German Grand Prix: Mercedes give Lewis Hamilton reason to smile as Red Bull point fingers at 'naughty' Nico Rosberg

Rosberg was given a five-second time penalty for pushing Max Verstappen off the track to help Hamilton take a 19-point lead into the winter break

Lewis Hamilton says his Mercedes mechanics inspired him to recover from a poor start to the 2016 Formula 1 season (Getty)

Lewis Hamilton drew inspiration from his Mercedes mechanics to grit his teeth and remain focused during his difficult start to the 2016 season, with his reward for keeping the faith a fourth consecutive grand prix victory after a dominant performance at Hockenheim.

Three-time world champion Hamilton heads into the summer break with a 19-point lead over his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, having been the beneficiary of a 62-point swing since May’s Spanish Grand Prix when he trailed the German by an alarming 43 points.

Since that fateful race in Barcelona where the pair took each other out at the fourth corner of the opening lap, Hamilton has won six out of seven races and has placed himself in a perfect position to push towards a third consecutive Drivers’ Championship through the second half of the season.

"It is kind of crazy that it's gone by so quickly," Hamilton said after winning the German Grand Prix having led all 67 laps.

"It feels like only a couple weeks ago we were in Barcelona and I was 43 points behind thinking, 'jeez, I might come away 50 points behind'.

"I was finding it hard to find a way through the woods, through the trees, having to navigate through that, not giving up, to keep going and keep believing the light is beyond the bushes.

"My mechanics have all stayed super focussed which has enabled me to do the same. They have shown no signs of giving up and that's inspired me to do the same, and this result shows to never give up. So, I really owe it to them. This is the best way to go on holiday."

Rosberg though is left to reflect on what has gone wrong after a dominant start to the campaign. Having lost out to Hamilton for the past two seasons in the same car, 31-year-old Rosberg would’ve been forgiven for losing confidence in his abilities heading into 2016, yet he reeled off four consecutive victories to build an assertive lead over Hamilton.

After a difficult run of races, Rosberg saw his afternoon fall apart from lights out in front of his home fans, as a poor start dropped him down to fourth behind the two Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen before a five-second time penalty for pushing the latter off the track at the turn six hairpin took away any chance of a podium finish.

Rosberg pleaded his innocence and disagreed with the stewards’ decision, but both Verstappen and his team boss, Christian Horner, back the penalty.

"It was racing. I was really ecstatic at the time because I came from miles behind,” Rosberg said.

"I was very happy to get the position because that would have meant second at least, and damage limitation of that sort. I was very surprised to get a penalty for it."

Verstappen heads into the turn six hairpin as Rosberg challenges Ricciardo behind (Getty)

Horner though suggested that Rosberg hadn’t done everything in his power to stop the Mercedes from running Verstappen off the track and said that he only had himself to blame, labelling his actions “a bit naughty”.

"The problem is Rosberg did a pretty bad job of it," said Horner. "If he'd have locked up all four wheels and there had been a puff of tyre smoke, maybe he'd have got away with it.

"The golden rule in a job like that is to lock your fronts up and look as if you can't stop. The problem was, it looked like he kind of stopped, and then kept going as if he was off to Cologne and that's a bit naughty."

Rosberg was hit with a five-second time penalty for forcing Verstappen off (Getty)

Verstappen, sitting alongside Hamilton after the race, drew on the defending champion’s experiences with Rosberg this season to suggest that it was the right decision to penalise Rosberg.

"He braked really late and at one point I thought he was going to run into me so I opened up and then he didn't turn in," 18-year-old Verstappen said. "He was just driving straight so I had to go off the track otherwise we would have crashed."

"That's not very handy, as Lewis knows."

Hamilton takes a 19-point advantage into the summer break (Getty)

Hamilton smirked as Verstappen drew on the Mercedes collisions this season to fight his corner (Getty)

Hamilton, a wide grin on his face, had more than one reason to smile. With Rosberg absent from the podium and dropping more points in their titanic battle, the championship leader has nearly built a race-winning advantage in the standings which should help to minimise the damage when he takes a sixth power unit for the season – likely to come at the next race at Spa-Francorchamps – that will result in a 10-place grid penalty upon the introduction of either a new turbocharger or MGU-H unit to his Mercedes.