Alonso Wins German Grand Prix HOCKENHEIM, GERMANY - The German Grand Prix on Sunday marked the halfway point of the 20-race Formula One season. While it is far too soon to say who the drivers" champion might be when the season ends in November, Fernando Alonso, who has so far proven to be the best driver, continued his victorious ways, winning the race in a remarkable way and adding to his series lead. By winning the German Grand Prix, Alonso became the first driver to score three victories this year. He led the race from start to finish in one of his strongest drives of the season. It was the 30th victory of his career and his second victory at the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim, where he also won in 2010, and it was more evidence that Alonso, a Spaniard driving a Ferrari that has not been the best car this season, is at the peak of his talent a week before his 31st birthday. Taking advantage of the pole position, which he earned in treacherous, rainy conditions on Saturday when faster competitors like the McLaren Mercedes and Red Bull cars performed poorly, Alonso controlled the race perfectly, always leading by just enough. "Starting on pole was the key part because it was difficult to overtake," Alonso said. Most important for Alonso, the most consistent driver this season, he improved his lead in the drivers" series. Alonso leads the series with 154 points. In second is Mark Webber in the Red Bull car, with 120 points, while Webber's teammate, Sebastian Vettel is third, with 110. Vettel appeared to have finished the race in second position after a dramatic chase in the final laps against Jenson Button in a McLaren Mercedes, who finished third after Vettel passed him with three laps left. But two hours after the race it was announced that Vettel had made an illegal move in passing Button as Vettel drove off the edge of the track at the hairpin to get past the McLaren driver, gaining an unfair advantage. Vettel was given a 20-second penalty, dropping him to fifth place. Kimi Raikkonen of the Lotus team moved to third place, and Button claimed second. The McLarens and Red Bulls looked like the fastest cars of the weekend, but Alonso had scored a faster lap during a difficult, wet qualifying session on Saturday. Vettel started from second on the grid. Button started only sixth. "Definitely it was not an easy race because we were not the quickest on the dry," Alonso said. But we were quite competitive and there were some good calls on strategy by the team. Although he controlled the race from the beginning, Alonso's Ferrari this year has frequently run into problems in the final laps of races because the tires wear out more quickly than those of his competitors. On Sunday, it looked as if the same problem might occur. The stakes changed with 25 laps left in the 67-lap race when Button passed Vettel after the German's pit stop to move into second. Button had not won a race since the season opener in Australia in March, and he was now perched directly behind Alonso and apparently in a position to pass. Lap after lap, Button pressured the Ferrari driver. Then, however, with just four laps left in the race, Button had dropped to 1.9 seconds back as his tires wore out, and now it was he being hunted by Vettel, less than a second behind. With less than three laps left, Vettel passed Button at the hairpin. But he was five seconds behind the leader, and only a breakdown of the Ferrari or a mistake by Alonso would change the order. Alonso held on, as he has in taking advantage of every opportunity this year, winning in Malaysia in April thanks to the rain, and winning in Valencia, Spain, in June thanks to a breakdown of Vettel's car. Throughout, Alonso has avoided making mistakes or losing hope. "It is true we were O.K. in Valencia, but Red Bull was quickest and we took advantage of a mechanical problem Vettel had," Alonso said. He then pointed out that before the beginning of the season, during testing in Jerez, Spain, the car had been an enormous two seconds slower than the leading cars. "I think we have had a good recovery, of when you think where we started in the Jerez test," he said. But it means nothing because there are still another 10 races. The Hungarian Grand Prix is Sunday, and Alonso said it would be tight. "It's a short circuit and as we saw this year, in two or three tenths there are eight or nine cars," Alonso said. So we need to make a perfect preparation and a perfect qualifying, because you can be out of the top 10 if you miss a couple of tenths.