Rosberg wins but Hamilton deliversposted in F120 | 07 | 2014

NICO ROSBERG MAY have won his home German Grand Prix and extended his lead in the world championship, but the happiest man on the podium was definitely his Mercedes team-mate, Lewis Hamilton.

The 2008 world champ, after crashing out heavily in qualifying when his car suffered brake disc failure, stormed through from 20th on the grid to finish third, behind the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton's route to the podium, which means he heads to Budapest this weekend trailing Rosberg by just 14 points, was a rollercoaster which at times appeared to mirror dodgems and stock car racing.

And each time the contact occurred, it happened at the Turn 4 hairpin as he raced his way through the pack.

First he clattered Adrian Sutil's Sauber and Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari, on both occasions miraculously getting away without damaging his car.

But after a late dive up the inside of Jenson Button's McLaren, his Mercedes suffered slight damage to his front wing which, ultimately, caused him to miss out on second place.

Related: Hamilton storms to British Grand Prix win

The change in downforce at the front of the car played havoc with his front left tyres and it compromised his second stint on Pirelli's soft tyre. As a result, Mercedes had to bring its charger in earlier than planned for his second of three pitstops.

Despite being forced to make the extra stop, Hamilton came within 1.7secs of getting passed Bottas, who again drove a mature and impressive race to claim his third consecutive podium.

The race though had again started chaotically, with Felipe Massa — the innocent victim a fortnight ago at Silverstone — again falling victim. His Williams was tipped into a barrel roll by the fast-starting McLaren of Kevin Magnussen at the first corner. The incident immediately brought out the safety car.

Behind the top three, Sebastian Vettel brought his Red Bull home fourth after another battle with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.

The Spaniard, who tried to make a two-stop strategy work, eventually had to settle for fifth after fighting back having been forced to make late third stop and muscling his way past Button and the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

While the Aussie finished sixth, the top 10 was completed by Nico Hulkenberg's Force India — who capitalised on eighth-placed Button being forced to make a late third tyre stop — Magnussen and the Force India of Sergio Perez.

DRIVERS' QUOTES:

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes:

"Wow, what a great day after so many great events for me this week! I came here hoping for a win and it worked out perfectly. My Silver Arrow was so dominant, thanks to the team for this fantastic car. Before the race I was worried that without the FRIC system the gap in the race would be smaller. But we were again the quickest out there.

"I did a two stop strategy, which was difficult to manage at the end of the stints as the tyres were almost gone. I'm so happy for Mercedes; it was the first win for many many years in Germany. Thanks for the support here at Hockenheim, the fans were amazing to me. Also at the start I saw a Mexican wave, which was great. Now I look forward to Hungary."

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes:

"First of all, congratulations to Nico on winning his home race; it's a special feeling and I am very proud that we could put both cars on the podium for Mercedes-Benz in Germany and represent for all the Mercedes employees and fans here this weekend. From a personal point of view, I can't be too ecstatic about the race because it has been a tough weekend for me and I've ultimately lost more points to Nico in the championship battle. But I'm grateful that I could limit the damage with a podium finish.

"When you are sitting on the grid basically in last place, with no other cars in your mirrors, it's very hard to imagine that you could be standing up there two hours later. I'm so grateful to the team for this car, I really take my hat off to them for building a machine that can put in that kind of performance. To be honest, it was a pretty straightforward race for me, although I had some trouble following what was going on and where I was running at times.

"I had a nice battle with Kimi early on, when I was lucky not to damage the front wing, then the incident with Jenson was just unfortunate. He has been such a gentleman this year and not given me too much trouble getting past but it was just a misunderstanding today. I wasn't close enough to try and pass but I was on the inside line in the corner. It looked like he had gone wide, then he cut back across the corner and perhaps he didn't see me there.

" I lost quite a bit of downforce with the damage and it made it very hard to look after the front left tyre. I had a lot of understeer and the tyre was degrading fast, which is the reason why we converted from a two-stop strategy to three. Then the team called me in early on the first set of option tyres because we expected a Safety Car to come out - and I was surprised that there wasn't one, to be honest I caught Valtteri pretty fast in the final laps but he just had too much straightline speed to get past.

