Musical chairs for 2013 not over yet

There were two major players in the driver market this year and it was all about waiting for them to make their mind up.

Michael Schumacher couldn’t make a decision on his future quick enough, much like when he brakes, so Lewis Hamilton took the decision and made the jump to Mercedes which instigated the move from Sauber to McLaren for Sergio 

Perez. So where does that leave the driver market?

Well it means that most of the top table seats have gone for 2013. Lotus have all but confirmed Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean to remain for next season, so the only seat remaining is Felipe Massa’s at Ferrari.

Other drives which look open are both seats at Sauber, which judging from this year would actually be quite attractive for many drivers.

Force India will probably confirm both current drivers if they don’t get a better option. Paul di Resta had been rumoured for a move to either Mercedes or McLaren but has obviously missed the boat. I imagine Toro Rosso will have to keep faith for at least one more year with their current incumbents.

Williams have had the pace this year, and despite his many incidents Pastor Maldonado has displayed a huge amount of speed, which if he can learn from his mistakes can be harnessed better next year; he’s also got a bunch of Venezuelan money. Bruno Senna has been the more reliable driver but unfortunately has not had the spark that Maldonado has had. The likelihood is that their third driver Valtteri Bottas will be promoted.

That leaves the three new teams with only Timo Glock at Marussia and Pedro de la Rosa at HRT pretty much certain.

Ferrari

As great a story as it would be I can’t see Schumacher going for the Ferrari seat alongside Fernando Alonso. No it would be much more worthwhile getting a younger driver who’d be willing to learn from the Spaniard such as Nico Hulkenberg. He’s the main person being linked to the drive, but it’s most likely to be Felipe Massa.

So the rumours go, Sebastian Vettel may already have signed a pre-contract with Ferrari for 2014, and I think if that’s the case Hulkenberg wouldn’t go for just a year. Heikki Kovalainen might, he was adequate back up to Hamilton at Mclaren, but he’s grown a lot since leading Caterham so I’m not sure he would want to accept a subservient role.

No, the most likely scenario seems to be to keep Massa for one more year and then see what the options are, after all he is gradually improving, and you’d hope Ferrari would make an easier car to drive next year for Massa to sit on the tail of Alonso.

Sauber

So the seats at Sauber are when it’ll get really competitive. Sauber traditionally have helped younger talent develop so it might not be a surprise to see a GP2 star get a seat, they have 3^rd in the 2012 championship Esteban Gutierrez on their books, but I’ve a feeling they won’t hire him as he seemed a bit erratic this year. Perhaps they might take a chance of the top 2, champion Davide Valsecchi and runner up Luiz Razia.

Kamui Kobayashi should be allowed to stay, but the team seem to have gone cold on him, with a lot of rumours in the F1 press persisting that his drive was under threat. Perhaps they’ll have a change of heart now Perez has gone, so they at least have some continuity.

The main players for these seats seem to be Jaime Alguersuari and Heikki Kovalainen. Of those drivers I see Heikki eventually remaining at Caterham with Vitaly Petrov. He’s come too far with them to give up on it now, although if there’s no progress next year, he’d be well within his rights to jump ship.

Alguersuari has to be a favourite for a seat at one of the high end midfield seats. I thought he played a starring role in the Toro Rosso during 2011, often making strategies work on less stops like Perez has been doing this year.

He was pretty unceremoniously dropped, he was just about to get off the learning curve and was really developing. He’d have made a good bench mark at least for one of the two current Toro Rosso drivers at least who have no one to learn from and so far have been fairly unremarkable.

However, this situation has allowed him to be Pirelli test driver, so he has the inside scoop on the new compounds for 2013, and according to his twitter account is very hopeful of securing a drive. I think he’s going to be at Sauber next year.

Schumacher

The interesting story from the Hamilton fall out was that Schumacher has not instantly announced his retirement. In fact there's been no mention whatsoever. 

His representatives were seen at Sauber in Singapore and it is known he's still weighing up the options despite the loss of his drive. It would be like going full circle in a way as he was at the Sauber Mercedes sports car team when he got his opportunity in Formula 1.

I’m not sure that would be the most dignified of career ends for a driver of the calibre he once had but he loves to race so maybe he’s not quite done with it yet but he'd surely know that he'd have no chance of another title or probably a win despite this seasons Sauber form. Would he really have the motivation to not be working towards a higher goal than points finishes? 

