Fernando Alonso has won a riveting German GP from Sebastian Vettel - although the World Champion's pass on Jenson Button for second place is under investigation on a day of high drama and controversy at Hockenheim.
At this stage, all that can be written with any degree of certainty is that Alonso has extended his lead of the World Championship after a race of faultless supremacy. The Spaniard led from start to finish, rebuffing first Vettel and then Button after the much-improved McLaren snuck past the Red Bull when the German returned to the track at the second round of pit-stops.
Their roles were reversed on the final lap when Vettel found a way past Button - a way that saw all four of the RB8's wheels off the track as it rounded the MP4-27. Despite Vettel's wide-eyed protestations of innocence when confronted by an unimpressed Button after the race, it was a move that immediately looked highly dubious and a stewards' investigation is underway - a process that Red Bull will be all too familiar with after only escaping a pre-race penalty when the stewards were forced to concede that they had wriggled through an engine-mapping loophole.
No such controversy surronded Alonso's 30th career victory, however. Despite never escaping from the close proximity of either Vettel or Button, he remained unruffled throughout and always just far enough ahead to avoid a challenge for the lead of the race. Too quick, too clever, too good.
Too bad, though, for Lewis Hamilton after his McLaren ran over the debris left strewn across the first corner when Felipe Massa carelessly lost the front-wing of his Ferrari at the start of the race. By the time that Hamilton had returned to the track with his puncture repaired, Alonso was a full minute further up the road and the 2008 World Champion was once again facing a race of frustration.
But you can't keep a magnet for controversy out of the limelight for long, however, and Hamilton was launched back into the cut-and-thrust of the battle for the lead of the race when, out of sequence from the frontrunners after his second stop, he found himself tucked up behind Vettel, faster but also a lap down. The response was typical Hamilton as the McLaren driver swiftly unlapped himself, drawing an indignant reaction from Vettel that was repeated in the post-race press conference.
"It was stupid for him to disturb the leaders," complained the reigning World Champion.
Hamilton's day of misery ended with a tactical retirement on lap fifty-eight and since winning in Canada he has scored a paltry two points in three races. A pre-break fillip in Budapest next week is desperately required - for his confidence as much as his title aspirations.
The good news, then, is that the prospect of a McLaren victory is back within the realms of possibility with the MP4-27 a full match for both the Red Bull and Ferrari throughout the race and Button very nearly pulling off an unlikely victory until overcooking his tyres towards the end of his final stint.
After enduring arguably the worst slump of his career, Button was back to his stylish best this weekend, his quest for victory amounting to a finely-judged three-pronged attack interspersed between his two pit-stops: stage one) overtake Nico Hulkenberg and Michael Schumacher to follow in the wake of the two leaders; stage two) pass Vettel for second, under-cutting the Red Bull with a faster lap on fresh rubber and an ultra-fast pit-stop that saw McLaren set unofficial world record; stage three) overtake Alonso for the lead of the race.
Close but not quite - and trust Alonso to be the only fly in the ointment as Button finally rediscovered the zip that saw him take victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
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