Lewis Hamilton snatched the outright lead in the Formula One World Championship with a dramatic victory in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

The McLaren driver took his second successive championship victory, holding off Nelson Piquet and Brazilian Felipe Massa who finished third. Hamilton led from the off but a seemingly comfortable victory was almost jeopardised by his team's decision not to bring him into the pits following the introduction of a safety car, after Timo Glock's crash almost brought the race to a standstill.

Hamilton eventually pitted as the race got back underway, but by the time he emerged from his stop he had dropped back to fourth. However, the young Englishman soon passed Heikki Kovalainen, his team-mate, before he produced a thrilling overtaking manoeuvre to first edge past Felipe Massa and then Renault's Nelson Piquet to take the chequered flag.

Explaining the safety car situation, Hamilton said: "I didn't plan that. I would have preferred a more comfortable race.

"We got a decent start, had two decent stints, but the team opted for me to stay out. Hey, we all have decisions to make, and for sure we will learn from this one. I then kept pushing after my second stop, and credit to Heikki who is a great team-mate, who could see I was quicker."

"I would have much preferred an easy afternoon but it didn't work that way," he said. "I got off to good start, the team opted for me to stay out and thought I could have pulled out a gap. I understood and just kept pushing - over the limit, pushing and pushing - but I couldn't find the gap. But I was able to pull it off."

Of the team decision to keep him out, Hamilton added: "I said 'are you sure about this', and they said fine. But we all have decisions and opinions and we'll learn from this one and move on.

"But we had the quickest car this weekend and we came out on top. The team has done a phenomenal job."

Speaking on his passes on Massa and Piquet, he added: "I was told I was a second quicker than Felipe. I knew I only had a small window before my tyres would start to grain, so I was able to get quite close.

"I managed to get him under braking, and it was great fun. I thought my work was done, but I was told I still had Nelson in front of me, but I managed to do that cleanly and fairly."

Ron Dennis, McLaren's team principal, insisted his team got their tactics right despite the safety car almost scuppering Hamilton's second consecutive victory.

"We expected the safety car to come in early, and knew would be 1.5 seconds quicker when it came in," Dennis said. "You can't get it right all the time. We thought the race could have started three laps earlier."

Of Hamilton's dominant performance he added: "It was a fantastic drive. He had a lot of pace and it's hard to slow him down sometimes."