German grand prix

21st July 2008

Lewis Hamilton charged to the top of the title table with a dominant win at Hockenheim, Germany. The McLaren ace shrugged off a safety car period and a pit stop error by his team to finish ahead of Renault’s Nelson Piquet and Felipe Massa’s Ferrari.

Leading from Pole, the Brit built an 11 second lead before Toyota’s Timo Glock crashed heavily, bringing out the safety car. While other teams used the opportunity to bring their cars in for fuel and fresh tyres, McLaren decided leave Hamilton out on track. When he finally stopped on lap 50 he dropped to fifth, but fought back to the front with breathtaking displays of overtaking, passing both Piquet and Massa within a handful of laps.

Although the Brazilian finished on the podium it was small consolation for Ferrari’s lacklustre performance. The Italian team couldn’t match the pace of Hamilton, with Kimi Raikkonen only managing a sixth place finish.

There was better fortune for Renault, with Piquet coming home in second after opting for a one-stop strategy. The young Brazilian has suffered a disappointing season so far, but put this behind him with a confident and mature drive.

There was less luck for his teammate Fernando Alonso. The two-time world champion had a scrappy event, eventually finishing eleventh after dropping two places following a failed overtaking move on Sebastian Vettel’s Toro Rosso.

Outside Hamilton’s success, the British drivers had a grand prix to forget. Red Bull’s David Coulthard crossed the line in thirteenth, behind both of the Toro Rossos, while Jenson Button placed dead last in his underperforming Honda.

But none of this could distract from the performance of Lewis Hamilton. Speaking after the race he said: “Yeah, overall it’s been a very good weekend. I think it has been our best weekend up until now. I think we have just been very strong throughout the weekend and it’s just been a great job by the team. We have got a lot of work to do for the rest of the season but if we can continue with this momentum we have got we are looking very good”.

Next up in is the Hungarian grand prix on 3 August, where Lewis will aim to increase his title lead at a circuit he won at last year.