F1's new stand-alone world championship leader Lewis Hamilton revels in a second successive dominant victory for McLaren-Mercedes in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

The plaudits have been raining down on Lewis Hamilton following a second sensational triumph in as many weeks, as he left all of his Formula 1 rivals quite literally trailing to dominate the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim this weekend.

Having stormed to pole position in qualifying, the young Briton made a perfect getaway when the lights went out to signal the start of the race around the Baden-Württemberg circuit, propelling himself into the lead from where he would quickly open up a commanding advantage over the chasing Felipe Massa in the Ferrari, regularly lapping more than a second quicker than his Brazilian rival in a truly peerless performance.

Hamilton's race took a different twist, however, following the safety car brought out for Timo Glock's accident, when McLaren-Mercedes boldly elected to roll the dice by not bringing him into the pits as the majority of his competitors did - thereby leaving him with a mountain to climb once the race was on once more, with a gap of more than 20 seconds to establish over Massa before he pitted again, knowing that his pursuer was now fuelled to the end.

Though such an ask would prove beyond him - the 23-year-old rejoining the fray in fifth position, just behind team-mate Heikki Kovalainen - in a drive perhaps reminiscent of seven-time F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher, Hamilton rapidly disposed of the sister Silver Arrow before going on to hunt down and decisively pass both Massa and surprise leader Nelsinho Piquet in the Renault, getting by his former GP2 Series title rival with seven laps to go to consummately stake his credentials to the 2008 drivers' crown.

"I nailed it this afternoon," the Stevenage-born ace asserted afterwards. "When the team told me I had to build a 23-second gap in just seven laps, I knew I had to drive over the limit - and I did - but I knew we had the best car this weekend, and felt comfortable pushing hard to make up the gap.

"In the final stint, I had to work for today's win - when the safety car came out, I questioned whether I should pit, but I trusted the team to make the best decision on strategy. It didn't quite work out, but I knew we had the pace in the car to keep pushing and want to say a big thank you to Heikki, who realised I was quicker.

"I was able to slipstream past Felipe and then thought my work was done; then I had to do it all again to get past Nelson, but I made a couple of textbook moves to get past them both.

"Everybody in this team has worked so hard to make this victory happen. We mustn't grow complacent, but must feel assured that our efforts are being rewarded. We couldn't have asked for more today."

Those thoughts were echoed by both the Woking-based outfit's team principal Ron Dennis and Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice-President Norbert Haug, the latter of whom was understandably elated after witnessing the Stuttgart manufacturer's first win on home soil since Mika Hakkinen had swept to the top step of the podium at the same track ten years earlier.

"Today's victory topped off another magnificent weekend for the McLaren-Mercedes team," enthused Dennis. "I stress the word 'team', because our win was very much a team effort.

"The deployment of the safety car presented us with a difficult decision - should we or should we not bring Lewis in for a pit-stop? We decided that, since he still had quite a lot of fuel on-board, we would leave him out until lap 50.

"We'd expected the track to be cleared of debris a little faster than it was, which would have allowed the safety car to come in a bit earlier. As a result, Lewis was unable to rejoin the race in the lead. He responded majestically, however, and scored another fabulous win."

"A sensational victory for Lewis," concurred Haug, "with some great overtaking. He was in a class of his own in the team's second consecutive home grand prix. His speed was better than I had ever dreamed of.

"After we let him continue during the safety car period, we saw two of the most exciting overtaking manoeuvres of the championship. I am really happy about this convincing win - thank you Lewis. I also want to thank everybody in the team for doing a great job."