Luis Hamilton had a gritty battle with rival Felipe Massa for this Sunday’s German Grand Prix victory. The Britain started on poll position, and comfortably lead from the first lap to emerge after the first pit stop with an early advantage.

The race became a little harder for Hamilton, whose lead was significantly cut when Toyota’s Time Glock had a right-rear suspension failure, causing him to slam backwards into the pit wall barrier and throw debris all over the race track. The impact was large enough to leave him winded in the car, forcing circuit marshals onto the track to clear the damaged car and its debris, and caused the release of the safety car for a number of laps.

Glock's suspension failure caused this accident

During the safety car period, most cars were apporaching their second pit stop window and took the decision to pit one or both of their cars. Hamilton’s team mate, Heikki Kovalainen pitted but strangely Luis did not. Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen both pitted, which meant Kimi had to wait - which lost him time and track position.

McLaren had calculated that if Luis put the hammer down and pushed hard at the restart, he would be able to pit with enough time under his belt to re-emerge as leader. This caused problems when the safety car stayed out much longer than they predicted, causing Luis to make his second and final pit stop with seven seconds less of a lead than expected. Luis came out of the pits and slotted into fifth position, behind team mate Kovalianen. Heikki let Luis through fairly easily, but this left Hamilton behind third place runner and championship rival Massa, and also surprise race leader Nelson Piquet Jr in the Renault who had luckily made his one and only pit stop just before the safety car was deployed, allowing him to jump ahead of all the front runners who pitted during the safety car period.

Hamilton cruised up to the back of Massa down the straight, slip streaming him into the inside of the hairpin. With plenty of room, and good traction he accelerated out of the corner ahead of Massa and was well on his way to chase down Piquet. He too put up a good fight but was overtaken by the McLaren driver in the same place as Massa. Nelson Piquet however showed that he can cope with pressure, and proved that there was some good pace in the Renault as he pushed hard to stay ahead of Massa.

Hamilton eases past Massa & Piquet

The race ended there, with Luis having fought hard for his victory, and Piquet Jr well deserving of his second place finish and first podium. The victory allowed Luis Hamilton the chance to lead the world championship ahead of Massa and Raikkonen - who had been off the pace all weekend.

Piquet enjoys his first time up on the podium

The final race standings were as follows -

1 Lewis Hamilton - McLaren-Mercedes
2 Nelson Piquet Jr - Renault
3 Felipe Massa - Ferrari
4 Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber
5 Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren-Mercedes
6 Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
7 Robert Kubica - BMW Sauber
8 Sebastian Vettel - Toro Rosso