Lewis Hamilton drove to a magnificent victory today in Hockenheim despite the safety car trying to mar his dominant progress. After leaving everyone in his wake he quickly notched up a 12s lead before the arrival of the safety car as a result of a high speed crash from Timo Glock wiped that deficit out. 

McLaren opted not to pit Hamilton during the caution period, a decision that so nearly back fired on them but resulted in a thrilling climax to the race. Lewis rejoined the pack after his later fuel stop in fifth but still took the chequered flag after picking off both Massa and Piquet with superb confidence and precision. 

Piquet, who started the race in seventeenth, played the safety car period perfectly to claim a brilliant second place to bolster his disappointing rookie season with the Renault team. 

Ferrari had no answer for the dominant pace of Hamilton’s McLaren from the very beginning of the race and couldn’t even monopolise on his badly timesd pit stop. Massa came in third and Raikkonen never did seem to take control of his F2008, finishing in sixth. 

From the start it didn’t appear to be Massa’s day. His attempt to take first from Hamilton off the start line was fruitless and the unusually early braking from Kovalainen was the only thing preventing Massa from dropping even further down the grid. 

Kovalainen’s slow approach to the corner caused confusion for the cars behind him. Alonso ran wide on the exit, hampering Trulli’s progress, allowing the BMW of Robert Kubica to get past them all and take fourth. 

Alonso did try to make a move on Trulli into the first corner but his former team mate held his nerve on the outside and the Renault could not make the move stick. 

This allowed Raikkonen to gain momentum from the disjointed Spaniard and passed the former world champion while exiting turn two. 

Hamilton, in the meantime, was charging away at the front. Such was his phenomenal pace that by the time he came in for his first pit-stop on lap 18 he had almost 10 seconds in hand. With more fuel and a fresh set of hard tyres the McLaren team calmly sent the Brit on his way. 

Two laps later Massa pitted for the softer tyres and for slightly less fuel so, with a faster pit stop and with Trulli now in front of Hamilton, delaying the McLaren’s charge the Brazilian had eaten one and a half seconds out of Hamilton’s pace. 

Instead of looking like a threat though, Massa seemed to be in danger of relinquishing his position to an ever-charging Kovalainen. 

But with Timo Glock having a right-rear suspension failure on lap 36 while in eighth place, resulting in him pitching across the track and backwards in to the concentrate pit-wall, the safety car was deployed and any advantages on track were wiped out. 

The caution period came just within the fuel window for the two-stopping cars so most of them took the opportunity to dive in to the pits. All the front-runners went in with the exception of Hamilton as the McLaren team took the risky decision to keep him out. 

Reasons behind this decision were that such was the speed of the McLaren that the team felt Hamilton would be able to re-establish his lead before his final stop. But the worry over using the soft tyres for such a long final stint was probably the main concern. 

The re-start saw Hamilton line up with Heidfeld behind him, seemingly with the same game plan as he also had not been with everyone else for a pit-stop, then Piquet in third and Massa taking up fourth position. But Hamilton’s task proved untenable and, with only thirteen seconds in hand he had to dive back in to the pits on lap fifty. He rejoined the race in fifth position, behind his team mate and with plenty of work to do. 

After making light work of Kovalainen Hamilton took off after Massa and Piquet who was now race leader after Heidfeld finally made his final pit-stop. Picking off their time advantage at a lap a second Lewis soon had Massa in his sights. On lap fifty six Hamilton made his move on the run down to the hairpin. The Ferrari initially had the inside-line covered but then seemed to hand over the opportunity Lewis was looking for as they approached the braking zone. The McLaren went through. 

Four laps later Hamilton had taken Piquet’s first place in a similar move on the same hairpin. The Ferrari of Massa could do nothing about the rookie’s Renault who hung on in there to drive to a fantastic second place finish. 

Vettel showed nerves of steel to withstand constant tussels with the mid-field pack to come in eighth, just behind Kubica. Raikkonen had a very poor race to finish where he had started, in sixth. The second McLaren of Kovalainen was in front of him and a clever strategy from BMW saw Heidfeld take fourth.  

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes