HOCKENHEIM (GERMANY) - LEWIS Hamilton used two sensational overtaking moves to overcome a blunder by his McLaren team and win the German Grand Prix yesterday.
More importantly, he seized the outright lead in the Formula One drivers' championship.
Nelson Piquet, the under-performing Renault driver, claimed the most remarkable result of his life by claiming second at Hockenheim.
'Sorry we had to make it a little bit difficult for you,' McLaren team principal Ron Dennis told Hamilton over the radio.
The 23-year-old driver replied with a chuckle, having every reason to be pleased with himself.
He now leads the standings with 58 points. Ferrari's Felipe Massa is second on 54, while his teammate, world champion Kimi Raikkonen, is seven points adrift after finishing a disappointing sixth.
Hamilton had dominated the early stages of the race, which he began in pole, and looked destined to win comfortably as he surged to an 11.5-second lead over Massa.
Then the suspension on Timo Glock's Toyota failed on the 35th lap, and the car crashed backwards into the opposite wall at high speed, spilling parts onto the track.
The 26-year-old German emerged from his destroyed car clutching his back and was taken to hospital.
A safety car was introduced, Hamilton's lead evaporated, and a flurry of cars decided to take advantage by going into the pits.
But McLaren decided against calling Hamilton in for his second pit-stop, a strange decision that almost cost him the win.
When he emerged from the pits on Lap 51, he found himself fifth, behind teammate Heikki Kovalainen.
A clear case of team orders saw the Finn run deliberately wide at one of the sharp turns, giving Hamilton a clear run on the inside.
Fourth quickly became third when Nick Heidfeld's BMW pitted and relinquished the lead. But Hamilton still had Piquet and Massa ahead of him.
He passed them one by one.
On Lap 57 of the 67-lap race, Hamilton dived down the inside heading into a hairpin, forcing Massa wide.
The Brazilian attempted to claw his way back at the next set of turns, but Hamilton bullied him wide again, allowing him to streak ahead and hunt down Piquet, before finishing 5.5 seconds ahead.
Explaining the safety car situation, he said: 'I didn't plan that. I would have preferred a more comfortable race.'
Speaking on his passes on Massa and Piquet, he added: 'I was told I was a second quicker than Felipe. I knew I had only a small window before my tyres would start to grain, so I was able to get quite close.
'I managed to get him under braking, and it was great fun. I thought my work was done, but I was told I still had Nelson in front of me, but I managed to do that.'
Massa blamed his Ferrari for making him look like a rookie.
'I didn't have the car to fight. I just did not have the pace,' he said. 'Stability was difficult, and I had a problem on the brakes as well.'
He resigned himself to being beaten by the McLaren after Hamilton easily pulled away in the first stint of the race. 'When it's like that, you can do nothing.'
Piquet Jr earned his first career podium after starting from 17th. He also secured Renault's first top-three finish of the season to put two Brazilians on the podium for the first time since 1991, when his father Nelson Piquet finished third in Belgium behind winner Ayrton Senna.
He said: 'If I'd taken too many risks trying to hold Hamilton off, Felipe might have overtaken me,' said the rookie. 'So I decided I had to save second place rather than end up in third or fourth and not be so happy.'
