Rosberg takes easy win at Hockenheim

F1 Grand Prix, GP Germany, Hockenheimring

Nico Rosberg has won the German Grand Prix of 2014 in dominant fashion. He lead the race from start to finish, celebrating on the podium with Williams' Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in the second Silver Arrows.

As the lights went out, Rosberg easily kept the lead while Bottas spun his rear tyres and had to defend a bit on Massa and Magnussen who came close on each side of him. However, Bottas kept the advantage through turn 1 while Massa and Magnussen came together in a rather unfortunate way. It appears like Massa did not see the McLaren driver on the inside of the turn and simply turned in. This flipped the Williams over, coming to a standstill in the gravel trap, obviously triggering a safety car.

Daniel Ricciardo was on the outside of the turn at the moment of the incident, and went around Massa's flipping car, eventually ending up in 13th place, albeit without damage to his car. Magnussen rejoined the race in 20th place, saying there is only minor damage to one tyre, but nothing on the car.

Just two laps later, the race was restarted with Rosberg in first place, ahead of Bottas, Vettel, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Button, Perez, Kvyat, Raikkonen, Vergne and Sutil.

By lap 7, Riciardo gained a place to 12th but already had Hamilton on his back, gradually improving lap by lap after starting from 21st. Moments later Hamilton is lucky to be able to continue as he followed Ricciardo when passing Sutil, but the latter was obviously susprised and nearly turned into the Mercedes when accellerating out of the hairpin.

The first laps are unusually spectacular, filled with passing attempts, some passing moved and a few failed ones as well. One such failed moves is Kvyat who attempted to go round the outside of Perez in turn 8. While the attempt was admirable, Perez didn't back off out of the turn, causing him to bump into the Toro Rosso.

On lap 13 Hamilton pulls off an impressive move in the hairpin, even though it involved taking off a minor part of Kimi Raikkonen's front wing. Hamilton took the inside of the turn under braking. Raikkonen at the same time was in the middle of the track as he himself tried to overtake Ricciardo. All passing worked, so that Hamilton came out of the turn ahead of Raikkonen and Ricciardo.

Two laps later, Raikkonen was again sandwished in a similar fashion, now between Vettel and Alonso, both having already pitted to change from super soft to soft tyres, whereas Raikkonen still runs on his initial set of primes, similar to Hamilton who is 6 seconds ahead.

On lap 17, positions are ROS HAM BOT VET ALO RAI HUL MAL SUT BUT MAG GRO RIC BIA VER PER KVY GUT CHI KOB and ERI. With second placed man Bottas clearly faster with younger tyres than Hamilton, the Briton doesn't put up a fight and easily lets Bottas pass by. Hamilton was earlier told by his engineer that the position at the time was not important, rather he needed to make sure his tyres could last the scheduled distance.

On lap 21, Raikkonen pits and changes from primes to options.

On lap 26 Hamilton is asked to switch to "menu position magic 1", following which Hamilton replies "I've never heard of that switch". One lap later the Briton pits from third, taking on another set of primes to rejoin in 8th place.

Few moments later Grosjean is out of the race after having tried a number of power unit options via his steering wheel.

On lap 30, right after setting the fastest lap on his new prime tyres, Hamilton gets a closed door in his face by Jenson Button, ending up with the removal of his left front wing endplate as Button put his front right tyre against it. Two laps later Hamilton makes a definite pass and doesn't let the opportunity pass by to wave his have to show his anger.

On lap 36, Alonso passes Vettel for 5th as the Spaniard pitted one lap earlier and profited from the undercut. Alonso went on to set the fastest lap in 1:21.212. Two laps later, Alonso also gets past Hulkenberg into 4th with Vettel following through and still hanging on with the Spanish Ferrari driver.

On lap 42 Rosberg pits for another set of primes and rejoins still in the lead, ahead of Hamilton. The latter pits the next lap after saying his front left tyre was "not going to last". He gets fitted with option tyres and is told he'll have to manage them to last until the end of the race, equalling 23 laps. The team have also opted not to change the front wing and instead set the front wing to maximum downforce.

4 laps later Kvyat is done racing for the day after his Toro Rosso goes up in flames. The Russian parked his car in the run-off of the hairpin and clearly looks malcontent by the failure.

At about the same time Vettel pitted to change for primes, rejoining in 7th place.

On lap 50 Sutil goes out spectacularly by spinning on the exit of the final turn. He managed to spin his car again to point it in the right direction, but at that point the German is told it's better to retire due to an issue with the car. Yellow flags are out and the car is left on the straight for more than 5 minutes before any marshall goes out on track to push it away.

With the obvious threat of a safety car, Lewis Hamilton dove into the pitlane to change to another set of options. He rejoined the race 2 seconds ahead of Vettel and around 8 behind Alonso.

On lap 55 Raikkonen pits for one last time, followed by Alonso to change to options. Raikkonen rejoins in 12th place, Alonso in 7th, closely behind Button and Ricciardo. Button proved an easy par for both men, but it took Alonso until lap 63 to get past Ricciardo following several close and tense moves between the two.

Hamilton meanwhile has closed the gap to Bottas, but finds the Finn a harder nut to crack. In fact, Bottas is told he can push a bit harder with just 3 laps left and the tyres seemingly in good condition. Hamilton's options on the other hand look to be worn out, especially the front left. In the end, it didn't prove possible to get past, allowing the Finn to take his third consecutive podium finish, here in between the Mercedes cars.