Korean Grand Prix 2010

Today, Formula One almost suffered the ultimate irony. After weeks of speculation as to whether the inaugural Korean Grand Prix would actually go ahead, torrential conditions aggravated by the slippiness of the newly-laid tarmac seemed at one point to have put paid to all the organisers' hard work. However, after an initial three incredibly tentative laps under the safety car, a red flag and nearly an hour of delays, the race got underway in earnest, albeit once more with the safety car leading the way.

Behind Bernd Maylander's modified silver Mercedes SLS was the Red Bull pair who had annexed the front row the previous day in a dry qualifying session, Sebastian Vettel heading his championship-leading teammate Mark Webber. Fernando Alonso for Ferrari was next, from Lewis Hamilton's McLaren, Nico Rosberg's Mercedes and the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa, with Jenson Button in the sister McLaren languishing in 7^th position. That was the order as the safety car peeled into the pit lane on lap 18 of 55, signifying the real start of the race.

One team revelling in the adverse conditions was Mercedes. No sooner than the green flag was shown had celebrated weltmeister Michael Schumacher placed himself alongside the Renault of Robert Kubica on the approach to turn 1 before easing past the Pole into 8^th position. Almost simultaneously, Rosberg in the other Mercedes was harrying Hamilton for 4^th position, and two corners later he too made a position in a well-timed move up the inside of turn 3.

Meanwhile, as Vettel pressed home his advantage at the head of the field, the tiniest mistake by his Aussie teammate would have a profound effect on the course of the championship. On lap 19, Webber ran out onto the kerbs at the exit of turn 12, and applied just enough throttle to send his Red Bull RB6 pirouetting helplessly into the retaining wall. The momentum then carried the stricken car back across the track, where Rosberg was incredibly unfortunate to be collected and have his promising race ruined. The copious amount of debris gave the Safety Car yet another appearance, but only for 5 laps this time whilst the marshals rushed to clear the wrecked cars.

The order was thus Vettel from Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Button and Schumacher whose assured driving made up for Rosberg's premature exit somewhat. He proceeded to enthral his team further though when three laps after the restart he found his way past Button at turn 3 to steal 5^th place. Button was struggling for grip profusely at this stage, feeling the need to switch to the intermediate tyre two laps after his demotion to 6^th by Schumacher. Unfortunately for the Brit, the stop was poorly timed as he rejoined down in 16^th behind a long train of new-team cars and those who opted to pit for inters under the safety car. That train was shortened somewhat by a collision between Sebastien Buemi and Timo Glock, caused by the former launching an overly ambitious assault on 11^th place up the inside of turn 3. This was particularly painful for the Virgin team who lost the chance to overhaul rivals Lotus in the constructors championship and therefore to secure precious prize money.

Both were out on the spot, and more debris was spewed across the track, necessitating a further appearance from the Safety Car, delaying proceedings for another 4 laps. This was the point at which the leading quartet of Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton and Massa all decided to make the switch for intermediate tyres too. They would've rejoined in that order also if it weren't for a slightly fumbled pitstop by Ferrari that saw their man fall behind Hamilton into 3^rd. As the race began once more however, Lewis squandered that position gained in the pits by running wide at the first corner, allowing Alonso to scoot back into 2^nd. Further back and several laps later, Petrov became the next casualty by ending his hitherto impressive race in the barriers at the final corner, although thankfully the safety car was not required on this occasion.

Just as it seemed the race couldn't get any more dramatic, there was another sting in the tail for the Red Bull team yet after Webber's earlier disaster. As Vettel crossed the line to begin Lap 46, his speed appeared to falter, allowing Alonso to snatch the lead unchallenged. Hamilton soon followed suit, and it became clear that the Red Bull's Renault powerplant had simply had enough and dramatically expired in a huge cloud of smoke, sprinkling shards of destroyed engine all the way down the 1.2km straight between turns 2 and 3.

That left Alonso to claim a relatively easy victory, as Hamilton was unable to close the gap that had emerged since his earlier off. The Spaniard took with the winner's trophy the lead of the championship, having achieved four wins and six podiums in the last seven races. Hamilton however still had reason to be happy after finishing in 2^nd, made all the better by his teammate Button's continued struggle for grip and subsequent non-score in a lowly 12th. Massa drove quietly home to claim 3^rd, his fifth podium of the season. Schumacher was next to take the chequered after arguably his best drive of the season – keeping his head when many around him lost theirs. Kubica took advantage of some late misfortune for both of the Williams drivers to take a solid 5^th place, as did Tonio Liuzzi who produced a measured drive to 6^th after his teammate Adrian Sutil proved fast but erratic, ending his race after some contact with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi in the closing stages of the race. The Japanese driver did survive the scare to finish in 8^th, behind Barrichello but ahead fellow Sauber pilot Nick Heidfeld. Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10 after a late puncture that cost him several positions.

