Nico Rosberg took a comfortable victory during Sunday afternoon’s German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. The Mercedes driver distanced himself from the opening lap drama to lead from start to finish, with Valtteri Bottas taking second and team-mate Lewis Hamilton delivering a fine comeback drive for third.

As the lights went out, Rosberg turned his pole position grid slot into a sizeable gap by the first corner, putting him clear of a nasty collision between Williams driver Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen.

The bottleneck saw Massa tipped into the air by Magnussen, putting the Brazilian out on the spot and pushing the Dane down the order.

After a short Safety Car period, Rosberg mastered the race restart and quickly pulled away from Bottas, an advantage that would ultimately increase to 20 seconds by the time the chequered flag dropped.

It marked Rosberg’s fourth victory of the 2014 campaign, after Australia, Monaco and Austria.

While Rosberg and Bottas opted for two-stop plans, Hamilton – who started 20th – conducted his fight through the field on a three-stop strategy, picking off a number of rivals during a final stint on the Super Soft tyres.

Hamilton’s afternoon was not free of scares, though, the Briton making sizeable contact with Sauber’s Adrian Sutil, Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen and former McLaren team-mate Jenson Button at the hairpin.

He picked up front wing damage in his clash with Button, but it was not enough to require a change.

Hamilton went on to close in on second-placed Bottas, but third proved to be his limit, with the Williams possessing enough straight line speed to fend off an attack, even with the assistance of DRS.

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel was the next to cross the line after the podium finishers, while Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso came out on top in a monumental scrap with Daniel Ricciardo for fifth position.

Aside from Rosberg and Bottas, Force India’s Nico Hülkenberg was the only other driver inside the top 10 to conduct a two-stop race, the German extending his 100 per cent points-scoring record for the season.

McLaren’s Jenson Button took eighth, ahead of team-mate Magnussen. The Dane did well to regain his composure after clashing with Massa, an incident that required no further action from the stewards.

Sergio Pérez rounded out the points for Force India, giving the team its sixth double score of the season.

Räikkönen missed out in 11th, finishing eight seconds adrift of Pérez after a low key performance.

In addition to Massa, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat and Adrian Sutil failed to make the finish.

Grosjean’s Lotus pulled off the track shortly after losing power, Kvyat was lucky to escape unharmed after his Toro Rosso dramatically caught fire and Sutil spun and stalled his Sauber at the exit of the final corner.

In terms of the standings, Rosberg now holds a 14-point lead over Hamilton, with nine races remaining.

Results - 67 laps 

Pos Driver                Team                   Time/Gap
 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

Drivers' championship             Constructors' championship
 1. Nico Rosberg        190       1. Mercedes              366
 2. Lewis Hamilton      176       2. Red Bull-Renault      188
 3. Daniel Ricciardo    106       3. Williams-Mercedes     121
 4. Fernando Alonso     97        4. Ferrari               116
 5. Valtteri Bottas     91        5. Force India-Mercedes  98 
 6. Sebastian Vettel    82        6. McLaren-Mercedes      96 
 7. Nico Hülkenberg     69        7. Toro Rosso-Renault    15 
 8. Jenson Button       59        8. Lotus-Renault         8  
 9. Kevin Magnussen     37        9. Marussia-Ferrari      2  
10. Felipe Massa        30       10. Sauber-Ferrari        0  
11. Sergio Pérez        29       11. Caterham-Renault      0  
12. Kimi Räikkönen      19 
13. Jean-Éric Vergne    9  
14. Romain Grosjean     8  
15. Daniil Kvyat        6  
16. Jules Bianchi       2