I do not want to say this was the best race of the season but it sure was entertaining. We could see some serious racing with overtaking up and down the grid, we had a safety car following a crash (luckily without any serious injury), we could see a serious strategy blunder and impressive recovery from it and 2 Brazilians on podium, one of them being Piquet jr. !

McLaren dominated the weekend from Friday but the close fight between Massa and Hamilton in qualifying promised some possibility of a fight for the race win. At the end we had a fight but more thanks to McLaren getting it wrong than Ferrari getting it right. Lewis Hamilton pulled away right from the start and Massa never looked like a serious opposition. Early on even Kovalainen was a threat but after few laps Massa pulled away from him. Not sure why because Heikki was not that much more heavy than Massa. In the meantime Hamilton managed to build a decent lead in front.

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It looked way too easy when Hamilton passed his team mate after his second pit stop. The presenters at the Star TV studio were rather ironic after the race saying that there are “no team orders in F1″ , the whole bar where I was watching the race was full of boos. So were there team orders or is Hamilton that much better than Kovalainen that he simply made that look that easy ? At the end, it did not take him that long to overtake Felipe Massa …

So were there team orders or not ?

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Photo: Daimler Media

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Lewis Hamilton managed to overcome apparent strategy blunder and won the 2008 German GP at Hockenheim. Nelson Piquet climbed up to the podium for the first time in his F1 career scoring also the first podium of the season for Renault. Felipe Massa finished 3rd. First time since 1991 Belgian GP (when Senna won and Piquet sr. finished 3rd) there were 2 Brazilian drivers on podium .

The race was affected by safety car following Timo Glock’s violent crash. Glock looked a bit shaken after the crash but seems to be OK.

2008 German GP result:

1. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 1:31:20.847
2. Nelson Piquet - Renault + 5.586
3. Felipe Massa - Ferrari + 9.339
4. Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber + 9.825
5. Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren + 12.411
6. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari + 14.483
7. Robert Kubica - BMW Sauber + 22.603
8. Sebastian Vettel - Toro Rosso + 33.282

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Welcome to Live Blog coverage from 2008 German Grand Prix. Join the debate below !

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Adrian Sutil is another German driver sporting new helmet design at his home Grand Prix. Here are few pictures (click on photos to enlarge):

Photos: Force India F1

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Lewis Hamilton will start the German GP from pole position after beating Felipe Massa by 0.02s in dry qualifying session. Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli will occupy row 2. Fernando Alonso recovered from a Q1 elimination scare and will start from P5, just ahead of disappointing Kimi Raikkonen. Robert Kubica who suffered technical problems in free practice and was also on a brink of elimination in Q1 will on P7. Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and David Coulthard complete the top 10.

Q1 was very even, only about half second separated 4th from 16th. Nelson Piquet missed out on Q2 fourth time this season and I wonder for much longer will the team remain patient with him … Kazuki Nakajima and Rubens Barrichello were the other 2 higher profile casualties of Q1.

Qualifying Results:

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Heikki Kovalainen was fastest in the final practice session at Hockenheim, 0.07s ahead of Felipe Massa. As usual BMW Saubers did not show much speed in this session, Robert Kubica however seems to have had some technical problems. He did not run at all in final 10 minutes. This final practice session was dry but there are chances of rain for qualifying. You can follow the weather conditions at the track via this webcam.

Saturday Free Practice Times:

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Nick Heidfeld has a new helmet design for the German GP this weekend. He used both - his usual one and the new one on Friday. Here are several pictures of Nick Heidfeld and his Hockenheim helmets.

Photos: © BMW AG

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The morning session started on wet track but later on the teams were able to switch to dry weather tyres. Hamilton and Kovalainen finished the session on top ahead of Massa. The only notable incident was Kubica’s crash.

The second practice took part in dry conditions. Lewis Hamilton was again the qucikest guy on track ahead of both Ferraris and Heikki Kovalainen.

To follow Hockenheim weather, you can check this webcam on the track.

Friday Practice 1 Times:

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