"I'm doing absolutely everything I can to get back on level terms with Nico in the title battle: I can't focus more or work harder than I am doing right now. This championship is proving a big challenge for me but that's how I love it - and I wouldn't have it any other way."

Valtteri Bottas, Williams:

"I think today was the maximum result. We did everything perfectly and managed to keep Lewis behind in the end which got us an extra few points but in the future, we are definitely aiming for more and this is not the maximum.

"I feel really lucky to be part of this. Last year we could not have expected to be three times in a row on the podium but we are now.

"This is the package we have and it's all down to hard work and we need to always keep aiming for more.

"Of course, it feels really good to be on the podium for a third time in a row, but I think we're aiming for more than that now."

Fernando Alonso, Ferrari:

"Fifth place was absolutely the maximum today. I'm very pleased. Austria (where he also finished fifth) was probably the best race so far this season for me, now it's probably this one because it was quite complex to manage the start, the fuel, the tyres, the changes in strategy, and the battles.

"It was a very complex race to understand and to execute. We more or less planned to do two stops at the beginning, but in the middle of the race I was asking how the tyres were for everyone else because I really felt like we were struggling to go for two stops, so we switched to three.

"I'm happy with all the decisions. For the last stint I was saving fuel but I was battling with Ricciardo so I had to decide to give up the position and cross the line or fight with Ricciardo and be on the limit to cross the line.

"I decided to fight with Ricciardo to be in the position and then try to manage the fuel as well as I could.

"On the last lap I had to massively save fuel — I was in eighth gear all lap and was lucky the race wasn't 100m longer."

Jenson Button, McLaren:

"I'm baffled by the incident with Lewis (Hamilton). Why would we let anyone through? I don't know if you've noticed but a lot of drivers do that line to get a good exit from the corner.

"I think the problem with Lewis is he expected me to let him past. I don't think I'm the only person he drove into today. It's strange, when the car's so much quicker you'd think he wouldn't get into so many fights, but there you go.

"He drove into my rear wheel, that's all I've got to say and I don't know much else about it.

"I'm out there doing my race. It would make it boring if we all let him past when he was coming through the field."

F1 German Grand Prix, Hockenheim — Result:

1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1h33m42.914s;

2. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +20.789s;

3. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +22.530s;

4. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault +44.014s;

5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +52.467s;

6. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault +52.549s;

7. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +1m04.178s;

8. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +1m24.711s;

9. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes -1 lap;

10. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes -1 lap;

11. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari -1 lap;

12. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault -1 lap;

13. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault -1 lap;

14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari -1 lap;

15. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari -1 lap;

16. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault -2 laps;

17. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari -2 laps;

18. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault -2 laps.

Retirements

Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 47 laps

Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 44 laps

Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 26 laps

Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 0 laps

Championship Standings:

Drivers':

1. Nico Rosberg 190

2. Lewis Hamilton 176

3. Daniel Ricciardo 106

4. Fernando Alonso 97

5. Valtteri Bottas 91

6. Sebastian Vettel 82

7. Nico Hülkenberg 69

8. Jenson Button 59

9. Kevin Magnussen 37

10. Felipe Massa 30

11. Sergio Pérez 29

12. Kimi Räikkönen 19

13. Jean-Éric Vergne 9

14. Romain Grosjean 8

15. Daniil Kvyat 6

16. Jules Bianchi 2

Constructors':

1. Mercedes 366

2. Red Bull-Renault 188

3. Williams-Mercedes 121

4. Ferrari 116

5. Force India-Mercedes 98

6. McLaren-Mercedes 96

7. Toro Rosso-Renault 15

8. Lotus-Renault 8

9. Marussia-Ferrari 2

10. Sauber-Ferrari 0

11. Caterham-Renault 0

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Jim McGill