Rosberg rocks Hockenheim to win German GP for Mercedes

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HOCKENHEIM, GERMANY – Nico Rosberg has capped off an incredible two-week period in his life by winning the German Grand Prix, becoming the first driver to win for Mercedes in Germany since Juan Manuel Fangio in 1954.

However, the star of the race was undoubtedly Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton, who charged from 20th on the grid to finish the race in third place behind Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, thus minimizing the points advantage for Rosberg in the championship battle.

Bottas continued his streak of podiums in second place, and somehow managed to fend off Hamilton in the final few stages of the race. Sebastian Vettel finished an excellent fourth for Red Bull, with Fernando Alonso finishing as the lead Ferrari in fifth place.

The start saw Rosberg make a good getaway from pole position to stay ahead of Bottas, but the safety car was immediately deployed when Felipe Massa was rolled by McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen. Thankfully, the Brazilian landed the right way up and was able to walk away from the crash, whilst Magnussen was able to continue in the race. Daniel Ricciardo had lost ten positions as he tried to avoid the incident, and Hamilton made a fair start to pick up three places off the line.

The racing resumed on lap three once the wreckage had been cleared, and Rosberg set about opening up a gap to the rest of the field. Hamilton continued to charge through the field, making light work of Max Chilton and Pastor Maldonado. He soon found a way past Adrian Sutil, albeit with a gentle nudge on his sidepod at the hairpin, and was soon on the cusp of the top ten.

Ricciardo and Hamilton began to scythe through the order together, pulling off some great overtakes. Both passed Kimi Raikkonen in fashion to move into the top ten, but all the while, Rosberg was extending his lead at the front lap by lap. In the battle to make the podium, Sebastian Vettel tussled with Fernando Alonso through the traffic, producing some incredible wheel-to-wheel racing.

When Rosberg made his first stop, he came out still in the lead ahead of Hamilton, who was yet to pit after starting on the prime tire. Bottas ran third – net second – after changing to the prime tire. Four laps into his second stint, the Finn made light work of the Mercedes driver. Hamilton duly pitted when Vettel and Alonso began to close, and emerged from the pits in eighth place on another set of primes.

The Briton soon set about continuing his charge, passing Ricciardo for seventh, but was lucky to only lose a front endplate when he made contact with Jenson Button at the hairpin. Hamilton was a bit closer for his second attempt, and made light work of his former teammate to take sixth, before passing Hulkenberg for P5 one lap later.

In the battle ahead, Vettel and Alonso continued to scrap for position through the pit stops, with the Spaniard finally finding a way past the Red Bull after his second pit stop. Sebastian would not let the Ferrari go though, as he looked to secure just his third podium finish of the season.

Rosberg came in for his second stop on lap 42, and emerged in the lead ahead of Hamilton. The Briton pitted just one lap later, fitting the super-soft tires and coming back out in fifth place. Rosberg, on the prime tire, was seeing the advantage to his teammate gradually shrink as Hamilton continued to light up the timing screens with personal bests and fastest laps.

Daniil Kvyat’s race came to an early end after a fire broke out on his Toro Rosso. The Russian youngster had dropped down the order after being spun by Sergio Perez earlier on, and he was clearly frustrated to see his race go up in smoke with 20 laps remaining.

Hamilton put his super-softs to good use, catching Alonso and passing him for third place after Vettel pitted for primes to release him into fourth. Bottas was next up on his hit list, but he pitted for another set of options in anticipation of a safety car after Adrian Sutil spun his Sauber on the main straight. However, the marshals were able to recover it under double yellow flags.

Having pitted, Hamilton had to pass Alonso for a second time, and was catching at a considerable rate of knots. The Spaniard soon lost out to his former teammate once again, and took to the pits with ten laps to go for a set of super-soft tires. He came out in seventh place, and set about recovering some positions from the longer runners ahead. His battle with Daniel Ricciardo was particularly enthralling, but he could not quite find the pace to catch Vettel for fourth.

