Hamilton wins in Germany

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton has won the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Mark Webber.

Behind Webber, team-mate Vettel netted fourth, doing so in a vital final pit stop with one lap remaining.

After chasing Massa over the second half of the race, it came down to the last change of tyres as they came in together.

Hamilton made the start he dreamed of in Germany by taking the lead into the first corner at the Nurburgring.

Making his first front-row start since the second race of the year, McLaren star Hamilton managed to get ahead of pole man Mark Webber in his Red Bull.

The 60-lap race started in cold conditions, with an air temperature of just 13 degrees centigrade, and with the threat of rain hanging over the circuit.

But on a predominantly dry track, all 24 cars started on dry tyres.

Behind the leading duo, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso got his nose in front of champion Sebastian Vettel going into the opening turn, relegating the German to fourth.

However, Alonso ran wide early on lap two, allowing Vettel to move back up to third behind Webber.

In midfield, Renault’s Nick Heidfeld and Paul di Resta in his Force India collided, relegating the duo to the back of the field.

After three laps Hamilton had opened up a 1.9secs cushion over Webber, with Vettel third, Alonso fourth, followed by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, with Jenson Button 10th in his McLaren.

The stewards then announced an investigation into the incident involving Heidfeld and Di Resta.

On the run down to turn one on lap eight Alonso squeezed down the inside of Vettel to grab third, before the runaway title leader made a serious error heading into turn 10 on lap 10.

Vettel put his wheels marginally onto the grass and slid into the run-off area, although it was not enough to lose fourth place.

A lap later Heidfeld became the first casualty of the race as the German was hit by Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi into turn nine.

Launched into the air momentarily, Heidfeld at least landed back on all four wheels, but after hitting an advertising hoarding he spun into the gravel and out of the race.

Out in front, a small mistake by Hamilton at the end of lap 12 allowed Webber through on the inside around the final corner.

But following in Webber’s slipstream, Hamilton brilliantly cut down the Australian on the inside of the pit straight to regain the lead into turn one.

With Alonso also pushing hard in third, the leading trio were split by less than a second after 13 laps before Webber then became the first of the leaders to make his opening pit stop.

Hamilton and Alonso came in at the end of lap 16, with both passed by Webber as they exited the pits.

Massa led as he took advantage of the melee ahead, but that was only for a lap as he too came in at the end of lap 17, paving the way for Webber to hit the front, with Hamilton and Alonso in close attendance.

At one stage Hamilton found himself within 0.8secs of Webber, but after 22 laps the gap had increased to 1.4secs, with Alonso a further 1.3secs adrift.

On lap 23, Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher then committed the same error as Vettel before him, putting his tyres on the Astroturf on the approach to turn 10 and spinning into the run-off area, but only losing one place to Adrian Sutil in his Force India.

After 34 laps, and from fifth place, Button finally made his first stop, dropping back into eighth place behind Sutil and ahead of Schumacher.

With Vettel in fifth, a remarkable 28 seconds behind Webber, he was then informed he had a problem with his rear brakes and to adjust the bias as soon as possible to correct the issue.

As the tyres started to drop off, so the three leaders again closed up to one another, and after 29 laps they were covered by 1.6secs.

However, that was soon shaken up when Webber pitted for a second time, with the Red Bull team again fitting another set of soft tyres.

Hamilton followed a lap later, and this time it was the Briton who emerged ahead, just doing enough through the following corners to keep his nose in front.

However, Alonso then came in himself a lap later, and as he returned to the track he had the lead, but only momentarily.

Hamilton, on warmer tyres, pulled off another breathtaking move around the outside of turn two to reclaim the lead.

After 33 laps he had opened up a cushion of 1.7secs to Alonso, with Webber 0.6secs behind the Spaniard, with Massa, Vettel, Rosberg and Button taking up the subsequent places, but that quarter having stopped just the once.

Two laps later Button moved to sixth courtesy of Rosberg running wide at turn one.

Button then retired almost immediately with a problem on the hydraulics on his car.

On laps 40 and 41, Massa and Vettel pitted respectively, with the Brazilian and his pit crew just doing enough to keep him in fourth place.

That was followed by another mistake by Vettel on lap 42, with the 24-year-old late on the brakes into the chicane, forcing him to use the slip road to rejoin the track.

After 51 laps Hamilton made his final stop, switching to a set of medium, but slower tyres.

Although Alonso stayed out on the softer compound for another two laps, they were beginning to drop off and he was unable to do enough to leapfrog the McLaren.

That left Webber in front, but with Hamilton behind going quicker, when he eventually made his stop four laps from home, he was only 12 seconds ahead.

Hamilton comfortably regained the lead, with Webber dropping in behind Alonso, going on to claim his 16th victory, finishing 3.9secs ahead of the Spaniard.

In the end it was Red Bull who won the pit stop race, giving Vettel fourth place, but with his lead cut for the first time this season, but only to 77 points, with Hamilton now 82 points down and Alonso 86.

Sutil was sixth, followed by Rosberg, Schumacher, Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, with Di Resta 13th.