Hamilton wins again

7:14pm Sunday 20th July 2008

Lewis Hamilton made it back-to-back victories for the first time in 13 months by taking the chequered at the end of a remarkable German Grand Prix.

A severe shunt involving Toyota's Timo Glock just beyond the midway point of the 67-lap race at Hockenheim had resulted in the evaporation of a comfortable lead established by Hamilton.

But with a helping hand from McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen and two stunning overtaking manoeuvres on title rival Felipe Massa in his Ferrari and Nelson Piquet in the closing stages, Hamilton triumphed to open up a four-point cushion in the championship standings.

Hamilton made a perfectly-executed start off the grid, and for the first 35 laps all went to plan as he comfortably led by 11.5 seconds at the time from Massa.

But then came Glock's spectacular shunt, turning the race on its head.

With debris strewn across the home stretch it unsurprisingly resulted in the emergence of the safety car, bunching up the field and in turn significantly eroding Hamilton's lead.

Eleven drivers dived in for new rubber, fuelling to the end, but surprisingly Hamilton did not do so, and instead Kovalainen was the McLaren man who came in.

McLaren appeared to have taken a considerable gamble with Hamilton, especially as he emerged in fifth behind Kovalainen when he finally made his second stop on lap 51.

But Hamilton worked his way through the field and overtook Piquet on lap 60 and had a clean run to the finish and the eighth win of his career.

Behind the podium clinchers came Nick Heidfeld in his BMW Sauber, followed by Kovalainen and Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari who is now seven points behind Hamilton.

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