The Complete 2008 German GP Review

After the heroics and excitement of Silverstone, it looked like Lewis Hamilton was on course for a very different - and much less memorable - victory in the German Grand Prix.

Then the combination of an ill-timed safety car period, an over-confident strategic choice by his McLaren team, and another exhilarating charge through the field allowed Hamilton to produce a win every bit as heroic as his Silverstone success, as he surged from fourth to first in the most exciting conclusion to a Grand Prix since the Nurburgring last year.

He may have had a comfortable speed advantage over the field all afternoon, but few drivers could have remained undaunted when a misconceived strategy dropped them from a commanding lead to fourth place with just 16 laps to go.

But rather than resigning himself to a points finish and berating the team afterwards, Hamilton got his head down and set about exploiting every tenth of his advantage to regain those lost places.

Teammate Heikki Kovalainen may have been duty bound to make life easy for Hamilton, but title rival Felipe Massa and Nelson Piquet - who was just eight laps away from pulling off a jaw-dropping victory that would have turned his Formula One career around - had no such compulsion to give way.

Yet both acquiesced with what appeared from outside the cockpit to be little resistance, for Hamilton's pace convinced them that they had no chance of resisting him. The speed with which the McLaren stormed up behind the two Brazilians ultimately seemed more important than the actual overtaking moves he produced. Hamilton had defeated his rivals before he even got in their slipstreams.

With the Hockenheim charge coming just two weeks after his majestic Silverstone win, Hamilton now has a massive self-confidence advantage over his title rivals. He has proved he can produce stunning wins (the manner of his recent successes was so thrilling that both races will live long in fans' memories) whatever the weather, and even when the odds are against him, and he knows that McLaren have now overturned Ferrari's previous pace advantage.

By contrast Kovalainen must be concerned that while his luck has finally improved, he hasn't been able to maintain his strong qualifying pace on race days recently, and the Ferrari duo will reflect that not only is their car no longer the fastest, but - at Hockenheim at least - they weren't even able to get the most out of it as they struggled to find a race balance.

And for Robert Kubica, it seems the days of him being regarded as a title contender are numbered, for falling to a distant seventh after a late race slump did not bode well.

Hamilton is certainly not infallible: his 2008 season has seen plenty of clumsy driving and inconsistency. There is no doubt he is occasionally over-hyped, especially in his home country. But in the past two weeks he has put all of that, plus the debate over whether his off-track activities are being correctly handled, behind him and produced two unforgettable victories that have not only thrust him into the points lead, but seem to have thoroughly demoralised his rivals.

Should Silverstone and Hockenheim prove to be the races that catalysed Hamilton's run to the 2008 title, then no-one could argue that he didn't deserve the championship. His recent wins have all involved a dash of magic and heroism, an element above and beyond simply having the best car and making the most of a good track position. The championship table gives Hamilton a four point advantage, but the manner and style of his recent wins have given him a much greater margin in the psychological battle, and that's going to be even harder for his pursuers to overcome.

Practice

Practice one - Friday am

Morning rain and more drizzle early in the session meant the German Grand Prix weekend got off to a slippery start, with 45 minutes elapsing before Sebastian Vettel - newly announced as a 2009 Red Bull Racing driver - became the first man to brave slick tyres.

With rain forecast for the weekend, the teams had been glad of the wet mileage, but Vettel's rapid times proved the track was ready for slicks, and the timing screen duly went crazy in the final half hour as conditions improved with every lap.

When the dust settled McLaren found themselves with a one-two, Lewis Hamilton ahead of Heikki Kovalainen. The Ferraris took third and fifth, split by Fernando Alonso's Renault.

Sebastien Bourdais and Robert Kubica managed little dry running so brought up the rear, the Toro Rosso having stopped on track with a flywheel sensor problem, and the BMW having crashed at the right-hander leading into the stadium.

Practice two - Friday pm

Hamilton dominated in completely dry conditions in the afternoon, eventually ending up with a 0.7-second advantage over the Ferraris and Kovalainen thanks to a late quick lap on soft tyres.

Mark Webber had a troubled start to the session as an electrical problem consigned him to the Red Bull garage. He then had a quick trip over the gravel when he got going, before leaping up to fifth ahead of Alonso with his final lap.

