Copyright Reuters/Wolfgang Rattay

First, a safety car that saw his lead cut to nothing didn't stop him, then a fumbled pit stop strategy did nothing to hinder his clinical progress up the field either. The deserving winner of the German GP was none other than Lewis Hamilton, who has been dominating the Hockenheim circuit all weekend long with his strong performance.

The start of the race saw Hamilton took the lead comfortably, while Robert Kubica made a great start and moved from 7th position to 4th within the first lap, knocking Kimi Räikkönen, Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli, all whom have started ahead of the Polish driver behind him. Felipe Massa had to fend off attacks from Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen for the 2nd position, but the Brazilian held on.

The lead that Hamilton has on the rest of the field began widening to a 16-second lead before Timo Glock's Toyota had a suspension failure. The German driver had a massive backward crash into the pitwall and the car's shattered debris rained onto the field as Glock's car was thrown to the other side of the road. He emerged from the very damaged car with some help from the medical team but otherwise appeared fine except for some bruises on his back.

Copyright AP Photos/Christof Stache

The crash brought out the safety car, and Hamilton's lead was reduced to virtually nothing, with Nelson Piquet Jr in second place behind his McLaren. Most of the field had already done a pit stop earlier before the race, and with this safety car period happening slightly pass the halfway mark of the race, many of the teams were waiting for the pit lane to be open. Once it was, majority of the drivers went into the pitlane, with Kimi Räikkönen having to park his Ferrari behind that of Felipe Massa's as he waited for the Brazilian driver to finish his pit stop.

McLaren however, did not bring in the British driver Hamilton. The team looked to be gambling on their strategy again but it seemed as if they had misjudged the call instead.

"We expected the Safety Car to come in early, and knew would be 1.5 seconds quicker when it came in," Ron Dennis told ITV1.

"You can't get it right all the time. We thought the race could have started three laps earlier."

That led to Hamilton having to pit when the rest of the field have already done theirs and when he rejoined the race, he was behind teammate Kovalainen, Massa and race leader Piquet Jr whom everyone was expecting to do his 2nd pit stop later.

Having lost his lead, Hamilton then charged down the field, overtaking Kovalainen somewhat easily, then moved in on Felipe Massa who put up a good fight and the two almost clashed twice at 2 turns. Hamilton then pulled away and it wasn't long before the Renault of Piquet Jr surrendered to the superior McLaren of Hamilton.

Still, it was an amazing feat by the young rookie Brazilian Piquet Jr who has been under heavy scrutiny for his dismaying performance so far this season. Now a brilliant pit stop strategy planned by Renault, as well as what seemed to be the most focused drive ever done by Piquet Jr might have some positive impact for his F1 career.

 Ferrari would have yet another disappointing weekend and they certainly have to look at what is missing in the development of their cars. In the recent races, the race pace of Ferrari was way off from that of McLaren and that is certainly worrying for the Italian team as we begin the second half of the season. Hamilton would be riding high in confidence with his second consecutive win in 2 important places for his team (British GP - homeground of McLaren and himself, German GP - homeground of Mercedes). 

Next up we will have the Hungarian GP at Budapest. Lewis Hamilton won there last year, and he would be looking to extending his championship lead. Ferrari would need to find some development to their cars - and fast, before they not only lose the Drivers' Championship, but also the Constructor's Championship to the McLaren team.

Results
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:31:20.847
02 N. Piquet Jr Renault + 5.586
03 F. Massa Ferrari + 9.339
04 N. Heidfeld BMW + 9.825
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 12.411
06 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 14.483
07 R. Kubica BMW + 22.603
08 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso + 33.282
09 J. Trulli Toyota + 37.199
10 N. Rosberg Williams + 37.658
11 F. Alonso Renault + 38.625
12 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 39.111
13 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 54.971
14 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 59.093
15 K. Nakajima Williams + 1:00.003
16 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 1:09.488
17 J. Button Honda + 1 laps
Did not finish
18 R. Barrichello Honda + 16 laps
19 M. Webber Red Bull + 37 laps
20 T. Glock Toyota + 42 laps 
Times from PlanetF1.com

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

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