Lewis Hamilton triumphs despite safety car drama
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.
The 23-year-old now has a four-point cushion in the championship standings over Massa, who could only finish third behind fellow Brazilian Piquet, the Renault driver claiming the most remarkable result of his life.
McLaren team principal Ron Dennis insisted his team got their tactics right despite the safety car almost scuppering Hamilton's second consecutive victory.
The Briton won only after a comfortable lead had been lost when the safety car came out and McLaren failed to bring their man in to pit.
"We expected the safety car to come in early, and knew would be 1.5 seconds quicker when it came in," Dennis said.
"You can't get it right all the time. We thought the race could have started three laps earlier."
Of Hamilton's dominant performance he added: "It was a fantastic drive. He had a lot of pace and it's hard to slow him down sometimes."
Hamilton admitted he had been expecting a procession to an easy win before Timo Glock's crash brought out the safety car.
With the field bunched up as a result, he revealed his surprise that McLaren did not bring him in - a decision which left him needing to overtake several cars to reclaim first place.
"I would have much preferred an easy afternoon but it didn't work that way," he said.
"I got off to good start, the team opted for me to stay out and thought I could have pulled out a gap.
"I understood and just kept pushing - over the limit, pushing and pushing - but I couldn't find the gap.
"But I was able to pull it off."
Of the team decision to keep him out, Hamilton added: "I said 'are you sure about this', and they said fine. But we all have decisions and opinions and we'll learn from this one and move on.
"But we had the quickest car this weekend and we came out on top. The team has done a phenomenal job."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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