Hamilton triumphs in Germany

Lewis Hamilton won Sunday’s German Grand Prix, much to his delight, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber.

The race was a classic, with nothing to choose between the three leaders for most part of it.

Sebastian Vettel had a troubled afternoon but still came home in fourth place. Massa was fifth.

The other points scorers were Sutil, Rosberg, Schumacher, Kobayashi and Petrov.

How the race unfolded :

Rain was playing with the engineers and drivers’ minds a few minutes before the start of the race, with intermittent showers of various intensities.

The whole field went for soft slick tyres despite the odd drops of rain.

Mark Webber made a slow start from pole position, handing Lewis Hamilton the lead as Alonso and Vettel battled for third. As Hamilton pulled a bit of a gap to Webber, Alonso made a mistake which allowed Vettel to move up in 3rd place.

The German then set off to chase down his teammate. Behind them, Rosberg was coming under pressure from Massa who was urged by his team to pass the Mercedes. Sutil, Schumacher, Petrov and Button completed the top ten on lap 4.

Vettel couldn’t shake Alonso off his back and had to defend hard on lap 6. Meanwhile, Webber was gathering more speed and closing in on Hamilton. Alonso reclaimed third place on lap 8. Further down the order, Button was still in tenth place, sandwiched between Petrov and Kobayashi.

Vettel had a spin on lap 9 as he put a wheel on the white lane under braking at Turn 10. He was able to safely rejoin in 3rd place, although he found himself under pressure from the battling pair of Rosberg and Massa.

Nick Heidfeld went off on lap 10 as he tried to overtake STR’s Buemi. His Renault stopped in the gravel trap and his race was over.

Up front, Webber was now really close to Hamilton and looking for a way past. Massa passed Rosberg for P5 on lap 11.

Webber made a move on Hamilton on lap 13 but couldn’t make it stick. The McLaren driver held on to the lead but their fight allowed Alonso to close in. The top three was covered by less than a second at this point. Following his spin, Vettel was 12 seconds behind the leading trio and coming under pressure from Massa.

Alonso attacked Webber on lap 14 but the Australian defended well. The RBR driver pitted at the end of this very same lap. Rosberg did the same. Webber rejoined in P6 behind Sutil.

Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel all stopped on lap 17. The Australian rejoined in the lead ahead of Hamilton and Alonso. Massa was right there with them but was yet to stop. He did so a lap later and rejoined right in front of Vettel. They were down in 8th and 9th but four drivers ahead of them were due in the pits.

They both moved up one place on lap 20 as they passed Kobayashi. The Japanese stopped at the end of this lap. Their next target was Petrov. He was disposed of on lap 22.

Sutil pitted from P4 on lap 23 and rejoined in 8th position. Petrov and Alguersuari stopped on lap 24.

Button was among the last drivers to pit and stopped on lap 25. He resumed the race behind Sutil.

Back at the front, Webber was still leading but couldn’t pull away from Hamilton and Alonso. The leading trio was covered by 2.8s on lap 26 and closely matched pace-wise. In 4th place, Massa was more than 20 seconds down the road. Vettel was some seconds behind… and warned of a possible rear brakes problem.

Webber pitted for the 2nd time on lap 31 and took another set of soft tyres. Hamilton stopped one lap later, handing the lead to Alonso. He rejoined ahead of Webber and had to fend off quite aggressively the assaults of the Australian. Alonso pitted another lap later and came out right in front of Hamilton and Webber.

The McLaren driver reclaimed the lead while his rivals were left fighting for 2nd. The Briton was clearly faster at that stage and pulled a bit of a gap. Webber made a little mistake while trying to attack Alonso and lost some time on the Spaniard.

On lap 36, Button entered in the pits to retire with a hydraulics problem.

The race then settled a bit, except for the battle for 7th between Kobayashi and Rosberg. The German took the advantage on lap 40.

Vettel pitted for soft tyres on lap 41. Massa stopped one lap later and rejoined right in front of the RBR driver.

It was then a wait-and-see game for the leaders as no one was eager to take on the harder tyres. Moreover, rain was expected to hit the track for the final laps of the race. Not too concerned by these problems as they were far off the lead, Massa and Vettel made good use of their fresher tyres to set some new fastest laps.

Sutil pitted from P6 on lap 49. Kobayashi followed suit.

Hamilton decided to stop on lap 52. The Ferrari mechanics were ready, waiting for Alonso who stopped two laps later. He rejoined behind Hamilton. Webber pushed on a bit more with his soft tyres but was slower than his rivals. Meanwhile, his teammate Vettel was still harassing Massa for 4th place.

Webber eventually came in on lap 57. He rejoined in 3rd place, 10 seconds behind the leader.

Massa and Vettel both left it as late as they could to make their final customary stop. They pitted at the end of the penultimate lap. The World Champion sailed past the Ferrari driver in the pitlane and rejoined in 4th place as Hamilton was on his way for his 2nd win of the season.

The McLaren driver won ahead of Alonso and Webber. Vettel was fourth, Massa fifth and Sutil sixth. Rosberg, Schumacher, Kobayashi and Petrov completed the top ten.