At least at Mercedes there was that belief of a title challenge, at least to start with. It'll be interesting to see his choice. However, Brawn has said there would be a place open for him at Mercedes in an as yet unspecified role.

The remaining seats

This then leaves us with the final ‘new’ teams as it were. As I said I think Kovalainen will end up staying at Caterham and Petrov might get another year.

There seems to be a revolving door concept for the second drive at Marussia, so a new GP2 star could take the place of Charles Pic, such as their current reserve Max Chilton, or Jules Bianchi who’s been in the third driver role at Force India.

Meanwhile at HRT I can see them potentially employing the Chinese driver Ma Qing Hua who’ve they’ve given some practice run outs too. Of course he would come with some money, and there’s the other thing, especially with these new teams, budget does play a part. Actually it plays a part for most teams these days.

So here’s some of the options for next year.

Ferrari – Alonso and Massa/Hulkenberg as an outside possibility.

Red Bull – Vettel and Webber

McLaren – Button and Perez

Lotus – Raikkonen and Grosjean

Mercedes – Hamilton and Rosberg

Sauber - Alguersuari/Kovalainen/Kobayashi/ Gutierrez/Schumacher/Razia/Valsecchi

Force India – di Resta and Hulkenberg/Bianchi/Alguersuari

Toro Rosso – Ricciardo and Vergne

Williams – Maldonado and Bottas/Senna

Caterham – Kovalainen and Petrov

Marussia – Glock and Pic/Razia/Valsecchi/Chilton

HRT – de la Rosa and Hua/Karthikeyan

all photo's from autosport.com

Lewis Hamilton chooses Mercedes

Today Lewis Hamilton made one of the biggest decisions of his career when it was announced that he has signed a three year contract to join Nico Rosberg at Mercedes from 2013; thereby leaving McLaren, the team he’s been with for half his life.

Is it a crazy decision? It’s certainly not the most expected decision despite the rumours, but we’ve all got to leave home sometime I suppose and stand on our own two feet, and in a way I think that’s exactly what Lewis has done. 

It’s a very brave decision to leave a team with the history and success of McLaren, but with Ross Brawn heading up the Stuttgart squad it’s surely only a matter of time before they’re consistently challenging for wins.

It’s an opportunity to create something that Michael Schumacher had with Brawn at Ferrari, an era of dominance. Whether Hamilton is as patient as Michael was to build a team up to sustain that success is another matter and one I’d question.

Of course you also have the image rights that seemed to crop up when people were weighing up the pros and cons of both teams. McLaren are notoriously strict concerning their drivers personal sponsors and the many days of PR has to do, whereas Mercedes will let Lewis’ IXI management exploit his marketing potential to earn him extra millions although the actual monetary offers to drive ended up being fairly similar.

Whether that was the tipping point to leave I don’t know but for someone who’s said many times he just wants to win, it’s a curious decision. 

Admittedly since Lewis’ brilliant first two years in Formula 1 when he ended up as World Champion, he has suffered some frustrating times.

McLaren couldn’t provide him a car to put up even a half decent title defence in 2009, and again in 2010 and 2011 the car has not been of the same calibre as the Red Bull, he’s had to watch as Sebastian Vettel took away his youngest ever world champion record from him, then rack up the poles and wins on his way to a dominant second title.

This has not sat well with him, because he knows his talent deserves more success than he’s been able to have. Lewis is almost certainly the fastest driver out there and his relative lack of success was evidently frustrating him. 

Coupled with off track issues he’s had and the fact he doesn’t seem to really get on with McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh quite as well as Jenson Button, he has at times seemed like quite a beleaguered figure.

This year started off nicely with pole position, but pit stop mistakes and unreliability have again cost him to the extent that with six races left, it’ll be a hard ask to win this years title when they’ve actually had a very competitive car. It’s not going to help their challenge either, there may be tension in the team now the decision has been made, and also any new parts and advancements for next year will be shielded from Lewis.

However, McLaren are great developers and Lewis has managed to win races every year he’s been in the sport. Mercedes have 1 win since they returned as a factory squad. Since their previous guise as Brawn, they haven’t looked anywhere near being consistent challengers.

But they do have Ross Brawn, they are a factory squad and in 2014 when there are major rule changes, especially to the engines when we get Turbo’s back, Mercedes would seem like the place to be, they make strong engines, and McLaren by then will be a customer team. They’ve also been strengthening their design departments over the last year and half, that’s got to come to fruition at some point.

