McLaren star inches away from embarrassing prang

Lewis Hamilton came within inches of driving into the back of the F1 Safety Car at Hockenheim on Sunday.

The Indy reports how Lewis was a very lucky boy:

Ferrari star takes out small child

Yes, dear reader, those denim-clad leg, striding into the distance, belong to villainous Kimi Raikkonen. The Finnish driver had just knocked over a little Japanese girl at Hockenheim, no doubt causing her to cry like…er, a little girl.

Raikkonen walked off without an apology, leaving the little girl on the ground (as the photo shows). Iceman? Heartless multi-millionaire bastard, more like.

All this just a couple of weeks after he shoved a photographer to the ground on the grid at Silverstone. What’s next for evil Kimi? Perhaps he’ll drive into a pack of nuns.

Watch a video of the incident after the jump…

Some of our favourite images from Hockenheim

Lewis Hamilton in the spotlight after his stunning win.

More pics below:

Schumi, chunkier and still not cool

Is it us - doubtful, we’re rarely wrong - or has Schumi piled on a few pounds since he retired from F1? Either that or he’s hiding a golf ball in each cheek.

The shirt may well be fashionable, but Schumi and flamboyance don’t go well together. It looks all wrong.

By the way, this photo was taken as Schumacher arrived by helicopter at Hockenheim yesterday.

McLaren quickest on a wet Friday morning at Hockenheim

The momentum is with Lewis Hamilton. The British driver was fastest this morning in Germany, with McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen in second.

The Hockenheim circuit was wet for the first half of the session, with early morning rain being followed by further showers during the session. BMW’s Robert Kubica span off on his eighth lap, entering the stadium section. It was not a big crash, but the Pole did not return to the track. Kubica was not the only driver to find the conditions tricky; several other drivershas small spins, including Hamilton.

Full timesheet below:

The best images from Hockenheim so far

LL Cool L (Ladies Love Cool Lewis) moves in on Scottish “lady driver” Susie Stoddart.

More below…

Just don’t ask us why

The info we have on this image simply says that “Lewis Hamilton plays the drums on his way to an interview”. Yeah, right. We could use a little more to go on.

We do know that Lil’ Lewis has a drum kit in his house in Geneva, and that McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen used to be a drummer in his school band. Kovi revealed in a recent interview that he wants to go over to Hamilton’s pad and play the drums: “We will drive his neighbours crazy, not mine,” the Finn said, a twinkle not far from his eye.

See a photo of Kovi on the drums below:

Nige takes on one of the fastest tracks in F1 history

The old Hockenheim was a balls-out speed monster, and who better to tame it than fearless Mansell, in a less-than-competitive Ferrari. Check out the long-ass straight 11 seconds in. It seems to go on forever, at least compared with today’s technical circuits.

Struggling German driver not short on self-confidence

Timo Glock is a very talented driver, for sure, but he’s struggled to match Toyota team-mate Jarno Trulli this season. Okay, Trulli is having the season of his life, but we’d expect Glock to be a little closer to the veteran Italian.

Glock has just five points to his name so far this year, compared with Trulli’s 20-point haul. That hasn’t stopped the 26-year-old German from stating that his ambition is to be world champion - in a Toyota - in 2010. Yep, you read that right.

Nazionale Piloti lose pre-German GP match

The F1 drivers’ football team, the Nazionale Piloti, lost to a German representative XI at the Böllenfalltor stadion in Darmstadt yesterday. The team, which included Schumi, Seb Vettel and Nico Rosberg in its ranks, was on the wrong end of a 6-8 defeat.

Gotta love those 14-goal thrillers, but you know that Schumi will not be happy to lose a game in his native Germany - even if it was a charity game.