Lewis Hamilton made a major statement in the race for the Formula One world title in Germany on Sunday, as he took victory and a subsequent 19-point lead over team-mate Nico Rosberg ahead of the summer break.For the second consecutive week, the world champion passed his fellow Mercedes driver at the start, roaring past him from second place and into the opening corner in the lead.Rosberg, who picked up a five-second penalty for an illegal overtake, could only finish fourth behind the Red Bull duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, who took second and third, respectively.Having lost the race on the start in Hungary last weekend, Rosberg had a chance to show hed learned from his mistakes with a better getaway in front of his home crowd. But the German crawled away from pole position, with Hamilton and the Red Bull duo surging past him.Per Fake Charlie Whiting, it really was a shocker of a start from the German, who was battling to keep fourth spot:In the end, Rosberg did well to preserve his position from a pair of pursuing Ferraris. Eventually he settled into a rhythm and found some pace, but despite a sustained effort, he was unable to round Ricciardo into third.It was far from ideal for the German, as Hamilton and Verstappen disappeared down the road. It meant his engineers had to switch to plan B as the drivers came in for the first round of pitstops.As noted by the Mercedes Twitter feed, their strategy with Hamilton and the one employed by Red Bulls Verstappen differed in the early stages:It meant brief stints for Verstappen and Rosberg on the three-stop strategy, with Ricciardo seemingly on a two-stop run with Hamilton. It was Rosberg who came in for a second time first, seeking to undercut Verstappen, and while he was unable to fully execute that strategy, a very aggressive move saw Rosberg pass the teenager on his out-lap. The Mercedes man hung his car on the apex of the Turn 6 hairpin, leaving the Dutchman with no choice but to go off the track.The youngster expressed his dissatisfaction at the move and quickly it was revealed that the overtake was under investigation. Eventually, Rosberg got a five-second penalty for his troubles; needless to say, he wasnt happy, per F1 on NBC Sports:Meanwhile, Ricciardo was struggling on the two-stop strategy, and it was quickly abandoned. When the Aussie resumed in fourth after this alteration, he quickly leapfrogged his team-mate on the fresher compound and set about chasing Rosberg down.Before they could get involved in a battle, the German was brought in again to serve his penalty and with that, his chances of a podium had disappeared. Indeed, the two Red Bull men were left to battle it out for the remaining spots on the rostrum in the latter stages.As noted by Grand Prix Times, even the time penalty wasnt straightforward for Rosberg, capping off a miserable afternoon for him:Ricciardo found a blistering pace after his final pitstop, quickly pulling away from his team-mate and beginning to chop the deficit down to Hamilton at the front of the race.The Briton was always in control, though, and even with some light rain falling late on, was able to preserve a significant gap to the Red Bull before taking the chequered flag.James Gheerbrant of the Times summed up just how quickly the title picture has changed in recent weeks:"What a race, what a fantastic start," said Hamilton afterwards, per BBC Sport. "It wasjust about keeping it cool. This is a very proud position to be in and thank you to the team, who did a fantastic job.I didn't make any mistakes so in my heart I'm happy with what I did. Yesterday was not perfect but you learn from those things."As we can see here, Hamilton was delighted afterwards:Debate has raged over whether or not Rosberg has the ruthlessness in crucial moments to win the world title; the last two races have added credence to those who doubt his championship credentials. He faces a huge challenge if hes to overhaul the deficit when the action resumes at Spa in late August.One man who does have that edge is Hamilton, who again produced his absolute best when it mattered and was able to manage a position of relative comfort up front. The champion is driving superbly at the moment and is well on course to clinch his fourth world title.
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