Lewis Hamilton of McLaren won a hard-fought German Grand Prix on Sunday, fending off challenges from Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber of Red Bull for his second victory of the season.
Hamilton started second but took the lead from Webber by the first turn, and McLaren then successfully defended the position in a cat-and-mouse game of pit stops between the top teams. Alonso finished 3.9 seconds back in second place, with Webber 9.7 seconds behind in third.
"I feel great. One of the best races I think I've ever done," said Hamilton, who also won the third race of the season, the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai in April. "This is a massive step forward ... and I hope we can keep the momentum going."
It was the second victory in four races for McLaren after Jenson Button's win in Canada last month, andHamilton is hopeful that the British team has finally caught up with Red Bull.
"I appears so ... but coming into this weekend we didn't think we'd be so fast," Hamilton said. "I do still feel that the overall performance of the Red Bulls is better than ours."
Hamilton's winning time was 1 hour, 37 minutes, 30.334 seconds around the 3.2-mile Nuerburgring circuit.
The top three finishers were within 3 seconds of each other for long parts of the 60-lap race and each took turns in the lead because of the three pit stops by all the top drivers.
The most exciting lead change came on lap 33, when Alonso returned to the track in front after a tire change, but was overtaken by Hamilton just meters after a pit-lane exit.
Championship leader Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull was fourth — the first time all season he hasn't finished first or second. After 10 of 19 races, he leads the standings with 216 points.
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