The be talking point after the German Grand Prix was of course Nico Rosberg’s five second penalty for forcing Max Verstappen off of the track at the hairpin. This was just one of the things that went wrong for him during the race, as he hands the race victory to Lewis Hamilton.
Rosberg lost the race at the start, due to some wheel spin when he shifted up into third gear. This allowed his teammate and both Red Bull drivers to overtake him in the first corner. Ferrari wasn’t able to sneak by as well, but they did offer a bit of a challenge on the first lap.
After the pit stops, Rosberg found himself behind Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. It was vital for him to get by the young driver, in order to secure a position on the podium. Going into the hairpin, Rosberg took a chance to dive into the inside. The German travelled straight into the corner and then went into a full steering lock part way into the corner, after having input very little steering. This left Verstappen no room on the outside, forcing him to go off of the track.
The stewards immediately placed Rosberg under investigation and handed him a five second penalty shortly after. This proved to be bad for Rosberg, as his team forced him to serve an eight second penalty because of a timing error when the team was timing the five stop penalty.
There are divided views on whether Rosberg actually deserved a penalty. Many have defended Rosberg, saying that he was in full lock and hadn’t turned into the corner because that would have caused him to lock the tyres and would have prevented him from making the corner.
Nevertheless, with Hamilton taking victory and Rosberg missing out on a podium position, Hamilton has extended his new World Drivers’ Championship lead to 19 points over his teammate.
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