After a stunning qualifying lap that surprised even Lewis, Hamilton returned to his very best this weekend. As soon as he put his McLaren on the front row of the grid, many tipped him for victory - particularly given Mark Webber's failure to convert poles to wins in recent races. Once again, Mark made a poor start and Hamilton capitalised on this, immediately pulling out quite some gap on the rest of the field. As the cars settled into more of a rhythm it became too close to call the top 3 - separated by just 1.5 seconds at times but as the pit stops came, Hamilton came into his own. The cool temperatures undoubtedly helped Lewis and McLaren this weekend as he has often been too hard on his tyres causing them to degrade too quickly but today the undercut failed to help Webber as his tyres didn't come up to temperature quickly enough. Lewis's simple overtake on Alonso is unlikely to have been simply down to Alonso not paying attention and more likely a result of him tentatively getting to grips with the track on cold tyres as Hamilton, on warmer tyres came up behind him. No matter - from then onwards Lewis took charge and it looked unlikely that Fernando would ever really challenge him on track before the 3rd stop... quite predictably, Lewis's tyres were the first to go but unpredictably, the hard tyres didn't damage lap times. Combined with low fuel loads, the tyres performed well and while it looked like a risk to pit first, it was a risk that paid off for Hamilton as he secured a very sweet victory to regain 3rd place in the Drivers' Championship. Hamilton's attitude has been a lot more positive this weekend and it showed on track - a well deserved victory.
Chinks in Vettel's armour begin to show..
Losing out to Fernando Alonso right at the start of the race, Vettel really didn't enjoy his home Grand Prix as much as he would have liked to. Yes he finished in 4th place and when we consider that his teammate Mark Webber 'only' finished in 3rd, that might not appear so bad but in reality Vettel was miles off a podium today as he locked up on several occasions and even spun off as he ran wide. In my first blog I was quick to defend Vettel from the critics who say that he has never had to race and I stand by my assessment of Vettel as a great, intelligent and highly skilled driver. He is an exceptional driver when he is comfortable in the car, but this weekend he has been in Mark's shadow - he hasn't seemed as confident and carefree in the last few races as he was earlier in the season and I can't help but feel that as Ferrari and McLaren progress, Vettel - despite a huge lead over his teammate - is starting to feel a little less secure at Red Bull, particularly as he felt on the back foot with regards to car set-up this weekend. Fortunately for Sebastian, he has a huge lead over his nearest rival who also happens to be his teammate and while Felipe Massa - another driver who has been called into question recently - held Vettel up very well as he seemed reluctant to risk an overtake on the track, settling for 5th place or waiting for the pit stops to decide was a luxury Seb was able to afford. He maintains a commanding lead over the Drivers' Championship, but Vettel was shaky this weekend and he can't afford many more weekends like this as Alonso, Hamilton and Webber are relentless in their attack.
Not such a bad day for Alonso...
While Fernando will rue Hamilton's overtake after his second stop, he won't actually be too disappointed with second place today. The Ferraris do not enjoy the cold, damp conditions that we saw today at the Nürburgring and two weeks ago at Silverstone and yet Alonso finished first and second in such conditions... Yes he might feel that he missed out on victory today, but he didn't lose out to Vettel, and he and Ferrari will look ahead to the next few, much hotter races and feel extremely optimistic about their chances given the improvements that Ferrari has been able to make in recent weeks.
Petrov and Sutil impress...
Vitaly Petrov and Adrian Sutil impressed again this weekend with Petrov doing a great job to keep considerably faster cars behind him, positioning his car perfectly lap after lap, while Sutil's strategy and some great driving saw him grab a great 6th place for Force India this weekend. Often outqualified by teammate Paul di Resta, Sutil seems to perform far better in the race itself.
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