So has Lewis made the right call? Only time will tell, but a Brawn project has rarely failed and if it goes right there’s no reason why he can’t aim for the success that Schumacher achieved at Ferrari. Hopefully he made the choice for the right reasons, but good luck to him, it’ll be quite the challenge, which is possibly just what he wanted.

Sergio Perez joins the top table

Of course that means there was a space at McLaren to fill, and Sergio Perez is that man. I think it’s a good choice, of the up and coming drivers he’s certainly been one of the best, his three podiums this year have been fantastic.

Ferrari still apparently deemed him to inexperienced for them to replace Felipe Massa, obviously McLaren think otherwise, but I think the Italian team may have missed out here, and privately they must be a bit annoyed after helping him with their young driver program.

It’ll be interesting to see how he copes in the top team environment. I think he’ll do well but I also think McLaren will be fairly devastated to lose the likes of Lewis as evidenced by them saying they think he's made a mistake to leave. Perez has room to develop but right now, they're lacking one of the top three drivers in the sport, the others being Alonso and Vettel.

Perez has been great in the races more often than not, but his team mate at Sauber Kamui Kobayashi has out qualified him a fair amount, and Jenson Button isn’t exactly renowned for being super fast on a Saturday.

However, they’re both great on a Sunday, it’ll be an interesting battle between Perez and Button, I can actually see Button thriving as the senior member of the team, and if he can get the car designed around him to give him what he wants more often, Lewis leaving could be the best thing ever for him.

What now for Michael Schumacher?

Of course this decision means a certain seven time champion has been pushed to the side lines. This wasn’t what was meant to happen, and it’s really quite sad that Schumacher’s career could end like this. I can imagine Mercedes coming good soon, and it’s a shame that he won’t be there to potentially reap the rewards, as despite silly crashes this is the fastest he’s been since his comeback, regularly as fast or faster than Rosberg.

He’s not announced retirement though, and rumours say he might go to Sauber. It would be strange for someone with his success to lower himself to Sauber, despite their fairly successful 2012. Then again, it would a completion of some weird circle as just before he drove in F1 he was driver for the Sauber-Mercedes sports car squad.

Ferrari haven't confirmed Massa yet, but a move there is highly unlikely.

According to Autosport, Mercedes started to pursue Hamilton when Schumacher couldn’t make a decision whether to continue driving or not, so in effect his indecisiveness has cost him his seat, but he was aware of what was happening, and perhaps his lack of announcement so far means he really is considering driving for another team.

So, that was an exciting day of Formula 1 news, first major change at one of the top 3 teams since 2010, it’ll be fascinating to see how it all works out next year. Meanwhile there’s still a championship to decide in 2012, McLaren and Lewis still have six races to pull this back.

all photo's from autosport.com

Vettel back on track after Hamilton woe

Lap 23 Lewis Hamilton comes down the gears leading into turn 1, suddenly the engine is revving erratically, the gears momentarily hovering between 3^rd and 4^th before falling into neutral, forward momentum is rapidly decreasing. He urgently flicks the paddles behind the steering wheel looking for a gear, hitting the steering wheel in frustration as he sees his championship hopes depleting; Vettel is already through into the lead and more crucially, Alonso has passed and on his way to another podium.

Under the lights Sebastian Vettel kept his hopes alive of a third consecutive drivers title after taking his second victory in Singapore after a gearbox failure thwarted Lewis Hamilton’s charge to the top.

Behind, Jenson Button kept up McLaren’s points tally but once again, Fernando Alonso got his Ferrari up to a podium slot to keep his advantage a win away from anyone else. It’s looking rather ominous for his rivals as no one can keep up the consistency the Spaniard is producing.

That won’t matter to Vettel tonight though, against the backdrop of the lit up Skyscrapers and Marina Bay he threaded his Red Bull through the streets to take what ended up being a fairly comfortable win that hit the time limit of 2 hours after safety car interludes.

He was fastest in all three practice sessions, but couldn’t manage pole position and he was visibly down about it after qualifying. Finding himself third on the grid he leapt up to second almost straight away, tucking in behind front row starter Pastor Maldonado into turn two and cutting to the inside into turn three to set him up for a long time studying Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing.

For the next 20 laps or so Hamilton and Vettel exchanged lap times, with only Button and Maldonado just about able to keep up up to the first pit stops. A few times the Red Bull closed, but you always got the feeling Lewis could pull out a gap when he needed.