Nico Rosberg was optimistic about Williams' prospects after repeating his morning seventh place, but his teammate Kazuki Nakajima languished in 17th thanks to a misfire.

Also in trouble were Timo Glock, who got his Toyota airborne over some bumps in the grass at the final corner, double spinner Rubens Barrichello, and Bourdais, whose luckless day continued as he was struck by a gearbox failure.

Practice three - Saturday am

Kovalainen was fastest for much of the final session, ultimately beating Massa by 0.072 seconds once both had completed their late soft tyre runs.

Hamilton and Alonso took third and fourth, with Vettel starring again by taking fifth, having fought for first position earlier in the morning.

Final practice passed virtually without incident, bar a late spin into the gravel by Adrian Sutil and another problem for Kubica, who ended up last thanks to a driveshaft failure.

Qualifying

Part one

With Sebastian Vettel having made Toro Rosso's improved pace so abundantly clear in free practice, the rest of the midfield were clearly at greater risk than usual of being knocked out in Q1.

Sure enough both Toro Rossos breezed through and left a titanic battle to reach the safety of 15th place. With just 0.22 seconds covering ninth to 16th places by the end of the segment, the margins between progression and embarrassment were painfully slim - and it was Williams' Kazuki Nakajima, Renault's Nelson Piquet and Honda's Rubens Barrichello who joined the Force India pair in the bottom quarter of the grid.

It had been a worrying few moments for Renault as Fernando Alonso's first lap was nudged back down to 17th place before the former champion jumped into the top five. Piquet didn't match that improvement though and ended up eliminated and blaming Vettel for blocking him, although the stewards were not convinced.

Nakajima, meanwhile, rued excessive caution on his part, while Barrichello felt 18th on the grid was just another indication of Honda's current state.

"We're driving so much on the limit of the car and over the limit of the car," he said.

It could easily have been Robert Kubica, who had not enjoyed a particularly smooth weekend so far, who was knocked out. Delayed by Giancarlo Fisichella (both of them on flying laps), he came within 0.098 seconds of being eliminated in Q1 for the first time in his career.

Part two

After the first runs it looked like Vettel's hopes of a home top ten start were dwindling, as he languished in 13th place, just ahead of teammate Sebastien Bourdais.

But the German hadn't spent all of Friday impressing just to end up in the midfield again, and a much better second run saw him leap up to ninth.

Bourdais' attempt to emulate his young teammate wasn't so successful, though, as the Frenchman speared off the road at the Spitzkehre and left himself 15th.

"Unfortunately, I locked up the right front for no apparent reason," he said. "But given where we were yesterday, when I was in the garage for much of the day, it's not too bad."

Also slipping up at the tricky hairpin was BMW's Nick Heidfeld, who consequently missed the Q3 cut again and ended up 12th.

"I just didn't get a lap together and I locked up the wheels completely going into Turn 6," Heidfeld shrugged. "Obviously it's disappointing, but better than a couple of races ago when I had no idea (why I was losing time). Now I know the pace would have been there."

Heidfeld was one of three Germans to depart in Q2, with TImo Glock squeezed down to 11th by David Coulthard's late improvement, and Nico Rosberg only managing 13th for Williams, just ahead of Honda's Jenson Button.

While Rosberg and Button were sanguine about their row seven places, Glock admitted he was getting bored with qualifying near-misses.

"We couldn't improve on the last run when it was really important," he said. "I don't know how many times I have just missed out on Q3 by the tiniest of margins, and it has happened again."

Part three

Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa had each topped a session in the first two thirds of qualifying, and when it came to the final shoot-out for pole, the pair didn't let anyone else muscle in on their private battle.

Massa comfortably held provisional pole after the first runs, having produced a 1:16.323 lap. That was 0.379 seconds better than Hamilton could manage, although he had backed off substantially when teammate Heikki Kovalainen ploughed through the gravel on the way into the stadium just ahead of him.

"I had to be careful as I didn't want to get any penalties, so I made a big lift," Hamilton said. "The time wasn't great but I knew I had it in me."

That cautious first lap was quickly shuffled down the order, and by the time Massa completed his second lap and moved up to a 1:15.859, Hamilton had been pushed right back to sixth.

But just as the McLaren driver had predicted, the pace was there and he gained over a second on his final flying lap to vault back into pole position and beat Massa by 0.193 seconds.