So, after what nearly wasn't the Korean Grand Prix, the weather gave us another thrilling race that changed the face of the championship radically. Alonso now has the momentum firmly behind him and with the Ferrari operation focussed exclusively upon him, Red Bull and McLaren surely now will have to make the decision to back one of their two drivers to be able to challenge the Scuderia. Whilst the choice is a no-brainer for McLaren after Button's non-score leaving 42 points adrift of Alonso, Red Bull's is slightly trickier. After all, today's race served to remind us how quickly the balance of power can shift in Formula One.

Singapore Grand Prix 2010

The floodlit Marina Bay circuit offers a unique challenge to today's F1 drivers. The technical corners, humid atmosphere and sheer amount of time spent in the cockpit make it one of the most gruelling events on the calendar, and its spectacular backdrop has led to a deserving label of 'Monaco of the East'. Fernando Alonso overcame all the obstacles to record his third win in five races, making him the real danger man of the championship, as well as dispelling the sour taste of his contrived win here of two years ago as a result of Crashgate.

Red Bull, after dominant displays at the other street circuits of Monaco and Valencia earlier in the season, seemed to hold all the cards during practice. However, when it came to qualifying, it was the blistering pace of Ferrari and Alonso that bagged another crucial pole position. It wasn't all good news for Ferrari though, as Felipe Massa in the sister car suffered gearbox failure, and was forced to line up 24^th and last. Sebastian Vettel was the man who joined Alonso on the front row, three places ahead of fellow RB6 pilot and championship leader Mark Webber. The McLarens of Britons Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button split the Red Bull pair.

As the race got underway, Vettel made a superior getaway to Alonso, but was covered off in an aggressive leftward lunge by the Spaniard. Further round the initial tour, there was contact between series returnee Nick Heidfeld of Sauber and the Force India of Tonio Liuzzi, the net result of which was an unscheduled front-wing change for the former and retirement for the latter. As the officials deemed where Liuzzi parked to be potentially unsafe, the Safety Car was scrambled at the beginning of lap 3.

Webber, unable to make an impression on the McLarens ahead, was instructed to make an early pit-stop to get his softer tyres out of the way. He was joined by numerous others, but as they all rejoined the circuit, they were forced to form an orderly queue behind Virgin Racing's Timo Glock who opted to stay out. As the Safety Car peeled into the pits and race restarted, Webber made short work of Glock, before setting about trying to close the gap back to the McLarens several places ahead prior to their pitstops.

The Australian wasted no time in making a series of decisive overtakes, first on Kamui Kobayashi, then Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. Behind, Hulkenberg shunted into the inside of Petrov, costing himself a place to Sutil, and the Russian an extra spot to Massa, who had made serious headway after pitting at the end of the first lap. The first of the lead cars to pit was Hamilton on lap 29, who duly fell behind Webber who was able to stay within 20 seconds of the Brit and thus jump into third after the pitstops took place. However, his teammate Vettel along with race leader Alonso was sufficiently ahead to retain the first two positions after they pitted simultaneously on lap 30.

Hamilton would get a chance to retaliate however as a result of a safety car deployed courtesy of Kamui Kobayashi, who had buried his Sauber in the barrier at turn 18 on lap 32, joined out of sympathy by Hispania's Bruno Senna. With two Virgin cars between Vettel and Webber at the restart four laps later, Hamilton was able to make a run at Webber, attempting to dive around the outside of the Australian at turn 7. However, Webber had nowhere to go but into Hamilton, putting the Brit out on the spot for the second time in as many races. The stewards deemed it a racing incident and as such awarded no penalties. They did likewise for a later, rather overambitious move by Schumacher on his fellow German Heidfeld, although the other Sauber was now too out of the race and the 7-time champ was forced to limp back to the pits with his front wing making sparks as it dragged along the circuit.

Meanwhile, Robert Kubica was forced to make an unscheduled stop after his Renault picked up a puncture from 6^th. But with the superior grip of new tyres compared with those around him who had been running the same set of tyres since the first safety car period on lap 3, the Pole made short work of Buemi, Petrov, Massa, Hulkenberg and finally Sutil to recover all but one of the places he had lost. All the while, at the front Vettel had been steadily reducing Alonso's three-second advantage to a matter of tenths with a handful of laps to go.

There was to be one final piece of drama – Heikki Kovalainen, after some contact with Sebastien Buemi, was forced to park his car on the start finish straight after it caught fire, creating a no-overtaking yellow flag zone in the final corners of the race. The pint-sized Finn leapt out of his car, was handed a fire extinguisher from the pit-wall, and proceeded to put out the fire about to consume his Lotus T127.

Alonso held on by two tenths of a second for win number four of the season from Vettel, putting himself within 11 points of Webber, who finished third. Hamilton's non-finish left him in 3^rd place, 20 points behind, 5 points ahead of Button who banked a solid 4^th place finish. Rosberg, Barrichello, Kubica, Hulkenberg, Massa and Sutil, who was awarded a 20-second penalty for gaining places by leaving the circuit, made up the rest of the points-scorers.

