockenheim. Vettel's latest rebuke of team's strategy over the radio underlined the general sense that the team is rudderless at the moment.
The four-time champion did not seem at his best himself for much of his home race weekend and, amid set-up problems, was outqualified by Kimi Raikkonen for the fourth time this year. However, Vettel assumed his normal intra-team authority by getting ahead at the start and comfortably beat the sister Ferrari to fifth place. F1 may now be on the break, but Vettel will be looking for plenty of answers as to just what's going on at Maranello before Spa.
Rating out of ten: 6
A quiet afternoon from Kimi Raikkonen on a fairly disappointing day for the Ferraris as they fell behind Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship.
The Finn had performed a rare trick in beating Vettel in qualifying - just the fourth time he'd managed to do so this season - but quickly lost fifth place to the German and never appeared able, or too fussed about trying, to get it back.
Raikkonen maintains a two-point lead over Vettel in the standings, but any more afternoons like this and that advantage won't last much longer.
Rating out of ten: 6
While his team-mate continues to dither on his future, Nico Hulkenberg carried on a fine vein of form at Hockenheim. The German driver has won the in-house qualifying duel at Force India six times in the last seven events and justifiably regarding seventh place this Sunday as "the best result available to us".
The team itself deserve credit for quickly spotting that Hulkenberg's planned two-strategy wasn't optimal, enabling Nico to overtake Valtteri Bottas in the closing stages after his switch to a three-stopper. A good job very well done at the end of a week when the 28-year-old categorically confirmed he will still be at Force India in 2017.
Rating out of ten: 8
Not a particularly dramatic race for Valtteri Bottas, which isn't all that surprising for a man driving for a team that appears locked in seemingly-eternal mid-table purgatory with Force India in 2016 - neither good enough to challenge the top six, nor quite bad enough to fall any further behind.
Even so, to lose eighth so late on to a rival driver was a big disappointment, and is unlikely to help his cause when Williams get around to drawing up their driver shortlist for 2017.
Rating out of ten: 7
Like Austria, this was another race when Jenson Button got the absolute maximum - and probably a little more - out of a McLaren-Honda package which continues to slowly improve. Despite the irritation of getting a fragment of carbon in his eye on Friday, which necessitated a hospital visit, Button outpaced Fernando Alonso in qualifying on his return and then made one of his best starts of the year to jump from 12th to ninth on Sunday.
Despite having to manage his tyres and save fuel, particularly in the final 10 laps, he held his ground in the points and capped a fine drive by taking eighth off the ailing Williams of Bottas six laps from home. He says the summer break now gives him 'thinking time' over his future and whether it's McLaren or someone else who takes up his services for 2017, the 36-year-old remains a valuable asset on this form.
Rating out of ten: 8.5
No half measures from Sergio Perez on how bad the opening seconds of Sunday's race were for him: "It's safe to say today was the worst start in my whole career." Losing six positions on his grid spot was certainly always going to be right up there, but it was credit to the Mexican's tenacity that by the end of the race, he had recovered those positions and finished where he started - 10th.
Perez has had some impressive high spots up to the summer break - most notably Monaco and Baku - but Hockenheim undoubtedly went to Hulkenberg in the ever-intriguing battle at Force India. There wasn't much in it in qualifying - less than a tenth in the German's favour - but their respective first laps ultimately decided who finished ahead.
Rating out of ten: 6
Racing in his 50th Grand Prix, Esteban Gutierrez enjoyed the early thrill of being the only man to start on soft tyres as all the others started on the super-softs, and was also the final man to pit at Hockenheim on lap 25.
That is pretty much as exciting as it got for the Mexican at Hockenheim, who was passed by Button before then and never looked that likely to turn an 11th-placed finish in qualifying into anything more than an 11th-placed finish in the race.
His wait for a first point this season continues.
Rating out of ten: 7
For a while, it looked like it was going to be a rare good day in 2016 for Fernando Alonso, who appeared set to turn a dismal 14th in qualifying into some rare championship points as he clung onto 10th in the closing stages.
In the end, though, he simply couldn't manage it and ended up in 12th after being passed by Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez. Needless to say, the Spaniard wasn't in the best of moods afterwards.
"We were 10th so hoping for this last point but in the end it wasn't possible," he said. "We did not have the pace and in the race, we had to save a lot of fuel in the last stint. It was one of the worst races of the year, this one."