Despite going off the road again on his second lap, this time on the exit of the Sudkurve, Kovalainen managed to get up to third place.

"I am very happy with third place if you take into account all those rallycross moments today," he said.

The Finn was joined on row by Jarno Trulli after another characteristically excellent qualifying run from the Toyota. It was technically his best single lap performance of the year - his third on the Sepang grid and fourth place in France having been due partly to other drivers' penalties.

That put Trulli just ahead of Alonso, who hadn't expected to be as high as fifth having been ambivalent about his car's practice performance. By contrast Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica had certainly expected better than sixth and seventh on the grid when they headed for Germany, but neither the Ferrari driver nor his BMW rival managed to get their cars balanced to their liking.

Three Red Bull-owned cars completed the top ten, with Mark Webber saying his team still had work to do after taking eighth, Vettel delighted to be ninth, and Coulthard ruing the "messy" lap that left him 10th.

Qualifying results

Pos  Driver        Team                 Q1        Q2        Q3       Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     1:15.218  1:14.603  1:15.666  13
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              1:14.921  1:14.747  1:15.859  16
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     1:15.476  1:14.855  1:16.143  17
 4.  Trulli        Toyota               1:15.560  1:15.122  1:16.191  21
 5.  Alonso        Renault              1:15.917  1:14.943  1:16.385  19
 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              1:15.201  1:14.949  1:16.389  19
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           1:15.985  1:15.109  1:16.521  20
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     1:15.900  1:15.481  1:17.014  20
 9.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:15.532  1:15.420  1:17.244  22
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     1:15.975  1:15.338  1:17.503  20
11.  Glock         Toyota               1:15.560  1:15.508            17
12.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           1:15.596  1:15.581            14
13.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      1:15.863  1:15.633            16
14.  Button        Honda                1:15.993  1:15.701            15
15.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:15.927  1:15.858            15
16.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      1:16.083                      10
17.  Piquet        Renault              1:16.189                       7
18.  Barrichello   Honda                1:16.246                      10
19.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  1:16.657                      10
20.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  1:16.963                      10

The Race

For the first 35 laps, the 2008 German Grand Prix could scarcely have been less eventful, as the soporific opening half of the race gave no hint that the denouement would see the most surprising race leader of the season so far, and one of the greatest comeback charges of recent years.

Long before all that unfolded, Lewis Hamilton breezed into the Nordkurve with a comfortable lead over Felipe Massa at the start, leaving the Ferrari to fend off some assertive early attacks from Hamilton's McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen.

Just behind, Robert Kubica jumped ahead of Kimi Raikkonen off the line, then gained another two places when Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli both got slow exits from the hairpin as they diced with each other, Alonso having tried in vain to sweep right around the outside of the Toyota.

The Spaniard then lost out again in a chain reaction two laps later, as first Kubica ran wide at the Sudkurve and came back onto the line just ahead of Trulli, forcing the Toyota to back off and giving Alonso a chance to look down the inside at the Nordkurve only to have to pull out of the move, costing him sufficient momentum for Raikkonen to sweep past and into sixth at Turn 2.

Raikkonen then spent the whole first stint trapped behind Trulli, who he only managed to pass in the opening round of pit stops, by which time the Ferrari was 26 seconds behind race leader and title rival Hamilton.

Not that Massa was much closer - for Hamilton had pulled away by around 0.7 seconds per lap in the early stages. A further two laps before his first pitstop didn't help Massa much either, as when the pit sequence was complete he remained nine seconds behind, although at least Kovalainen was no longer bothering him, the second McLaren having dropped five seconds away from the Ferrari.

Kubica remained fourth, seven seconds behind Kovalainen but a safe three seconds clear of Raikkonen, who wasn't closing in with much urgency.

Trulli had swiftly fallen away from the Ferrari and was only just ahead of a fraught battle for the final points. Long first stints had allowed Vettel and Timo Glock (who had run as high as third) to jump past the increasingly frustrated Alonso, with Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld also stalking this group.

Even further back, a one stop strategy had allowed Nelson Piquet to rise from a quiet early 18th to a more respectable 12th just prior to his scheduled pit visit, with Sebastien Bourdais chasing him in 13th ahead of David Coulthard, who had lost several places running wide avoiding Heidfeld on lap one then fell further back thanks to a relatively early first stop, and slow-starter Nico Rosberg.