Lap 23 it all changed for Vettel, Lewis slowed and the Red Bull flew into the lead and from then on it was a game of reversal as this time a Red Bull kept the McLaren of Button at bay. Jenson didn’t get close enough to have a go, apart from a wince inducing moment during the first safety car period where Vettel braked suddenly and Button just missed smacking into the back.

By the end Vettel had opened up a 6 second lead as Button’s tyres faded. It was a good drive from him, passing Maldonado was important to keep him in touch with Lewis, and he made some incisive passes after his first pit stop to not lose much time at all as the field behind delayed their stops.

After the disaster at Monza it was crucial for Vettel to score some big points, and he now  becomes the main challenger once again, 29 points behind, as he and Alonso fight it out to see who’ll be first to grab a third world title.

Hamilton’s gearbox woe as Button takes second

That closest challenger probably should have been Hamilton who said he was comfortable in the lead and just maintaining a gap. If he continued to the end he’d probably be sitting just 24 points behind Alonso, as it is he’s 52 behind with just 6 races to go and 150 points remaining.

He couldn’t really afford anymore retirements now he certainly can’t. It must have been gut wrenching for his McLaren team when on lap 23 Lewis came down the gears into turn 1 while leading, suddenly the engine is revving erratically, the gears momentarily flickering between 3^rd and 4^th, before falling into neutral, forward momentum rapidly decreasing.

He urgently flicks the paddles behind the steering wheel looking for a gear, hitting the steering wheel in frustration as he sees his championship hopes depleting; Vettel is already through into the lead and more crucially, Alonso is passed and on his way to another podium.

His engineer came on the radio telling him they did everything they could yesterday, so it seems like McLaren had a ticking time bomb in the car and they were rather hoping it wouldn’t explode until after the race.

A great shame for Hamilton who produced an outstanding lap on Saturday to claim pole by half a second, but he’s not out of the title fight yet, he’s in probably the fastest car at the moment and looked to be on his way for his fourth win of the year. He’ll still have something to say in this title fight yet.

Button made sure McLaren were still on the podium with second place. He’s now three race wins behind Alonso, any chance of a comeback is surely gone now. Still, he was a close contender all race and he’ll be looking to continue his good recent form in Japan.

Alonso in good fortune shocker

Alonso is just always there isn’t he? He knows his Ferrari team need to keep up the development pace, they’ve now fallen behind McLaren and Red Bull and they will eventually string some results together and come at him.

But yet again Alonso is on the podium after starting 5th, his eighth of the year. He didn’t look to have much pace in the opening stint, but once he’d switched from the super soft tyres to the softs he was easily capable of matching the and sometimes beating the pace of the leaders.

He had an intense fight with Maldonado which so many times looked like it might end in tears, but Pastor just 

about gave him enough space, and when the Williams pitted for a third time during the first safety car and then retired from hydraulic failure after an impressive race and qualifying, Alonso was safe in third to keep him well on top of the title chase.

His team mate Felipe Massa drove a stormer to end up 8^th after starting 13^th, but contact and a resulting puncture dropped him to last at the end of the first lap. From then on in clear air he was outpacing the leaders, admittedly the safety car helped him close up, but he put his Ferrari right on the edge as he climbed into the points.

Nothing shows this more than when he squeezed passed Bruno Senna, it looked like he’d lost the back of the car but he squirmed through and put another decent move on Daniel Ricciardo to end up with 4 points.

di Resta puts in impressive showing

Perhaps the star of the race was di Resta who at one point looked like he could be on the podium. He was 6^th in qualifying and maintained that in the early stages of the race, managing his tyres carefully.

His second stop came on lap 33 as the Safety Car came out for Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT to be picked out of the wall at turn 18. That was four laps after Alonso had pitted and now he was right behind the Ferrari with fresher tyres.

The race restarted on lap 39, but immediately the Safety Car was back out after Michael Schumacher collided with Jean-Eric Vergne, this unfortunately meant Alonso had more opportunity to rest his tyres, so any critical drop off was never going to come.

But it was a great afternoon for the Scotsman and it will have increased his exposure to the top teams should they come calling for next year, well once Hamilton and Schumacher sort out their lives.

Safety cars once again in Singapore

Talking of the safety car incidents, Karthikeyan’s was a simple case of hitting a wall, Schumacher and Vergne’s seemed more like the Mercedes drive was trying to use the Toro Rosso as a launch pad. It didn’t work very well.

