Lewis wins again

After his masterful performance in the wet of Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton was rightly compared with Ayrton Senna as a great wet weather driver. After today's stunning victory the pundits were drawing comparisons with Michael Schumacher. It's hard to believe how hopeless Hamilton looked just three races ago in the French countryside when he stumbled to his second consecutive point-less finish.

At Hockenheimring he was the fastest driver by far, in fact he had been all weekend. In retrospect the surprise was that he was only on pole by 0.2 seconds — fuel adjusted he, Massa and Kovalainen all had equal pace.

In the early stage of the Grand Prix Hamilton was about five-tenths a lap faster than his two rivals, and was 11 seconds ahead come the first round of pit stops. It was turning into a procession.

However, Timo Glock's huge shunt on lap 35, caused by probable suspension failure, made things interesting. All the cars on two-stoppers were in the pit window to be fuelled to the end of race. All but Heidfeld and Hamilton came in for gas and rubber. As the safety car continued to pound round the track it was clear that McLaren had made a blunder keeping Lewis out. He had seven laps to try to build a 23 second advantage — an impossible feat even in his McLaren.

When Hamilton eventually pitted for fuel and an option tyres he came out eight seconds behind Massa and ten behind Piquet, who was the surprise leader having being on a one-stopper.

Lewis blitzed around the track first passing Kovalainen (team orders at play) and then bursting past Massa and Piquet with ease. On some laps he was up to 1.5s quicker than both Brazilian drivers.

Unquestionably it was a great performance from Lewis. He was a second a lap quicker than Kovalainen and showed fighting spirit to pass Massa and Piquet. Would any other driver on the grid have been able to do that? Probably not — hence the comparisons with Michael Schumacher. They are not wide of the mark.

Worry at Ferrari

The Scuderia have to be mightily concerned right now. For three of the last four races the team has been thoroughly trounced by the McLaren — France being the exception.

Kimi was exceptionally poor all weekend and could only muster a sixth place. When was the last time he did that when he suffered to mechanical problems or strategic blunders? If the gap stays the same for the next race in Hungary Hamilton would establish a comfortable lead over the Finn in the Drivers' Championship.

Massa will be happy enough he outpaced his team mate but was disappointing. How he could get his car by Piquet's is a mystery, especially since Raikkonen passed Alonso once the safety car went in. One gets the feeling that had Kimi been in Massa's place he'd have somehow forced his way past the rookie.

For Ferrari fans Alonso can't make the jump soon enough.

Kovalainen and McLaren

Lewis's greatness shows Heikki Kovalainen up as a very ordinary driver. Those who thought the Finn would give Hamilton a run for his money have been proved sorely wrong. Heikki isn't aggressive enough in the car — at the start he should have got past Massa — and he is a few tenths a lap slower than Hamilton.

Perhaps we shouldn't be too harsh on the Finn. Last year Hamilton matched double World Champion, Fernando Alonso, for pace. However, there is a real chance that Kovalainen will make it through the season without winning a race. That may prove terminal to the Woking-based outfit's attempt to win the Constructors' Championship. Don't be too surprised to see Rosberg in the second McLaren seat next year.

A word on Piquet

Sure Nelsinho lucked out — he himself admitted as much. But it is fascinating (and funny) to contrast the fortune of the two Renault drivers. Piquet started 17th to Alonso's fourth &mdash he finish second to Alonso's 11th.

We know that Alonso doesn't take a pasting from his team mate lightly. What must he think of the worst rookie in F1 history finishing nine places in front?