Just behind, Rubens Barrichello had got ahead of Honda teammate Jenson Button as the latter struggled badly on the hard tyres and fell back towards early spinner Kazuki Nakajima and the Force Indias.

So by lap 35, it looked like the only source of tension in the second half of the race would be in the battle for sixth place, with all other positions apparently settled.

But then the race was turned on its head when Glock's right rear suspension appeared to break on the exit of the Sudkurve, firing the Toyota back across the track and into the pit wall. The heavy impact left Glock stunned, and he was transported to hospital for precautionary checks and an overnight stay.

With debris littered across the straight, a safety car was inevitable, and the timing couldn't have been better for Piquet, who was making his sole pitstop at the moment the caution was called. That put him at the back of the lead lap queue, but with every other car ahead still with one stop to make, and all of them likely to do so during the safety car period.

Except not quite everyone did stop, for McLaren decided that Hamilton should stay out in the lead, with Heidfeld doing likewise and moving up to second ahead of Piquet.

Given that Heidfeld was languishing amongst slower cars in the middle of the pack and still had plenty of fuel on board, BMW's gamble was understandable, but McLaren's reasoning was more eyebrow-raising, especially for Hamilton.

"They just said that they were comfortable with where we were," he said. "I saw on the big screens that Heikki and one of the Ferraris were in, so I asked 'are you sure we shouldn't be pitting?' and then they said 'we're comfortable, we know that they will be very, very heavy, they'll be in a bit of traffic, so we should be able to pull the gap.'"

However team boss Ron Dennis admitted that McLaren's confident outlook was based on the safety car period lasting somewhat less than the six laps it eventually went on for.

"At the time the safety car came out it was more than enough to take a few safety laps and then pull out the lead," he said. "We just didn't see (Glock), the car was behind the barrier. We didn't think they would have to move the car. We just thought there was some debris on the circuit."

Behind Hamilton, Heidfeld and Piquet, Massa was first out of the pits and ran fourth ahead of Kubica, who jumped Kovalainen in the stops.

Trulli ran seventh, with Vettel barging in front of Alonso in the pit exit in a move that didn't exactly brighten the Spaniard's mood - although he had at least gained one place with Glock's crash and no longer had Webber on his tail as the Red Bull had retired with a broken oil cooler, probably thanks to some Toyota debris.

Raikkonen had been forced to queue behind Massa in the pits, so now ran a distant 11th behind Rosberg.

The safety car pulled in on lap 41, which gave Hamilton nine laps to pull out the margin he required to pit again - a prospect the leader was a little sceptical about.

"It was a 23 second gap I needed and I only had seven laps or something, so I don't know how that worked out," said Hamilton. "I kind of understood and I just kept pushing. I was over the limit, pushing and pushing trying to get the gap."

His charge looked like it was going to be in vain, for when Hamilton stopped on lap 50 he was four seconds clear of Heidfeld, but more importantly only 13 seconds ahead of Piquet, who was under little pressure from Massa.

Hamilton rejoined in fifth, just behind Kovalainen, who had recently passed Kubica with an inventive move around the outside of Turn 8. The Finn accepted that Hamilton was faster and chose not to delay his teammate's charge, moving aside at the hairpin on the next lap, although his politeness perhaps proved costly as Heidfeld was able to rejoin ahead of Kovalainen when he pitted from the lead on lap 54.

Once ahead of his teammate, Hamilton began closing on the leaders at a ferocious rate, reducing Massa's 3.9-second advantage to absolutely nothing in three laps.

He then surged down the inside of the Ferrari into the Spitzkehre on lap 57, edging Massa - who chose not to defend too aggressively - onto the run-off on the exit. Massa tried to strike back on Turn 8, but found himself hung out on the outside and had to concede.

"I didn't have the car to fight," said Massa, who was concerned by poor stability and high brake temperatures. "I tried but it was not possible."

Piquet was next in Hamilton's sights (although he later admitted he was surprised when McLaren informed him that his pass on Massa hadn't actually been for the lead), and it took the flying McLaren just two more laps to hunt down and pass the Renault with an even more straightforward move at the hairpin. Like Massa, Piquet had just resigned himself to the inevitable.