Hamilton found himself narrowly trailing Valtteri Bottas in the dying stages of the race, and despite the Finn’s tires being 40 laps old, he was still finding the pace to stay ahead. Ultimately, the Finn came home in second, securing his third consecutive podium finish. Hamilton’s tires had simply been pushed too much come the end, but in third place, he has limited the damage of Rosberg’s win.

With this victory, Rosberg has extended his lead at the top of the drivers’ championship to 14 points. In the last two weeks, he has got married, seen Germany win the FIFA World Cup, signed a new long-term contract with Mercedes, and now – for the first time – he has won the German Grand Prix.

Now, the focus for Rosberg will be to maintain his lead heading into the summer break, with next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix being the last until the end of August. At the halfway stage of the season though, he has an important lead over his teammate in the drivers’ championship.

IndyCar results, points after Detroit Grand Prix

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DETROIT — Alex Palou topped the results of an NTT IndyCar Series race for the second time this season, extending his championship points lead with his victory in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who also won the GMR Grand Prix (and the Indy 500 pole position) last month, holds a 51-point lead over teammate Marcus Ericsson (ninth at Detroit) through seven of 17 races this season.

Ganassi, which placed all four of its drivers in the top 10 at Detroit, has three of the top four in the championship standings with Scott Dixon ranked fourth after a fourth at Detroit.

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Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden is third in the standings after taking a 10th at Detroit. Pato O’Ward slipped to fifth in the points after crashing and finishing 26th

Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:


RESULTS

Click here for the official box score from the 100-lap race on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile street course in downtown Detroit.

Lap leader summary

Full lap chart

Best section times

Full section data

Event summary

Pit stop summary

Here is the finishing order in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 100, Running
2. (7) Will Power, Chevrolet, 100, Running
3. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 100, Running
4. (4) Scott Dixon, Honda, 100, Running
5. (13) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 100, Running
6. (12) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 100, Running
7. (2) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 100, Running
8. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 100, Running
9. (6) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 100, Running
10. (5) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 100, Running
11. (24) Colton Herta, Honda, 100, Running
12. (17) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 100, Running
13. (8) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100, Running
14. (20) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 100, Running
15. (15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 100, Running
16. (18) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 100, Running
17. (25) Jack Harvey, Honda, 100, Running
18. (14) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 100, Running
19. (23) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 100, Running
20. (19) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 97, Running
21. (22) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 97, Running
22. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 97, Running
23. (21) David Malukas, Honda, 85, Contact
24. (3) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 80, Contact
25. (27) Graham Rahal, Honda, 50, Contact
26. (10) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 41, Contact
27. (16) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1, Contact

Winner’s average speed: 80.922 mph; Time of Race: 02:01:58.1171; Margin of victory: 1.1843 seconds; Cautions: 7 for 32 laps; Lead changes: 10 among seven drivers. Lap Leaders: Palou 1-28; Power 29-33; O’Ward 34; Palou 35-55; Power 56-64; Palou 65; Rossi 66; Newgarden 67-68; Kirkwood 69; Ericsson 70-76; Palou 77-100.


POINTS

Click here for the points tally in the race.

Here are the points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:

Drivers

Entrants

Engine manufacturers

Pit stop performance

Top 10 in points: Palou 273, Ericsson 222, Newgarden 203, Dixon 194, O’Ward 191, Rossi 176, McLaughlin 175, Power 172, Herta 149, Rosenqvist 148.

Rest of the standings: Grosjean 145, Kirkwood 142, Lundgaard 136, Ilott 116, VeeKay 108, Ferrucci 105, Armstrong 101, Rahal 99, Malukas 91, Daly 88, DeFrancesco 81, Castroneves 80, Harvey 78, Canapino 77, Pagenaud 72, Pedersen 61, Robb 55, Takuma Sato 37, Ed Carpenter 27, Ryan Hunter-Reay 20, Tony Kanaan 18, Marco Andretti 13, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5.

Next race: IndyCar will head to Road America for the Sonsio Grand Prix, which will take place June 18 with coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.