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Lewis Hamilton overcame a team tactical blunder with some impressive driving to win the German Formula One Grand Prix, earning back-to-back race victories and giving McLaren momentum for the second half of the season.
Hamilton's victory pushed him four points ahead of main rival Felipe Massa, who settled for third place in a problematic Ferrari that couldn't even challenge Renault's Nelson Piquet Jr down the home stretch.
Hamilton overtook Massa and Piquet Jr at the same hairpin corner after Timo Glock's earlier crash had brought out a safety car that nearly cost the McLaren driver his sixth career wire-to-wire victory.
"I would have much preferred an easy, comfortable afternoon out in front. But it didn't work that way," Hamilton said.
McLaren left the 23-year-old British driver on the circuit while his main rivals pitted, forcing F1's leader to try and stretch out a lead with a rapidly evaporating fuel tank. Hamilton was unable to do that, and re-emerged from the pits in seventh position with 17 laps to go.
The chase was on.
"I made a couple of textbook moves to get past them," Hamilton said after he squeezed past Massa from the inside with 11 laps left and easing by Piquet Jr three laps later.
"He did a fantastic race, no question about that," McLaren team principal Ron Dennis said.
"In the first stint he showed blistering pace and was comfortably quicker through the whole race."
Hamilton goes into the Hungarian GP looking for his third straight victory and fifth of the season at a track where he is defending champion.
"We're looking strong, we're looking good, we're in a good position. But as you know, in a Formula One season things change," Hamilton said.
Ferrari needs a big change, and quickly.
"This was not a good day and there's no point denying it," team principal Stefano Domenicali said. "Our rivals were stronger than us and we have to work out why, without getting caught up in the nebulous and superficial analysis."
The red Ferrari - so often a symbol of motoring prowess -_lacked pace, had no grip and Massa couldn't challenge Piquet Jr because of overheating brakes.
"This is definitely not a crisis, but we have to study carefully the handling of the car to understand if we have taken the right road in terms of development," said Kimi Raikkonen, who placed sixth and trails Hamilton by seven points in the drivers' standings.
Piquet Jr earned his first career podium and Renault's first of the season after starting from 17th. That put two Brazilians on the podium for the first time since 1991, when his father Nelson Piquet finished third at Belgium behind winner Ayrton Senna.
"I was so concentrated, I just wanted to look forward. I didn't want to spend too much time looking at how many laps but just focusing," the 22-year-old Piquet Jr said after his 10th GP.
"It was an incredible feeling."
Nick Heidfeld worked his way up from 12th to fourth ahead of McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen, who helped Hamilton at the hairpin turn when he let his teammate get by as he was chasing the leaders with the laps counting down.
Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber is 10 points behind Hamilton after finishing seventh ahead of Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel.
Glock was accelerating through turn 12 when his rear suspension appeared to snap, sending his Toyota spinning backward into the opposite wall at high speed.
He emerged from the wreck clutching his back and was kept overnight at hospital for observation after passing all medical scans.
"It is too early to determine exactly what the cause of the incident was but of course we are investigating,"
Toyota team principal Tadashi Yamashina said.
Hamilton was cruising before Glock's accident, but couldn't manage more than a 13.7-second edge when he pitted on lap 50.
"I knew it was kind of impossible," Hamilton said after securing McLaren's first victory at Hockenheim since Mika Hakkinen triumphed here a decade ago.
"It's a good feeling to come off that strong win at Silverstone and win here. It's great to see the pace we have," Hamilton added.
"We have to make sure that we can continue with this performance."