"I knew Lewis was coming quickly and I knew Felipe wasn't that much quicker than me, so I decided not to make it such a big fuss with Lewis," said Piquet. "He was so much quicker than us. If I would have fought it would have been a risk for maybe Felipe to arrive and he could have overtaken me. I just decided to have a safe second place rather than to have a third or fourth place and not be too happy."

Settling for positions wasn't on Hamilton's agenda for this afternoon. He had proved devastatingly faster than the rest of the field from the moment the lights went out, and he wasn't going to let a little thing like a misguided strategy or the prospect of overtaking three cars in the final 17 laps prevent him from converting that pace into a victory.

"I would have much preferred an easy comfortable afternoon out in front, but it didn't work that way," said Hamilton. "We had just done such a solid job and we were clearly out in front. I think it would have been easier for us to have stayed out where we were and we could have won easier. That's always the way to deliver but for sure it feels even better to know that we had done it from a little bit further back."

Massa only just hung on to his podium as Heidfeld - who set the race's fastest lap - closed in at the end, with Kovalainen completing the top five after fading on Sunday for the second race in a row.

Slightly overshadowed by Hamilton's gallant charge, the battle for the remaining points saw frenetic action in the closing stages, as Raikkonen finally got into his stride and picked off Rosberg, Alonso (who also fell behind the Williams in a failed bid to re-pass the Ferrari), Vettel, Trulli and finally Kubica to emerge with sixth place.

Seventh left Kubica, who had struggled with his final set of tyres, deeply underwhelmed, but eighth-placed Vettel was delighted to take a point on home ground, having snatched the place when Trulli locked up and went wide with seven laps to go.

Alonso managed to re-pass Rosberg only to relinquish the position again with a late spin (presumably caused by sheer frustration) at the hairpin, leaving him to trail home 11th, only just ahead of Bourdais.

Coulthard recovered from a late tangle with Barrichello on the exit of Turn 3 to take 13th, while the Honda driver had to retire. That completed a miserable day for the squad as the timing of Button's second pitstop meant he was left a lap behind the rest of the pack once the wave by was complete under the safety car.

Giancarlo Fisichella managed to beat Nakajima on the road only to receive a 25-second penalty for unlapping himself earlier than he should have done during the yellow, which also put him behind teammate Adrian Sutil, who had run in front of the Italian early on before losing ground in the pitstops.

Race results

67 laps; 306.458km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1h31:20.874
 2.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +     5.586
 3.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +     9.339
 4.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +     9.825
 5.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    12.411
 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    14.403
 7.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +    22.682
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +    33.299
 9.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +    37.158
10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    37.625
11.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    38.600
12.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +    39.111
13.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    54.971
14.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari   (B)  +    59.093
15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +  1:00.003
16.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari   (B)  +  1:09.488
17.  Button        Honda                 (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Heidfeld, 1:15.987

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Barrichello   Honda                 (B)    52
Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)    41
Glock         Toyota                (B)    37


World Championship standings, round 10:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Hamilton      58        1.  Ferrari               105
 2.  Massa         54        2.  BMW Sauber             89
 3.  Raikkonen     51        3.  McLaren-Mercedes       86
 4.  Kubica        48        4.  Toyota                 25
 5.  Heidfeld      41        5.  Red Bull-Renault       24
 6.  Kovalainen    28        6.  Renault                23
 7.  Trulli        20        7.  Williams-Toyota        16
 8.  Webber        18        8.  Honda                  14
 9.  Alonso        13        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      8
10.  Barrichello   11
11.  Piquet        10
12.  Rosberg        8
13.  Nakajima       8
14.  Vettel         6
15.  Coulthard      6
16.  Glock          5
17.  Button         3
18.  Bourdais       2

Team-by-Team

Massa runs Hamilton close for pole, but Raikkonen's unhappy sixth place is more representative of the team's pace.

Race day doesn't get any better, as Massa runs an increasingly distant second before falling behind Piquet in the safety car pitstops. He can't pass the Renault, then loses second to the flying Hamilton.

Raikkonen loses ground on the first lap, gets through to fifth by the first stops, then drops back to 11th queuing behind Massa in the pits. A series of late passes bring him back to sixth.

Heidfeld moves in the opposite direction after a qualifying error leaves him 12th on the grid. He remains in the midfield until he stays out under yellow, then charges away from the queue behind Piquet and manages to emerge in fourth after his stop, where he remains until the flag.