Obviously the immediate thing the media do is question whether Michael’s too old for this as he looked to have made a major misjudgement. However, mistakes are made by everyone and he’s more than proved this year that he’s capable of still getting very good results.

More importantly he feels something may have gone wrong as he’d already slowed for the corner before he locked up as it wouldn’t decelerate. Not sure the team thought the car had a problem as they came on the radio with a rather exasperated “what happened there?” The stewards also have kindly awarded him a 10 place grid penalty for Japan.

Lotus lack the leading pace

One driver who was probably quite pleased Schumacher got so spectacularly out the way was Kimi Raikkonen who’d been sitting behind him for the entire race. The fact Schuey got rid of Vergne too and caused a second safety car which meant he’d definitely be close enough to jump ahead of the two stoppers who still needed to use both compounds such as Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, and three stopping Mark Webber was even better.

After this he only had to have his team mate Romain Grosjean move out the way and he ended up 6^th after running a long time just outside the top 10. It wasn’t a great weekend for Lotus, they never seemed to have much pace to be near the front. The dark horse for the title needs some development quickly if it’s not to be put back in the stables.

At least they should introduce their double DRS/passive F-duct in Japan, we’ll see if that revitalises them, but for now Kimi has dropped off the pace in the championship, but is still remarkably third in the standings.

Grosjean came back after his race ban and kept out of trouble to come home with  a decent 7^th place.

Rest of the top 10

Nico Rosberg cheered the Mercedes team after his team mates crash with a very good 5^th place after starting 10^th. Both Mercedes had chosen not to set a time in Q3 so they could choose which tyres to start. Surprisingly they just went with what the other top 10 runners did, the super softs, albeit brand new sets.

However after running solidly in the opening stints and coming out ahead of Grosjean in the first stops, the safety car ensured that Rosberg, like Kimi would gain a few places as those around him stopped for fresh boots. Hulkenberg and Perez’s days were scuppered by the safety cars as well as eventually running into each other and Kamui Kobayashi. Sauber didn’t have a good day.

Ninth was Daniel Ricciardo who put in a great drive. As others fell and pitted around him, he kept it on the track and defended well when Mark Webber hounded him for the final few laps.

Webber couldn’t get through and he continues a poor run of form, that was compounded when he gained a 20 second penalty for passing Kobayashi off the track. I think that’s harsh myself but it sees him fall far behind his team mate, I think any realistic shot at the title has gone for him. Strange that since he won at Silverstone he’s hardly looked like getting near the podium again.

Sergio Perez is eventually awarded the final point, but major congratulations to Timo Glock and Marussia who take 12^th place, their best result ever, and it moves them ahead of Caterham in the constructors table.

Despite ‘kissing’ the wall, Glock put in a great drive and while all around him got in trouble, he managed to still bring the car hume in a fantastic result for the team.

In two weeks Formula 1 will be in the far-east for a double header; Japan then a week later Korea. Can Alonso keep getting on the podium? Will McLaren win then not retire that car a race later? Will they and Red Bull actually string together results to catch the Spaniard? And will Kimi ever get a win this year? We’ll find out in two weeks.

all photo's from autosport.com

Hamilton victorious as Perez shines

Lewis Hamilton became the main championship challenger to Fernando Alonso on Ferrari's home ground this afternoon.

In a dramatic and pass filled race he surged to victory with a supreme display. It was a dominant weekend for McLaren in general where they locked out the front row in qualifying and had looked good for a 1-2 result.

The only disappointment comes from Jenson Button's failure to finish due to a fuel pressure problem and once again puts Hamilton as the man to pursue McLaren's championship challenge.

Starting from pole, Lewis was clear from the start and just like in Hungary looked in control all the way. He was never really in trouble and even when Sergio Perez came charging along he was able to eek out a few extra tenths to keep him at arms length.

A great drive and a significant one, for now McLaren have taken pole and victory in each of the last three Grand Prix. More drives like this for Lewis and Alonso will certainly be looking over his shoulder sooner rather than later.

But he'll have to be perfect from now on to catch Alonso who put in a great show to come home third and actually extend his championship lead, perhaps by more than he was expecting.

Starting 10th after a broken anti-roll bar hurt his qualifying, the Spaniard was storming in the opening laps to be 5th within the opening 10 laps.

