McLaren ‘back in fight’ | BBC Sport.

An inspired drive saw Lewis Hamilton, despite complaints about his McLaren’s performance over the past few races, leap into P1 at the start and manage to hold off both Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber to capture the German Grand Prix.

“People criticise me for my aggressive driving style, but I think today I was in a good space,” said Hamilton. “There were some decisive moves that I pulled, and you had to drive with your head all the time. That was massively satisfying. I do it the way that I do it, and today I came through.”

If Lewis Hamilton had thereafter raised one or two digits to those who have been deriding him for pretty much everything in his life — his driving tactics, his aggressive forcefulness, his choice of management, even his facial hair – he could have been forgiven tpday. Twice he lost the lead of the German GP, having snatched it at the start. The first came when he got a very slow exit from the chicane on the 12th lap and saw pole-sitter Mark Webber edge ahead down the pit straight, the second when they made their first pit stops and Red Bull got their Australian driver ahead.

But each time Hamilton responded emphatically and cleanly. In a move reminiscent of his drive in Turkey last year when team-mate Jenson Button momentarily passed him on the pit straight, he immediately pulled alongside Webber and had grabbed the initiative back by the first corner. At the end of the second stint, he put in some great laps prior to his pit stop and was ahead of Webber by the time both had changed tyres.

Hamilton savours taste of revenge as McLaren find ‘the sweet spot’ | The Independent.