Fifth on the grid is better than Alonso expected, but his race goes downhill rapidly as every overtaking attempt seems to result in someone else passing him, and every pitstop seems to cost him a place. The safety car doesn't help, and after a late spin he comes home a disgruntled 11th.

Piquet has totally divergent fortunes, qualifying a poor 17th but making his sole pitstop just as the safety car is called. That allows him to emerge in the lead as all ahead stop either under yellow or shortly afterwards, and although he cannot fend off Hamilton, he hangs on for a shock second.

Rosberg is optimistic after taking seventh in practice, and even after qualifying 13th he is still hopeful of points. A slow start costs him places though, and despite some spirited racing he can only reach 10th.

Nakajima has a misfire in practice, starts 16th after underperforming in qualifying, then spins early in the race and finishes a distant 14th.

Webber recovers from an electrical problem to go fifth on Friday afternoon, but is not surprised to only qualify eighth, with Coulthard taking 10th.

Neither scores in the race. Coulthard loses several places on the first lap and later collides with Barrichello on the way to 13th, while Webber is running 10th and chasing Alonso when his oil cooler is ruptured by Glock's debris.

Trulli is thrilled to qualify fourth but accepts he will probably lose a little ground in the race. He didn't expect to finish outside the points in ninth though, having been vaulted by those who benefited from the safety car period, passed in the pits by Kubica, and then overtaken on track by both Raikkonen and Vettel late in the race.

Glock ends the weekend in hospital for observation following a massive crash triggered by a suspected suspension failure. He had qualified 11th, rose to third briefly thanks to a very long first stint, and was running ninth before being pitched into the pit wall.

Vettel flies all weekend, qualifies eighth, and races hard with Alonso for much of the afternoon. He beats the Renault then overtakes Trulli to secure eighth in the final laps.

Bourdais has mechanical failures in both Friday practice sessions, then goes off in Q2 and ends up 15th on the grid. He finishes 12th, right on Alonso's tail at the end.

Button and Barrichello qualify 14th and 18th as both continue to struggle with the increasingly uncompetitive car in the dry.

Both have disappointing races, with Button falling off the pace on the harder tyre and then being stranded at the tail of the pack in 17th when his pitstop leaves him in the wrong place to un-lap himself under yellow. Barrichello is more competitive but has to retire following a tangle with Coulthard as they battle for 13th.

Sutil out-qualifies Fisichella as both remain stuck at the back of the grid, although aerodynamic improvements and the imminent prospect of a seamless shift gearbox give the team some encouragement.

Although Sutil gets away from his teammate in the early stages, it's Fisichella who emerges ahead after their pitstops, and he even manages to beat Nakajima's Williams to 14th thanks to the Japanese driver's early spin.

But a penalty for un-lapping himself too early during the safety car drops Fisichella back behind Nakajima and Sutil in the final standings.

Hamilton is fastest in both Friday practice sessions, then beats Massa to pole position. He dominates the first half of the race, but his seemingly certain victory is put in jeopardy when McLaren decide not to pit him during the safety car period.

Nevertheless, he manages to charge back through the field from fourth to first in the space of eight laps after his stop to take another remarkable victory.

Kovalainen tops final practice then qualifies third after a ragged performance in Q3. He can't match Hamilton or Massa but looks set for third until the safety car stops drop him back. He passes Kubica to take fifth but can't progress any further.

Lap-by-Lap

Lap 1: On pole position for the ninth time in his Formula One career, Lewis Hamilton makes a flying start to break away from Felipe Massa and Heikki Kovalainen. The Englishman leads by 1.8 seconds at the lap's end.

Jarno Trulli leads Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber © XPB

Robert Kubica gets away well to lie fourth from Jarno Trulli, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Timo Glock, Nick Heidfeld, Sebastien Bourdais, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, David Coulthard, Kazuki Nakajima, Rubens Barrichello, Nelson Piquet, Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil.

Lap 2: The leader's advantage grows to 2.5 seconds. Coulthard passes Rosberg. Barrichello passes Nakajima.

Lap 3: Sutil spins at Turn Eight.

Lap 4: Hamilton leads by 3.7 seconds. Alonso has a sideways moment at Turn One and subsequently loses a place to Raikkonen.

