German Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton celebrates win by handing out free ice cream to his fans

LEWIS HAMILTON opened up a sweet 19-point lead in the championship — and celebrated by chucking free ice creams to his fans.

After all, he had his track rivals licked after just one lap of the German Grand Prix.

For the Brit’s cruise to a FOURTH successive  win — and sixth in seven races — was so comfortable that he actually turned his engine down on just the SECOND  lap.

After grabbing the lead at the first Cornetto, sorry corner, from bitter title rival Nico Rosberg, Hamilton remained ice-cool to triumph on the German’s home soil.

Hamilton, 31, can now jet off on his summer holiday following a 62-point swing in the Formula One title race, which now makes him favourite for a fourth world crown.

And the reigning champ revealed: “I turned my engine down pretty much from the second lap.

“When my engineer said, ‘Hammertime’ I was able to switch it back on and eke out the gap.

“In the end, I was just trying to make my engine go as far as possible because you just don’t know when it’s going to go.”

Hamilton did something similar at Silverstone, where he ran at half speed for the last 15 laps to prolong the life of his engines, knowing he is due a hefty grid penalty in either Belgium or Italy for taking new power units.

But the turnaround in the drivers’ championship has been incredible, considering Rosberg won the first four races for a 43-point lead after May’s Spanish Grand Prix.  Hamilton grinned: “I didn’t know that I was 19 points ahead — that’s crazy!

“I was 43 points behind and now it’s swung the other way. I’m very happy. There’s better still to come.”

Incidentally, Hamilton’s best run of form came at the end of 2014 when he went from 29 points down to 67 ahead.

That was a swing of 96 points, and he ended up winning the title.

Hamilton’s sensational form is contrasted by his Mercedes team-mate Rosberg’s astonishing struggles.

The German made yet another poor start here and simply never recovered. To add insult to injury, he was slapped with a five-second time penalty for forcing Max Verstappen off the track.

Then his Merc team, who spend around £300million a year on their car, compounded his punishment by making him stop for eight seconds because their £20 stopwatch broke.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was left red-faced as he was forced to explain the clanger in front of the company’s big-wigs.

Wolff fumed: “The damn thing failed and did not function like it should have done.

“We relied on the stopwatch and it let us down.”

The delay deflated Rosberg’s hopes of a place on the podium and he had to settle for fourth place behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Verstappen.

The double Red Bull podium finish moves the Milton Keynes-based team ahead of Ferrari in the team championship race, as Sebastian Vettel finished fifth and Kimi Raikkonen sixth.

Meanwhile, Brit Jenson Button was eighth ahead of his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso, who ended up in 12th.