Brilliant Hamilton wins in Germany

Eurosport - Mon, 21 Jul 09:58:00 2008

Lewis Hamilton overtook Heikki Kovalainen, Felipe Massa and Nelson Piquet in the closing stages to win a thrilling German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

2008 German GP Lewis Hamilton Felipe Massa - 0

The British McLaren driver won his second successive race to take sole possession of the lead in the drivers' championship, four points ahead of Ferrari's Massa.

Renault's Piquet, operating a one-stop strategy, claimed his first podium finish in Formula One in second, with Massa third and Kimi Raikkonen sixth.

Despite setting a blistering pace throughout, Hamilton nearly lost the race thanks to a tactical blunder by his team.

A big crash involving Timo Glock brought the safety car out but Hamilton, who was leading, opted not to take a pit stop and as a consequence was relegated to fourth after he pitted later in the race.

However, Hamilton used his superior pace to overtake Heikki Kovalained, Massa and Piquet, all at the same hairpin, to secure a magnificent victory.

"I didn't plan on doing that. I'd have much preferred an easy, comfortable afternoon out front," he said.

"Overall it was a very, very good weekend. It's got to be the best weekend up to now," added Hamilton. "I think that we're really on top of our game right now."

Polesitter Hamilton led from pole position and immediately built a commanding advantage over Massa, while world champion Raikkonen continued to struggle with his set up and languished in the lower points positions.

The 23-year-old seemed set for a routine win before Glock's crash just after half distance changed everything.

The German's Toyota suffered suspension failure entering the start-finish straight and smashed into the pit wall. Glock was taken to hospital, although Toyota said he had no visible injuries, and his retirement prompted the safety car to come out.

While the other front-runners all pitted at the first opportunity, McLaren bizarrely decided to keep Hamilton out. Massa emerged from his stop and caught up with the safety car, just 50 metres off the leader who still had to come in.

Hamilton proved unable to build a sufficient gap and emerged from his stop in fourth behind Piquet, Massa and team-mate Kovalainen with 16 laps remaining.

The Briton proved to be a myth the claim that there is no overtaking in Formula One, streaking past all three men and taking a huge step towards a first world championship.

Hamilton moves on to 58 championship points, four clear of Massa, seven ahead of Raikkonen and 10 ahead of BMW's Robert Kubica, who was seventh.

Kubica's BMW team-mate Nick Heidfeld was fourth, while Sebastian Vettel took the final points position for Toro Rosso.

David Coulthard had to settle for 13th following a collision with Honda's Rubens Barrichello, who retired after the incident. Jenson Button was the last finisher in 17th.

Alex Chick / Eurosport

Comment 152 - 171 of 171

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  1. To all the Morons on here that says sh!t like. He's only good cos he's driving the best car "DUH"... there is no charecters in F1 anymore thats not LH Fault you can only drive against the people on the grid and the cars on the grid. Why does he have to drive A force india/Torro Rosso to prove himself. He is not wasting a drive like Hiekki. He is the best on the grid at the moment. which makes him a charecter and justifies his current No1 Staus.

    C'mon the Guy is Driving the Bollox off the car in the wet and the dry and Ferrari is fading faster than the winter sun in Finland. This time if Ferrari are gonna win sh!t they'll have to do it with out FIA giving them a BIG helping hand

    From Cliffe P, on Tue 22 Jul 2:10PM
  2. Nice one Martin.

    From PAUL R, on Tue 22 Jul 1:36PM
  3. PAUL R,
    Yeah sorry about that, it just hacks me off when people think they can just jump into an F1 car & drive it around a circuit.
    He wouldn't keep a GP2 car on the track let alone a Mac.
    Once again to all those sensible folk on here please accept my apologies for my outburst.

    From Martin B, on Tue 22 Jul 12:48PM
  4. Hey, Martin B. I do agree with your sentiment, but not the way you put it. Thankfully we have weeded out the haters in this section. Don't be the one who gets reported for abuse.

    Re character/Hamilton Sierra.one. He's young, he's talented and extremely well managed, character don't come into it yet, but he's maturing very quickly and there is a lot more of him to come.

    From PAUL R, on Tue 22 Jul 12:38PM
  5. sierra.one,
    "No characters left in F1 so don't bother with it. Re Hamilton, good driver yes. But there again put me in a McClaren and I'd give the field a run."
    You wouldn't know where to start you F**KING IDIOT.
    Get back to your Sunday afternoon gardening & leave commenting on racing/drivers to those who know a little about the sport. ( well most of us anyway )

    From Martin B, on Tue 22 Jul 12:26PM
  6. There was something almost 'Mansell like', with the last ten laps. I swear you could almost see a big red number 5 on the Maclaren!

    From PAUL R, on Tue 22 Jul 12:02PM
  7. I am a ferari fan, and I am still Ferari fan even they had bad races for the last 2 weeks.
    LH drove excellently but little bit distorted by HK moved aside. If only LH overtake HK like he did it to Massa, it would have been more interesting, but still brilliant performance.
    Hope Ferari will bounce back so we can see more interesting races... peace....