Alonso looks like one of several drivers on the grid who really needs the break.
Rating out of ten: 6
Not the kind of weekend Romain Grosjean would have ideally chosen to sign off for the summer break with as the unheralded, but improving, Gutierrez proved the quicker of the two Haas drivers in Germany.
A troubled practice was compounded by a five-place gearbox change penalty which dropped Grosjean to 20th on the grid, so 13th at the flag wasn't without merit. Time spent behind a Renault in the middle stint cooked the VF-16's brakes, but Grosjean at least had the last laugh by passing Kevin Magnussen after his second and final stop.
Rating out of ten: 6
Compared to his recent excellence, the German GP was a forgettable weekend all round for Carlos Sainz.
A three-place grid penalty for impeding Felipe Massa relegated the young Spaniard to 15th and a rather frustrating race. Faint hopes of a points-scoring finish ended with a slow pit-stop and Sainz eventually crossed the line in a modest 14th. Still, the bottom line measuring gauge is that he out-qualified and out-raced his team-mate again.
Rating out of ten: 6
Poor Daniil Kvyat. His obvious trauma after qualifying made for uncomfortable viewing and had many in the paddock actively worrying about his wellbeing.
It's painfully clear that the young Russian still hasn't come to terms with his Red Bull demotion. "I know it's not me driving the car," he mournfully concluded during that angst-ridden qualifying debrief in the media pen. But F1 isn't renowned for its sympathy and the unavoidable concern for Kvyat is that nothing he is currently doing at Toro Rosso suggests his F1 career will be prolonged beyond the end of the season. F1 is a ruthless business but this particular piece of business is verging on the brutal.
Rating out of ten: 5
Kevin Magnussen's race appeared to be turning into quite a decent one as he performed a great move on lap 20 to pass Felipe Massa and head into 13th.
Unfortunately for the Dane, it had been what proved to be poor strategy from Renault which had led to his deceptively lofty position as he eventually finished right where he started in 16th. It should be pointed out that pretty much everyone else passed Massa at some point as well.
"We decided on a two-stop strategy before the race as all the data pointed to it being the correct thing to do," he said. "However, we saw that the three-stop strategy of our rivals worked better today. This wasn't immediately obvious and we were too committed to the two-stop so it's a lesson learnt."
Rating out of ten: 6
A decent showing from Pascal Wehrlein on one of the few circuits he has previously raced on so far in his F1 career. He came within a tenth of his second Q2 berth and, although sustaining damage to his front wing in a race-day clash with Manor team-mate Rio Haryanto, he still beat Sauber's Ericsson and Renault's Palmer to 17th place.
Rating out of ten: 7
22nd in qualifying, 18th in the race, Marcus Ericsson's German GP weekend would be best quickly forgotten. Wait. Quickly? Make that instantly.
These are tough times for the Sauber outfit for whom the benefits of their recent buy-out can't be delivered quickly forgotten.
Rating out of ten: 5
It's still not happening for Jolyon Palmer. Once again, this could have been a good race for the rookie, especially after he impressed in qualifying to reach Q2 ahead of Magnussen, but once again he came a cropper due to a mistake of his own making.
Locking up into the second corner, Palmer's Renault rammed into the side of Massa's Williams, condemning both to a long and dismal afternoon. "I had a big lock up in turn two and massively flat-spotted my tyres," he glumly reported. "I could barely see where I was going because of the vibrations and I tipped a Williams whilst trying to hold on from one of the McLarens. This damaged my front wing which we changed at the second pit stop."
There are signs of genuine pace; after the summer break, it's results he urgently needs.
Rating out of ten: 5
Arguably Rio Haryanto's most impressive achievement in Hockenheim was simply making it to the start line - after a week of speculation that the Hungary Grand Prix would be his last for Manor.
A 20th in qualifying turned into a 20th at the chequered flag, thanks in part to an early collision with team-mate Wehrlein that resulted in him losing part of his front wing, and it remains to be seen whether the Indonesian will still be in his seat in Spa at the end of the month.
Rating out of ten: 5
Don't miss the F1 Report: German GP review and half-term report on Wednesday at 8.30pm on Sky F1 with Natalie Pinkham, Marc Priestley and Mike Gascoyne