The main talking point was his battle with then main title rival Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel. Exiting the pits, the Ferrari was almost alongside but there followed a tasty dual as Vettel maintained position.

Fighting for fourth and valuable extra points, Fernando went to the outside of Vettel into the Curve Grande with a lot of extra grip. Vettel maintained the racing line, squeezing him nearer and nearer the grass.

Off the Ferrari tumbled, bouncing over the greenery. Alonso was quickly on the radio claiming it was out of order. In truth it looked no worse than what Alonso had done to Vettel at the same place last year.

The difference then was Vettel didn't quite take as much grass and made the move stick. Whatever though, the stewards are trying to clamp down on driving standards at the moment it seems and Vettel duly got a drive through penalty, but not one I think he deserved.

There was a subtle exchange of positions for the Ferrari's as Felipe Massa gave up second place, but there was to be no charge for victory for Alonso, and there was to be no second place either as Perez bolted passed both scarlet cars.

Still, third was a result Alonso was delighted with, he increased his title lead to 37 points, and without his quali problem, might well have had a go at a win. He's in a strong position with 7 races left and he knows it.

His team mate Massa had a fine weekend which would have been all the sweeter if he'd taken a podium. Unfortunately for him, Alonso's charge prevented this, but he'll take some satisfaction from 3rd on the grid and a competitive fourth on race day.

Now let's get to the real highlight, Perez again showed his fighting spirit to grab his third podium of the year with second place.

Starting from 12th he was in the mix all day, he used his Sauber to manage his tyres brilliantly all day. Starting on the hards he made them last until lap 29 when he switched to the mediums. Immediately the charge began.

Fastest lap after fastest lap was reeled off as he caught and passed the other one stoppers with ease; all of them had come in significantly earlier and were on the harder compound.

He yet again executed his strategy perfectly and once passed the Ferrari's even made Lewis Hamilton sit up and take notice in the lead.

Another great drive from someone who'll no doubt be in a top team in the not too distant future.

Behind the top 4, Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus held off the two stopping Mercedes' of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg for 5th, 6th and 7th.

Kimi moved himself up to third in the title hunt, one point behind Lewis. But Lotus never seemed to have the speed this weekend but he's still up there and actually did well to get the better of Schuey at the end who was on much better tyres.

Romain Grosjean's replacement at Lotus, Jerome d'Ambrosio did a solid job but wasn't quite on the pace to end up 13th.

Schumacher was very racey and had a number of decent battles including holding off Alonso and Kimi. But the Mercedes were the only top cars to take to two pit stops, tyre degradation still very much an issue but at least there was improvement in their quali form of late with 4th and 6th.

Rosberg did well to come back from a terrible start, dropping to 13th at one point but both Mercedes drivers raced well to at least secure some points.

Force India had looked good but problems and penalties clouded their potential. di Resta started 9th after a 5 place gear box penalty but wasn't able to make the progress he might have expected to come home 8th.

Kobayashi started on the mediums but couldn't replicate Perez's form at all and ended down in 9th.

Bruno Senna in the Willians grabbed the final point on the last lap from Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso.

Well, what happened to Red Bull? Both cars out and not even challenging for a podium.

Vettel will not be happy, he drove a hard fought race and was keeping them in it; he did not deserve the drive through penalty for the Alonso incident. But it would matter not as his car suffered another alternator failure, while Mark Webber's poor form continued as he spun away a chance of points.

They just didn't have the speed and will have to hope their next developments get them back on the pace if they want to continue in this title fight as Vettel drops 39 points behind.

So another mixed up fighting race for all apart from Hamilton who was serene at the front.

But the championship table is once again changed with Lewis and Kimi taking over from the Red Bull drivers in 2nd and 3rd respectively. The only constant seems to be Alonso maintaining the gap at the front as he once again opens over a race win lead.

That needs to start changing soon as we near the final quarter of the season. Either Lewis, Kimi or Vettel have to maintain a consistent challenge from now on or time will run out.

The lights of Singapore next, if McLaren can continue their form, Hamilton will surely confirm he's the man to take the fight to Alonso.

