Piquet Jr, still Hamilton's main rival, also took advantage of the Briton's problems, taking a Sunday podium to go with fourth in the feature, closing a once 21-point deficit to 14 points ahead of his 'home' round in Germany. Piquet was born just down the road from Hockenheim and will look to cap his birthday week with a substantial points haul.
Giorgio Pantano was the other man to win in France, finally breaking his duck after a year and a half in the series, but the Italian is not in title contention after missing the start of the season and then finding himself trying to bring the FMS International team to the fore - a task he can now claim to have completed.
The title fight appears to be getting a little too hot for some, with the likes of Viso and Arden duo Michael Ammermuller and Nicolas Lapierre having remained scoreless since Barcelona. While Lapierre has a valid reason for not adding to his tally - he has been out of action, injured, since Monaco - Viso and Ammermuller have had the full complement of races to boost their respective totals, but have suffered similar amounts of mistake and misfortune that have left them adrift of the immediate pursuers. Both will be out to make amends this weekend, Ammermuller on home soil and Viso at the circuit where his 2005 campaign began to turn around - despite a DSQ for coming in underweight in last year's feature. Lapierre, meanwhile, should return to the fold in an attempt to boost his fortunes.
Lapierre won't be the only change to the line-up this weekend, as Direxiv's internal problems has seen them dropped as title sponsor of the DPR team, with the knock-on effect that Olivier Pla - who only returned from his own injury problems in France - dropped in favour of Russian newcomer Vitaly Petrov.
Last year, the revised Hockenheim track proved perfectly suited to the creation of epic GP2 races, with eventual champion
Nico Rosberg taking his second feature race win and, after a stunning race on Sunday, coming close
![Lewis Hamilton - ART Grand Prix [pic credit: GP2 media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/241440.jpg)
