Hamilton: German win my best yet

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Lewis Hamilton described his domination of the German Grand Prix as "the best weekend" of his career as he stretched his lead at the top of the Formula One world championship.

Starting on pole, the McLaren driver was forced to come from fifth after his team blundered on strategy during a safety-car period.

But it gave Hamilton the chance to underline his speed and overtaking ability on a weekend when he was clearly the quickest driver.

"I think it has been our best weekend up until now -- we are really on top of our game right now," he said after stretching his drivers' championship lead over Felipe Massa to four points.

"The car was fantastic throughout the race and I was able to push and push, manage the tires to the best I probably ever have and, really, the car was fantastic.

"We have got a lot of work to do for the rest of the season but if we can continue with this momentum we have got we are looking very good."

Hamilton's win should not overshadow Nelson Piquet's remarkable drive to second place. Under pressure after a disappointing debut season thus far, the Brazilian delivered in style.

Having qualified 17th, he maximized his one-stop strategy by pitting during the safety car period and re-emerged near the lead.

And after being passed by a charging Hamilton with eight laps to go, Piquet was able to stay ahead of Massa to take second place and Renault's first podium of 2008.

"After qualifying I was thinking that my weekend was over, but we opted for an aggressive strategy in the race and the team made some great decisions when the safety car came out," he said.

"Then I had to concentrate to keep my pace up after the safety car left. I knew I was in a very strong position.

"I knew that Lewis was much faster than me, so I did not want to take any pointless risks."

Massa was understandably downbeat after Ferrari were left scratching their heads at the speed of Hamilton's McLaren.

Massa's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen started and finished sixth after an unusually anonymous drive as the Italian team were comprehensively outpaced.

"For sure I expected maybe a different race because the pace of Lewis at the beginning was so quick. By then I knew they were much quicker than us here on the track" Massa explained.

"I didn't have the car to fight. I tried but it was not possible. We need to work very hard for sure.

"But I trust the team and I know they are going to work very hard and we are going to have a competitive car for the next races."