All photo's from autosport.com

Button dominates Spa after start mayhem

Four weeks of waiting for the summer break to end, four days of anticipation, 1 day of washed out practice, 1 hour of squeezed in work trying to find the right balance for your car, 1 hour of maximum attack to try for the perfect lap. Five seconds before the lights go on, hands tighten on the wheel, engine notes rise…Lights out

Jenson Button should support Lewis Hamilton many Formula 1 commentators said, including this one, but what do they know. Button utterly dominated the Belgian Grand Prix weekend in his McLaren, taking a breath taking pole position on Saturday and then becoming the first driver this year to lead every lap as he took a serene but very fast Sunday drive to victory.

He was untroubled and untouchable, measuring his supreme pace to also look after his tyres and make a one stop strategy work for him. Such was his control on the race, we hardly saw him on the television coverage, but it was brilliant drive that throws away any issues about him playing a supporting role; he lies only 16 points behind his team mate Lewis Hamilton.

He got a great start, leading into the first corner and took himself out of Romain Grosjeans bowling range which took out four cars including the Lotus, Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari, Hamilton and Sergio Perez in the Sauber. The safety car was duly deployed and on resumption of the race he immediately pulled out a 2.8 second lead over Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India.

The next few laps he continued to increase his lead by seconds rather than tenths, nothing could stop him. The driver and team didn’t blink and react to people stopping for tyres early and immediately setting quicker times, he could feel his tyres coming back to him; it wasn’t the time to pit.

He eventually did pit on lap 21 for the harder tyres, one lap shy of half distance, he came out in the lead and from then on no one was anywhere near. If anyone had come to challenge he looked more than capable of sticking in a fast one to maintain the gap, like he had done since Q2 on Saturday. In other words, today he just didn’t look like losing.

He’s still 63 points behind Alonso, that’s 2 wins and a third place behind so he’s by no means thrown himself right back in the mix for the title, but this season is manic, anything can happen, all Button knows is he has to repeat this exceptional form again and again; time for 2009 in reverse.

The Crash

Four weeks of waiting for the summer break to end, four days of anticipation, 1 day of washed out practice, 1 hour of squeezed in work trying to find the right balance for your car, 1 hour of maximum attack to try for the perfect lap. Five seconds before the lights go out, hands tighten on the wheel, engine notes rise.

Smoke is pouring from a car in front. Five lights on, a Williams can’t contain itself any longer and goes early, lights out. You’re away to the first corner, a good start, but then a touch and bang. Cars and debris everywhere, race over in five seconds.

Grosjean, Hamilton, Alonso and Perez all experienced this in what could have been a horrible accident, as it was they were all fine.

Grosjean got a good start from 8^th and was alongside Hamilton, Lewis was already nearly against the right hand wall, but Grosjean kept coming, clipping the McLaren’s front left which sent him spiralling out of control into the back of the Lotus.

Grosjean catapulted towards Perez’s Sauber and launched over the top of that and just missed Alonso’s head. Perez bounded into Pastor Maldonado’s Williams spinning it round, while Hamilton crushed into the side of the Ferrari.

Kobayashi had a slow start from 2^nd and was caught up in the incident but somehow managed to avoid any significant damage despite what looked like a few decent hits from other cars but his race was ruined.

Grosjean has to take the blame for this, he had room on his left to spare and didn’t need to squeeze Lewis like that, it effectively ruined two of the championship challengers days and it could have been so much worse.

Lewis already seemed in a bad mood with various deleted tweets and complaints about his set up. He went the wrong way with the car this weekend and just didn’t have the pace, so it’s debatable how well he might have gone in the race, but on a day when Alonso had his first moment of bad luck this year, he’ll be disappointed not to have made it count. He cannot afford any more non finishes if he wants to remain in this title battle.

Even worse for the Sauber’s after a brilliant qualifying of 2^nd and 4^th was ruined in a few hundred metres. They were confident of a good race pace too, still if they were quick in Spa that should carry across to Monza next week.

Alonso will just be thankful he didn’t get hurt, but also that he’d built up a sizeable title lead. He’s still nearly a race win ahead despite his first non-finish in 24 races. Felipe Massa looked fast in the Ferrari today, so Alonso could well have expected to challenge for a potential podium. He’ll head to Monza ready to get back on track in front of the tifosi.

Penalties

Grosjean has been involved in too many collisions on the first lap this year, which is perhaps why he’s now received a one race ban for the incident. I’m not sure he deserved that as it wasn’t deliberate, but I guess it certainly was reckless. Jerome D’Ambrosio the former Virgin racer and Lotus 3^rd driver looks set to stand in.

