JULY 29, 2006

Thanks boys

Lewis Hamilton started eighth on the grid for the GP2 race at Hockenheim but thanks to mistakes by his competitors was able to finish second and extend his lead in the championship after another impressive drive.

Gimmi Bruni led from pole position at the start but fellow front row man Timo Glock dropped behind Nelson Piquet Jr and Giorgio Pantano. Bruni and Piquet began to pull away while Glock was busy making up for his mistake and on the fourth lap grabbed third from Pantano. Eight laps later he passed Piquet for second. While this was going on, TV viewers spent an inordinate amount of time watching the Red Bull car of Michael Ammermuller, a most odd situation as he was doing little in that race and although he might one day be a star one would have thought that Glock was of more interest to the German fans.

Hamilton soon got rid of Adam Carroll, Ernesto Viso and Alexandre Premat and set his sights on those ahead and an early stop took him ahead of Pantano. When the other leaders pitted there was much action. Bruni lost time with a fumbled tyre change while Glock and Piquet both went too fast in the pitlane and had to serve drive-through penalties, which cleared the way for Hamilton to move to second position. Pantano was third, Glock fourth but Piquet was back in seventh behind Carroll and Viso.

Piquet soon overtook Viso and Carroll and chased after those ahead. In the meantime Glock was on a charge as well and passed Pantano for second. Piquet followed through soon afterwards. On the last lap the hot-headed Piquet tried to pass Glock and ran into the back of the German and then, for reasons that were not immediately apparent, slowed to a crawl (either with an electrical problem or because he had run out of fuel) and in the end failed to finish being passed by those behind him. Bruni won from Hamilton with Glock third and Viso, Pantano and Carroll coming in behind. Jose Maria Lopez was seventh with Clivio Piccione eighth.