Lewis Hamilton has driven home his
Formula 1 World Championship credentials by coming from behind to triumph in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, after a bold strategy from his McLaren-Mercedes team left him with a job to do – a job he fulfilled to perfection.
What had been billed as a head-to-head between Hamilton and fellow front row starter
Felipe Massa in the Ferrari ultimately turned into a head-to-head between Hamilton and the clock – and whilst both he and Massa were present up on the podium at the end of the race, Hamilton's day was completed by having an unexpected ‘joker' in-between them.
A textbook getaway from pole-sitter Hamilton preserved his lead when the lights went out, with a feisty
Heikki Kovalainen twice getting a run on Massa over the course of the race's opening lap.
Indeed, as the Brazilian was forced to defend, Kovalainen had to brake early into the hairpin first time around, allowing a fast-starting
Robert Kubica – who had already breezed by defending world champion
Kimi Raikkonen off the grid, the Finn's
Ferrari, in the words of
ITV-F1 commentator Marin Brundle, ‘understeering like a supermarket trolley on the way into corners and oversteering like an airport trolley on the way out' – to pass the delayed
Jarno Trulli and the wide-running
Fernando Alonso in one go and move up to fourth.
As Hamilton streaked away at the head of the field – more than two seconds clear of anyone at the end of lap one and some 1.5 seconds a lap quicker than third-placed team-mate Kovalainen in a dominant display – the action was all taking place behind, as Kubica almost lost fourth place by running wide.
Just behind, an aggressive attempt to get past Trulli cost Alonso a spot to Raikkonen, with future
Red Bull Racing team-mates
Sebastian Vettel and
Mark Webber scrapping hard over the final points-paying position, and home-grown hero
Timo Glock rounding out the top ten in the second
Toyota.