Lap 6: Hamilton posts a 1:16.420. His lead is 4.6 seconds.

Lap 10: Hamilton laps in 1:16.078 and leads by 7.0 seconds. Kovalainen is another 5.2 seconds behind in third.

Lap 11: Sutil passes Fisichella for 19th.

Lap 13: Coulthard passes Button for 13th.

Lap 17: Hamilton posts a 1:16.039: he leads by 11.0 seconds. Nakajima spins at Turn Two and drops from 17th to 19th.

Lap 18: Hamilton and Kubica pit. Massa leads. Hamilton rejoins fourth, behind Trulli.

Lap 19: Trulli and Alonso pit.

Lap 20: Massa pits. Kovalainen leads by 10.2 seconds from Hamilton.

Lap 21: Kovalainen pits. Hamilton regains the lead. Vettel and Coulthard pit, too.

Lap 22: Raikkonen pits. Kovalainen passes Heidfeld.

Jenson Button battles with David Coulthard in the hairpin © LAT

Lap 23: Webber and Bourdais pit.

Lap 25: Sutil pits.

Lap 27: Heidfeld, Button and Fisichella pit.

Lap 28: Hamilton leads by 10.5 seconds from Massa and Glock, who has yet to stop. Rosberg pits.

Lap 29: Glock and Nakajima pit.

Lap 31: Barrichello pits.

Lap 32: Barrichello passes his team-mate Button.

Lap 34: Hamilton leads Massa, Kovalainen, Kubica, Raikkonen, Trulli, Vettel, Glock, Alonso, Webber, Heidfeld, Piquet, Bourdais, Coulthard, Rosberg, Barrichello and Button. Nakajima, Sutil and Fisichella are lapped.

Lap 35: Glock loses control at the final corner and he spins into the pit wall. Safety Car deployed. Piquet and Button pit.

Lap 38: Pit lane opens. Massa, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Trulli, Vettel, Alonso, Webber, Coulthard, Bourdais, Rosberg and Fisichella all pit. Webber's engine is smoking as he rejoins.

Lap 39: Hamilton leads Heidfeld, Piquet, Massa, Kubica, Kovalainen, Trulli, Vettel, Alonso, Webber, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Bourdais, Coulthard, Barrichello, Nakajima, Sutil (who pits), Fisichella and Button.

Lap 40: Nakajima pits.

Lap 41: Webber pulls off.

Lap 42: The race resumes.

Felipe Massa holds off Nick Heidfeld for third © XPB

Lap 43: Kovalainen passes Kubica. Raikkonen passes Rosberg.

Lap 44: Raikkonen and Rosberg pass Alonso.

Lap 45: Hamilton leads Heidfeld by 3.7 seconds. Raikkonen passes Vettel.

Lap 46: Raikkonen passes Trulli.

Lap 49: Barrichello and Coulthard collide. The Scot loses two positions; the Brazilian loses his front wing and heads for the pits.

Lap 50: Hamilton pits and drops to fifth, 0.4 seconds behind Kovalainen and 4.8 seconds behind Massa. Barrichello retires.

Lap 52: Leader Heidfeld sets fastest lap - 1:15.987. Hamilton passes Kovalainen. Alonso passes Rosberg.

Lap 53: Heidfeld pits and slips to fourth. Piquet leads by 2.0 seconds from Massa and Hamilton. Coulthard passes Nakajima.

Lap 54: Hamilton takes more than a second out of the first two. He trails Massa by 1.4 seconds.

Lap 55: The lapped Button pits again.

Lap 56: Piquet is 1.8 seconds clear of Massa, 2.2 seconds ahead of Hamilton.

Lap 57: Hamilton passes Massa. The Brazilian attempts to respond but goes across the kerbs.

Lewis Hamilton, Nelsinho Piquet, and Felipe Massa © LAT

Lap 58: Piquet leads the closing Hamilton by 1.1 seconds. Alonso spins at Turn Six and loses one place: he's 11th.

Lap 59: Piquet leads by 0.4 seconds.

Lap 60: Hamilton leads again following a decisive pass at the hairpin. Raikkonen passes Kubica for sixth. Vettel passes Trulli for eighth.

Lap 61: Coulthard passes Fisichella.

Lap 67: Hamilton wins by 5.5 seconds from Piquet, Massa, Heidfeld, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Kubica and Vettel.