I’m here with the review for German Grand Prix 2008. The next race will take place this weekend and I thought its better to get the old one out of the way. The German round of Formula 1 World Championship took place at a different date and a different circuit than the last one but it still turned out the same result. Lewis Hamilton of McLaren was victorious again and its clear now that he and his team have found something, at last, which makes them the class of the field.

After a disastrous British Grand Prix, it was expected that Ferrari would struggle and the sequence of events didn’t unfold any differently. Although, this time it was Felipe Massa who was leading the Ferrari challenge. Kimi Raikkonen failed to find the perfect balance and the right set-up for his car during the entire weekend and struggled as a result. He was slower than his team-mate during qualifying and almost the entire race.

On the other hand, Lewis was on a role as he stormed to another pole position in his career. Massa’s second place on the grid provided Ferrari with some hope of a fight. Heikki Kovalainen secured the third place on the grid while Kimi could manage only sixth with his lousy setup. Jarno Trulli lined up fourth on the grid while Fernando Alonso was again able to turn up a good qualifying run in his Renault. He eventually lined up fifth on the grid.

With Lewis on pole and Ferrari struggling for pace, the race result was a foregone conclusion. Although, in an F1 race, its not over till its actually over. So, there was a lot to play for. From the start, Lewis was flying and started building up a sizable lead to the second placed Massa. Heikki and Kimi both held their positions with their pace being seriously hampered by the slower cars running ahead of them. However, it was all made very interesting by the Safety Car period.

During this time, all cars came in for pit-stop but Lewis decided to stay out, slowly circling the circuit behind the Safety Car. Kimi lost a significant amount of time being held up by his team-mate during the stops. He was only able to join the field in tenth place. The most exciting thing, however, was that the early lead built up by Lewis was down to almost zero and that presented an opportunity for a serious fight at the top. His race strategy further added to the excitement.

Surely, McLaren had misjudged something and once the Safety Car came in, Lewis had to drive for his life and drive really fast to come out in the lead even after his pit stop. He was not able to keep the lead but retook it spectacularly, overtaking both Massa and Piquet in the process, to claim another win. Kimi also found some touch in the final minutes of the race and started overtaking cars left, right and center. It all made for a brilliant race. Kimi finished the race in 6th while his team-mate, Massa had to be content with a 3rd place finish.

Among all these, luck played into the hands of the Renault team and Nelson Piquet made sure its not wasted. He was fast enough to deny Massa any chance of getting back at him. He finished in 2nd, scoring the first podium for his team this season. Nick Heidfeld finished fourth while Heikki finished in 5th. Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel finished 7th and 8th respectively. This result means Lewis now leads the championship from Massa by 4 points while Kimi is further 3 points adrift.

The full results from this race are as follows -

1 – 22 – Lewis Hamilton – McLaren-Mercedes – 67 – 1:31:20.874
2 – 6 – Nelsinho Piquet – Renault – 67 – +5.5 secs
3 – 2 – Felipe Massa – Ferrari – 67 – +9.3 secs
4 – 3 – Nick Heidfeld – BMW Sauber – 67 – +9.8 secs
5 – 23 – Heikki Kovalainen – McLaren-Mercedes – 67 – +12.4 secs
6 – 1 – Kimi Räikkönen – Ferrari – 67 – +14.4 secs
7 – 4 – Robert Kubica – BMW Sauber – 67 – +22.6 secs
8 – 15 – Sebastian Vettel – STR-Ferrari – 67 – +33.2 secs

9 – 11 – Jarno Trulli – Toyota – 67 – +37.1 secs
10 – 7 – Nico Rosberg – Williams-Toyota – 67 – +37.6 secs
11 – 5 – Fernando Alonso – Renault – 67 – +38.6 secs
12 – 14 – Sebastien Bourdais – STR-Ferrari – 67 – +39.1 secs
13 – 9 – David Coulthard – Red Bull-Renault – 67 – +54.9 secs
14 – 8 – Kazuki Nakajima – Williams-Toyota – 67 – +60.0 secs
15 – 20 – Adrian Sutil – Force India-Ferrari – 67 – +69.4 secs
16 – 21 – Giancarlo Fisichella – Force India-Ferrari – 67 – +84.0 secs
17 – 16 – Jenson Button – Honda – 66 – +1 Lap

Ret – 17 – Rubens Barrichello – Honda – 50 – Accident damage
Ret – 10 – Mark Webber – Red Bull-Renault – 40 – Oil leak
Ret – 12 – Timo Glock – Toyota – 35 – Accident