Nelson Piquet drove his way to a maiden podium finish in glorious sunshine at the Hockenheimring in Germany yesterday.

With a one-stop strategy and starting from 17th place, Piquet was not in the reckoning at the beginning of the race, with the spotlight on the close battle between McLaren and Ferrari.

But after pitting for his only stop of the day, Timo Glock's rear suspension failed spectacularly, sending him into the wall backwards at 170 mph and sending debris all over the pit straight, forcing the safety car to be deployed. After the pit lane was opened, Piquet, having stopped before Glock's retirement, found himself in third place, with Hamilton and Heidfeld in the front and still needing to pit in the next few laps.

With just 18 laps left in Germany, Piquet found himself leading the race, with Massa behind him, closing in at one hundredth of a second per lap, but Hamilton in fourth closing in much faster.

After Kovalinen let him through, Hamilton was quickly on the back of Massa and passed him at the hairpin turn six and almost pushed Massa off the road. Leaving Massa in the dust, Hamilton was quickly onto the gearbox of Piquet, overtaking him with an almost carbon copy move as the one on Massa.

Hamilton's win was great driving, but Piquet probably had the best drive of the day, with a bit of luck on the side, leading to a memorable day for the son of the three-time world champion.