F1: Hamilton imperious despite team error

When you read that a Ferrari and a Renault were Hamilton's nearest rivals, and that they were close enough to be racing each other, if not the McLaren, then you would be forgiven for thinking, no - you would be expected to think - that it was Raikkonen and Alonso. But the German GP was the day of the number twos: Massa and Piquet providing the first time for more than 25 years since two Brazilians appeared together on the podium - and that was Piquet's father and Senna.

And to rub their more illustrious team-mates' noses in it, Raikkonen finished 6th and Alonso finished 11th.

That puts some clear water in the Championship: three drivers went in on equal points, but now it's Hamilton, Massa, Raikkonen.

But Hamilton, who was walking away with this race just as he had at the British GP had to fight for it. Behind Hamilton, the race was both frenzied and close throughout the field. In the middle of a bunch of cars coming onto the pit straight, a right-rear failure (whether it was wheel or suspension is not clear at present) put Glock into a horrific spin, hitting the pit wall hard, smashing pieces off his car and throwing them across the track and into the pit lane. What was left of his car reversed across the track, dodged by other drivers and Glock appeared to steer it onto the grass. That brought out a safety car. The field bunched up behind Hamilton and when the pit lane opened, he was the only one of the front runners to stay out.

That, the team admits was a mistake. However, Hamilton stormed off to build a 13 second lead in just six laps, pitted and came out in fourth place. That put him behind Massa who had pitted and Heidfeld and Piquet who had not. Heidfeld came in for his stop, bringing Hamilton up to third. For two laps he battled with Massa but hard racecraft put him ahead.

Hamilton thought he was in the lead - either Piquet had stopped or he would soon stop. So with the intention of creating clear air between himself and Massa, Hamilton drove on - only to get a message from his pit that he was actually racing Piquet whose Renault team had gambled on a one-stop strategy which, due to the safety car, had paid off. Hamilton's sigh was almost audible: from thinking his afternoon's work was over so long as he didn't do anything silly, he had to give chase and despatch a car that was moving rather more quickly that this year's Renaults have any right to do. Piquet put up a small fight but realised the inevitability of losing the place. He made Hamilton take the place rather than surrendering it but did not take the chance of taking them both off. After all, when you've been told you are one race from the end of your F1 career if you don't pull your socks up, a second place is a pretty good chip to play, whilst nil points for going off battling for the lead would be a great way of losing your job.

Great racing? For sure. Edge of the seat stuff - absolutely.

For those that think F1 isn't exciting, you've not been watching it with someone who understands what's going on. Every race is becoming more technical, more strategic and showing better driving and racing than almost any other form of racing.

It's a shame, then, that TV coverage provided by Star Sports for viewers in South East Asia is punctuated with so many long advertising breaks that it's impossible to concentrate on the race. Yesterday, in the early part of the race, we were treated to an unsustainable tirade of adverts: four laps racing, two laps ads, four laps racing, two laps ads.....

And this, one has to remember, is on a pay tv channel to which race fans have subscribed.

It's a perfect argument against monopoly. And it's a disgrace.

What is worse is that, in Malaysia at least, the adverts are almost entirely for the sponsors of teams: what, one has to ask, is the purpose of sponsoring a racing team only to then pay even more money to prevent viewers watching the results of your sponsorship? And when sponsors' adverts run dry, the local presenter runs trailers - usually for soccer and usually trailers that run incessantly on all channels.

Bernie: sort it out. We need racing without breaks.