    From tony s, on Tue 22 Jul 1:43AM
  8. what a fantastic race. somehow i'm glad that MC laren team made a mistake otherwise we wouldn't have been able to witness more of hamilton's skills.this kid is going far and i hope very far, people should give him a lot of credit and some of them should be ashamed of themselves for criticise him when he make mistakes........!!!! best of luck lewis come on get it !!!!

    From karim y, on Mon 21 Jul 7:50PM
  9. I am a huge Ferrari fan, but I am also a Formula 1 fan. I have to admit that it looks like we are seeing the beginning of another great career in racing. I don't know if LH will ever be as good as Schumi, but he has the best shot of anyone currently driving in F1. What Kimi did last year in the last 3 races of the year was incredible, but he also needed a bit of luck. If Lewis had been a bit more patient, we might be talking about a repeat this year. I will always cheer for Ferrari drivers first, but count me in as a new LH fan. This kid is fantastic!

    From Daniel S, on Mon 21 Jul 6:52PM
  10. Well. . . that result should shut the haters up... come on people (ferrari fans) wake up! Mclaren gonna go the whole 9 yards. LH showed utter class and prowess these last two weeks... let the fun and games continue.... F1 is a completly different sport, this season especially. Truly exciting for ferrari fans and mclaren fans alike.

    From donbandit11, on Mon 21 Jul 6:30PM
  11. No characters left in F1 so don't bother with it. Re Hamilton, good driver yes. But there again put me in a McClaren and I'd give the field a run. I doubt whether we'd see such a star if he was in a lesser team, the likes of a Spyker. Damon Hill showed just how good a driver he was when he pushed that roller skate of an Arrow to almost a win, but the elastic band broke on the last lap. That was the sign of a great driver.

    From sierra.one, on Mon 21 Jul 4:44PM
  12. massa should hang his head in shame.he,s obviously read the italian book on surrender

    From peterdavidhewitt, on Mon 21 Jul 4:30PM
  13. Goldpibe: Surprised you are not slagging Hamilton off as you usually do. Better still admit he is on two occasions now a better driver than either Raikkonen or Massa. Also swallow your prejudice & Admit that Mclaren at present are the better team:

    From Damocles, on Mon 21 Jul 3:51PM
  14. Great and exciting race.
    LH is an uncannily great driver.
    Pity some of the people commenting here can't spell or punctuate their comments - they must have been educated after the 1950's

    From pilar.peon, on Mon 21 Jul 2:43PM
  15. there's something about the english isn't there? I can't help feeling that if LH was consistenly coming 5th or 6th, he'd probably be more popular. I seem to remember Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell (both sublime drivers) going through fairly similar stuff (not quite as bad...but certainly getting there)... whereas everyone loves Jenson Button because he never wins anything. LH is not big headed, he's supremely confident and I feel he's been very generous in his praise for other drivers (even Alonso, the last person to deserve it)...which MS never was. Last year he could have taken the MS option and just crashed into Raikkonen taking them both off, as MS did on more than one occassion. Personally I think LH has raised his game over the last 3 or 4 races and all the rest will have a job to hang onto him now.

    From mikey, on Mon 21 Jul 2:09PM
  16. Olive Calderwood, well said. The LH fans can only support when there's high notes. They are like little rats waiting for the big cheese. Don't forget LH fans there's 8 more races to go. We have just passed the tipping point of the season.

    Well Perry G, seems like you are one of the bandwagon fans. Accept a challenge & not a one man race. Catch a wakeup you don't rate LH being the best driver in a long time by only winning a few racers. IT'S ABOUT WINNING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLES.

    From romalanmoodley, on Mon 21 Jul 1:21PM
  17. srhayden, i did not watch the interview with MS, but one thing for sure he won points & world titles for ferrari & not for mclaren so he's not compelled to compelment
    LH. he is the adviser to the team. He also won't brick himself up if ask to race against LH. just when people complained about MS winning races, guess it's evening more borring to hear LH's name on tv. what about the other drivers? Are they invisible?

    From romalanmoodley, on Mon 21 Jul 1:07PM
  18. go2tss: I'm watching u...:)))

    From goldpibe, on Mon 21 Jul 12:25PM
  19. Seriously good drive by LH throughout, but exceptional after McLaren mis-read the safety car situation.

    Did anyone see the Schumacher interview on Sunday - MS just could not find any way to complement LH - always having to refer back to the "good drivers at Ferrari". Given that he retired rather than face Raikkonen on equal terms in truth he would be really bricking himself having to face LH. Perhaps he'd have to resort to his old blunt instrument tactics of running other drivers of the road again (Hill and Villeneuve among many others).

    All in all Michael it seemed rather pathetic trying so hard to fail to complement LH.

    From srhayden, on Mon 21 Jul 11:44AM
  20. stanleysylui, maybe you should be talking to Yolanda261030, she and her crew might help you with anger management. Just don't hurt anyone.

    From Kenneth O, on Mon 21 Jul 11:06AM
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