Nico Rosberg endured a difficult day at Hockenheim as a penalty dropped him to a fourth place finish.
The German was unable to capitalise on his emphatic pole position, losing the lead to his teammate and title rival Lewis Hamilton at the start. Rosberg’s poor launch also allowed the Red Bull duo to slot into second and third.
“The start, I just don’t know,” Rosberg stated when speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the conclusion of the race. “I got a lot of wheel spin and don’t know what happened. None of it was good.”
During his fight-back, an ambitious move from Rosberg saw him force Max Verstappen off the track at Turn 6. The stewards controversially handed him a five-second penalty for his part in the clash.
“I thought it was a good battle and that’s it. I was very surprised I got a penalty and I didn’t agree with it. It’s just one more of those things, some days it goes completely wrong and sometimes it comes together.”
In the closing stages, the Mercedes driver, on the soft compound tyres, was unable to reel in the Red Bull pair, who finished on the supersoft rubber.
“I was ahead of them [Red Bulls] before the penalty. It’s the penalty that cost me dearly definitely.”
With Hamilton claiming his sixth win in seven races, Rosberg enters the summer break 19 points adrift of his title rival.
After failing to convert another strong Friday and Saturday showing into maximum points on Sunday, Rosberg could be forgiven for feeling a touch deflated when sitting on his deckchair this August.
