FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF GERMANY - RESULTS

Nelsinho Piquet Jr. had the drive of his life for Renault in the German Grand Prix today. It wasn't enough to secure a victory. After starting 17th, Piquet at one point had the lead before McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton stunned the crowd with impressive overtakes of Piquet Jr's Renault and Ferrari's Felipe Massa. Hamilton, who started from pole and led a large chunk of the race, is driving his Mercedes-Benz V8-powered racer like.... well, the great driver we all expected him to be after an amazing rookie season.

Hamilton's McLaren-Mercedes teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, finished in fifth; one spot ahead of Ferrari's flying Finn, last year's champion Kimi Raikkonen. With Ferrari's two decent finishes they've managed to retain their comfortable lead; 16 points ahead of BMW and 19 points in front of third place contender McLaren-Mercedes. Massa leads Raikkonen in the drivers standings, but both trail leader Lewis Hamilton. Fourth in the drivers standings is BMW's Robert Kubica (7th in Germany today), three points behind Raikkonen.

BMW's other driver is Nick Heidfeld who was just half a second off the podium today in fourth position. Piquet's Renault mate, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, was 38.6 seconds abaft in 11th place. Alonso had started in fifth while Heidfeld's BMW was on the grid in 12th.

Ferrari engines also power the Scuderia Tora Rossa cars and the Force India team. STR's Sebastian and Sebastien (Vettel and Bourdais) landed 8th and 12th, respectively. The Force India cars of Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil also finished on the lead lap, but in 14th and 16th.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli missed the last points position by about four seconds. Other Toyota engines in the Williams cars of Nico Rosberg and Kaz Nakajima finished in 10th and 15th. Toyota's factory driver Timo Glock didn't fare well. He was the first racer out of contention and was taken to hospital after being seen clutching his back. 

Honda's Jenson Button and Rubens Barichello struggled mightily. Only Button finished the race; but in 17th, the last driver to take the chequered flag. Barichello completed just 50 of 67 laps. That leaves the Red Bull Renault cars of David Coulthard and Mark Webber, neither of which lived up to their qualifying. Coulthard's 10 spot on the grid turned into a 13th-place finish. Webber's Red Bull Renault suffered an oil leak and didn't finish the race.

In two weeks, Budapest hosts the Formula 1 ING Magyar Nagydij 2008 race on a 4.381 km track. 70 laps are anticipated.