Maldonado on the other hand perhaps should have been banned already this year as he doesn’t seem to learn from his misdemeanours. This weekend alone he received a 3 place grid penalty in qualifying for impeding Hulkenberg and now two five place grid penalties for Monza.

One for the jump start which if Pastor hadn’t done he might have avoided the incident, as it was he survived but made a mess of the restart, collided with Timo Glock’s Marussia, and that was that, day done and the second penalty earned.

Sebastian Vettel becomes the main challenger

Sebastian Vettel took advantage of the loss of Alonso and Hamilton to storm up the field. Starting 10^th, he actually ended up down in 12^th after the first lap but engaged battle mode to fight towards the podium. Despite wondering whether Red Bull should pit him early, they were the only other team to make a one stop work.

After great moves on the likes of Webber and Massa (twice) and while others stopped around him, he found the clean air he wanted and put in the lap times to keep him ahead in 2nd and like Button looked after his tyres.

It would have been interesting to see just how well Vettel might have done if he’d qualified a bit higher, but whatever it was a very impressive drive and brought him to within a race win of Alonso, something I don't think he was expecting at the start of the day hence his obvious delight at the finish.

In the other Red Bull Webber finished up 6th from 12th on the grid. He didn't seem to have the same incisiveness in overtaking that his team mate had today and couldn't find the clean air he needed on his 2 stop strategy. He's still third in the title race, but has not looked that great since Silverstone as Vettel now takes the leading position in the team.

Qualified higher, but still no win for Kimi

Kimi Raikkonen qualified 3^rd and finished 3^rd, but he had to make quite the effort to be disappointed with another podium. He had great fights with various drivers, but particularly Schumacher which culminated with a move into Eau Rouge, shooting passed as the Mercedes didn’t seem able to accelerate as effectively from La Source.

He was tipped for the win, but Lotus weren’t able to tune their double DRS because of the rain in practice, but I’d still watch out for them in Italy when they should have it attached. Kimi took his 6^th podium this season, he’s got to win one at some point surely if he truly wants to make a bid for the title. 

Despite the lack of win he's now only 33 points behind Alonso and Lotus don't look like dropping off the pace any time soon.

Schuey and Mercedes grab some points

Michael Schumacher was the third driver to try a one stop, but once Kimi got by and he had Hulkenberg, Webber, and Massa all lined up behind him, he knew it was over, the team pitted him for a second time and he looked like he was about to begin a charge back towards them however, a loss of 6^th gear prevented him.

Still it was an impressive drive from only the 2^nd man to compete in 300 grand prix. After qualifying only 13^th, he might not have thought he’d be able to compete, but he was well up for the fight today. 

5^th after the opening lap crash, Schumacher executed a couple of great passes to be 3^rd, particularly on Kimi, around the outside into Les Combes, which he managed again later in the race after Kimi passed him into the Bus Stop chicane, only for him to activate DRS and fly back around on the Kemmel straight. Shame more mechanical trouble prevented a better day than 7^th.

His team mate Nico Rosberg was often pictured holding people up but actually wasn’t far off grabbing the final point as he came from the back of the grid. However without the crash Mercedes might not have even been near the points, which is a sad reflection of how their season has gone after so much promise.

Rest of the top 10

Force India took advantage of the crash so that at the restart they were running 2^nd and 4^th. Hulkenberg seemed able to maintain his impressive pace, but di Resta did not, blaming a KERS failure. As the Scotsman slipped down the field to finish 10^th Hulkenberg was always in contention for a top five finish, and had a great afternoon.

Felipe Massa had a fine drive up from 14^th to 5^th. 11^th once the safety car came in he gradually made his way through the pack to end up not all that far behind Hulkenberg. He was stuck together with Webber most of the time, but finally made his move 8 laps from the end, and then kept him behind despite being under pressure. More drives like this Felipe.

Toro Rosso took 8^th and 9^th for Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo respectively. This team really needed some points and it was nice to finally see both these drivers get some time to show they can race and mix it up with the top drivers. They’ve not really had much of an opportunity to do that this year.

Special note for Marussia drivers Glock and Charles Pic who looked like they were having an epic battle swapping positions all over the place. Glock eventually won.

So we leave Spa and head to another classic venue at Monza next weekend. The championship lead has closed up for the first time since Silverstone and while some people head there with renewed optimism there are some just full of frustration. Grosjean will not be going there, but for the rest battle is quickly resumed and all could change again this time next weekend.

all photo's taken from autosport.com