F1: German Grand Prix won by Hamilton
July 21st, 2008Yesterday’s German Grand Prix isn’t going to be forgotten easily by Timo Glock following the spectacular smash that resulted from a suspension failure. The immediate result was that his car whipped round, shunting into the barrier at 150 mph in reverse, before ricocheting across the track and coming to a rest. After being removed from his car he looked to be uninjured although heavily winded, and a stay in hospital confirmed that he was uninjured. However, Toyota is unhappy in the way that he was removed from his car as F1 regulations stipulate that the driver should be removed while still strapped to his seat.
Before this incident Lewis Hamilton was leading the race by a big margin and from his point of view the safety car was the last thing he needed. This was compounded with a poor decision by McLaren not to bring him in to the pit for his final tyre change - almost all other drivers came in once the pit lane was reopened, leaving Hamilton to come in under normal race conditions and claw his way back into the lead.
And that he certainly did, with a beautiful display of driving that shows why he really is world class.
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 67 | 1:31:20.874 | 1 | 10 |
| 2 | 6 | Nelsinho Piquet | Renault | 67 | +5.5 secs | 17 | 8 |
| 3 | 2 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 67 | +9.3 secs | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | 3 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 67 | +9.8 secs | 12 | 5 |
| 5 | 23 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 67 | +12.4 secs | 3 | 4 |
| 6 | 1 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 67 | +14.4 secs | 6 | 3 |
| 7 | 4 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 67 | +22.6 secs | 7 | 2 |
| 8 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | STR-Ferrari | 67 | +33.2 secs | 9 | 1 |
| 9 | 11 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 67 | +37.1 secs | 4 | |
| 10 | 7 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 67 | +37.6 secs | 13 | |
| 11 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 67 | +38.6 secs | 5 | |
| 12 | 14 | Sebastien Bourdais | STR-Ferrari | 67 | +39.1 secs | 15 | |
| 13 | 9 | David Coulthard | Red Bull-Renault | 67 | +54.9 secs | 10 | |
| 14 | 8 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 67 | +60.0 secs | 16 | |
| 15 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Ferrari | 67 | +69.4 secs | 19 | |
| 16 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Ferrari | 67 | +84.0 secs | 20 | |
| 17 | 16 | Jenson Button | Honda | 66 | +1 Lap | 14 | |
| Ret | 17 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 50 | Accident damage | 18 | |
| Ret | 10 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 40 | Oil leak | 8 | |
| Ret | 12 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 35 | Accident | 11 |
