Hamilton makes it two in a row

Lewis Hamilton followed up his British Grand Prix victory two weeks ago with another win in Germany at Hockenheim (side note - I miss the old track with the massive straights out into the woods).

In a bit of a stunner, Renault's Nelson Piquet took second place with a one-stop strategy. Ferrari's Felipe Massa completed the podium, keeping his championship hopes alive, although Hamilton has broken the three-way tie at the top and also becomes the first to win four races in 2008.

It's going to be an interesting finish to the season, with Kimi Räikkönen still in touch.

More later...

Lewis heads the grid

Lewis Hamilton grabbed the pole position at Hockenheim from Ferrari's Felipe Massa, with Vodaphone McLaren Mercedes teammate Heikki Kovalainen rounding out the top three.

Lewis "Light Load" Hamilton

After setting a fast time early on in the session, Lewis Hamilton fell off the pace until the final closing minutes of the practice when he put in an obvious light fuel run to take P1.  While he was meandering through the rest of the session in the high 1:15s, the Ferrari drivers were consistently putting in the faster times on long fuel runs.

While qualifying will probably be rather close, the race should be leaning in Ferrari's direction.  McLaren may soon be wishing they had someone in the car that was a little more mature and focused on the entire picture at hand.  Throwing in light fuel runs to "puff" yourself up is a rather "Red Bull" sort of thing don't you think?

 

	Driver	Team	Time
1.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.025
2.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:15.722
3.	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:15.760
4.	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.990
5.	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:16.017
6.	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:16.230
7.	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:16.355
8.	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:16.363
9.	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:16.377
10.	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:16.378
11.	Sebastian Vettel	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:16.422
12.	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:16.530
13.	Jenson Button	Honda	1:16.542
14.	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:16.677
15.	Nelson A. Piquet	Renault	1:16.734
16.	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:16.781
17.	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:16.829
18.	Sebastien Bourdais	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:16.860
19.	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1:17.008
20.	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	1:17.047

Test Times - Hockenheim Day 3

Name Team Laps Time Gap Massa Ferrari 109 1:14.989 136.443 mph Button Honda 121 1:15.081 0.092 Kovalainen McLaren 123 1:15.289 0.300 Webber Red Bull 117 1:15.378 0.389 Vettel Toro Rosso 106 1:15.556 0.567 Alonso Renault 115 1:15.593 0.604 Nakajima WilliamsF1 118 1:15.759 0.770 Kubica BMW 107 1:15.869 0.880 Trulli Toyota 128 1:16.065 1.076 Fisichella Force India 73 1:16.113 1.124

Test Times - Hockenheim Day 2

Name Team Laps Time Gap Hamilton McLaren 101 1:14.872 136.656 mph Rosberg WilliamsF1 117 1:15.257 0.385 Raikkonen Ferrari 90 1:15.296 0.424 Coulthard Red Bull 42 1:15.767 0.895 Sutil Force India 97 1:15.945 1.073 Vettel Toro Rosso 62 1:15.955 1.083 Glock Toyota 114 1:15.995 1.123 Alonso Renault 106 1:16.141 1.269 Barrichello Honda 90 1:16.144 1.272 Webber Red Bull 70 1:16.217 1.345 Heidfeld BMW 115 1:16.235 1.363 Bourdais Toro Rosso 36 1:16.550 1.678

Test Times - Hockenheim Day 1

Name Team Laps Time Gap Hamilton McLaren 75 1:15.483 135.550 mph Raikkonen Ferrari 63 1:15.803 0.320 Rosberg WilliamsF1 87 1:16.099 0.616 Sutil Force India 97 1:16.516 1.033 Bourdais Toro Rosso 113 1:16.533 1.050 Kobayashi Toyota 65 1:16.570 1.087 Heidfeld BMW 59 1:16.593 1.110 Piquet Renault 111 1:16.856 1.373 Coulthard Red Bull 67 1:17.351 1.868 Wurz Honda 89 1:17.825 2.342

2008 British Grand Prix - Results

Going in to the grand prix, many people had one question on their mind.  How did Heikki out qualify his teammate Lewis Hamilton by almost a full second?  The answer...he was gambling that it would be a dry race on Sunday.  Lewis chose the correct strategy and car setup and left everybody else in his wake.  Heikki, with his dry leaning setup, slipped and twitched his way to P5.

Ferrari as well had two drivers split between setups and it showed as Massa's car swapped ends numerous times throughout the race.  Kimi on the other hand was doing quite well and even cutting into Hamilton's lead until Ferrari made a horrible decision and put him and Massa out on the track with their used intermediates.  The race appeared to be over for both drivers, but Kimi found his way up to P4 by the end while Massa was already too far behind and out of the points.

Nick Heidfeld finally got to grips with his BMW Sauber and came in a distant second to Hamilton.  He drove a very clean race and stayed out of trouble to the end.  Kubica was not doing quite as well, but was quick on track up until he got caught out by the changing conditions and beached his car in a gravel trap.

Rounding out the slightly strange podium was Rubens Barrichelo with an enormous grin on his face.  There may have been a few tears as well knowing Rubhino.  Jenson Button didn't fare as well spinning out on lap 38.  Even though there were mixed emotions in the Honda camp, I'm sure they were very happy with the points Rubens brought home.

Fernando Alonso, Jarno Trulli and Kaz Nakajima rounded out the top eight in what was the most chaotic grand prix of the year so far.  Personally, I can't wait for more!

Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired
1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	60	1:39:09.440
2	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	60	+68.5 secs
3	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	60	+82.2 secs
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	59	+1 Lap
5	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	59	+1 Lap
6	Fernando Alonso	Renault	59	+1 Lap
7	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	59	+1 Lap
8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	59	+1 Lap
9	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	59	+1 Lap
10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	59	+1 Lap
11	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	59	+1 Lap
12	Timo Glock	Toyota	59	+1 Lap
13	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	58	+2 Laps
Ret	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	39	Spin
Ret	Jenson Button	Honda	38	Spin
Ret	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	35	Spin
Ret	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	26	Spin
Ret	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	10	Spin
Ret	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	0	Spin
Ret	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	0	Spin