Hamilton said after his blunder that he isn't focussing on the title any longer. That may seem a bit premature given he's only 20 points behind Webber in the title chase, but bearing in mind the superiority of the Ferrari and Red Bull cars which looks likely to persist, his chances do seem somewhat slim. But, as Alonso proved a few races ago, it's never too late to re-assert yourself in what promises to be a thrilling title run-in.

Belgian Grand Prix 2010

Spa is the favourite track of many of today’s F1 drivers, and not without good reason. Corners such as Eau Rouge, Blanchimont, Pouhon, Les Combes and Stavelot all combine to create one of the most technically challenging and rewarding tracks in the world. Combine that with a weather system that's just about impossible to predict and you have yourself a truly classic venue that never fails to provide excitement for the F1 fan.

After Webber took pole position on Saturday, it looked as if the Australian should have had the best possible chance of victory number five, particularly as his teammate Sebastian Vettel could only muster fourth position. Splitting the Red Bull pair were the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and an impressive Robert Kubica for Renault. Jenson Button was able to qualify in fifth place, but the final title challenger Alonso suffered a wretched session, qualifying in a lowly tenth place after being compromised by a late shower.

The race began dry but the threat of rain, as is often the case at Spa, loomed large nonetheless. It was a dream start for the McLaren team when Webber bogged down on the grid allowing Lewis Hamilton to lead into the first corner unchallenged with Button making an equally impressive getaway to make it a McLaren one-two by the end of the second lap, ahead of Vettel, Kubica and the slow-starting Webber.

Shortly after, the rain did arrive very briefly around the start-finish area, resulting in almost the entire field failing to make the final Bus Stop chicane. There was particular misery for Rubens Barrichello, who ended his three-hundredth Formula One start by losing control of the car under braking and side swiping Alonso in the process. Whilst the Brazilian was out on the spot, Alonso miraculously survived the encounter and made a bee line for the pit lane, where the Ferrari crew fitted his car with intermediate tyres in a strategic gamble. Fellow Spaniards Pedro De La Rosa and Jaime Alguersauri also stopped to fit the inters, but likewise lost track position in the process.

However, the rain was not to last and thus Alonso’s venture backfired. After immediately reverting back to slicks, he found himself consigned to seventeenth place. Back at the front, Hamilton was controlling the race, steadily increasing his lead from Button, who was struggling to shake off the faster cars of Vettel, Kubica, Webber and Massa.

Whilst things were going swimmingly for McLaren #2, things were about to hit rock bottom for the #1 car of Button. Vettel had been steadily closing in, and began lining up the reigning champion for a move at the Bus Stop chicane. However, in a manner not dissimilar to Barrichello, albeit now in dry conditions, the young German lost control of the car and clobbered the side of Button's McLaren, necessitating his immediate retirement with irreparable damage done to the side-pod.

Vettel on the other hand was fortunate enough to be able to continue, naturally having to pit for a new nose section. He would then be slapped with a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable accident, his second in as many races. Having proceeded to make a fairly swift ascent through the field, he undid his hard work once more by making contact with the Force India of Tonio Liuzzi, giving himself a slow puncture. The ‘crash kid’, as McLaren principal Martin Whitmarsh labelled him after the race would wind up in a lowly 15^th place.

Back at the front, Hamilton continued to lead, now from Kubica, Webber and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa who had just cleared the Force India of Adrian Sutil for 4^th place. The two Mercedes cars of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg and had also made up ground to both be inside the points (despite their earlier altercation where Schumacher sheared off his teammate’s front wing end-plate in a brash overtaking move) after the safety car period that followed the Vettel-Button incident.

Just when the race had appeared to settle down however, the erratic Belgian weather took another dramatic turn as the rain began to fall at the far side of the circuit, very nearly accounting for race leader Hamilton’s race after he sailed into the gravel trap, just millimetres away from the crash barrier. It quickly became evident wet-weather tyres would be necessary, and so the leading cars all made the switch. Much to the chagrin of Renault, Kubica accidentally overshot his pit box in doing so, forfeiting 2^nd place to Webber in the process.

The other victim of the late shower would be Fernando Alonso who became the final casualty of the day when he pirouetted into the barriers in a rare error exiting the Les Combes-Malmedy complex. The Spaniard had fought his way back to 8^th after his earlier mishaps, but once again through his own fault had placed his title ambitions very much on the back foot.

There were no such problems however for Hamilton, who made no further errors as he cruised to his third win of the season, confirmed his prowess in changeable conditions. Webber took 2nd place, but that wouldn't be enough to prevent Hamilton usurping him at the top of the championship table. Kubica completed the podium after a faultless performance, pitstops aside.

Massa plugged away to a solid 4th place, from Adrian Sutil for Force India and both the Mercedes cars of Rosberg and Schumacher. Kamui Kobayashi for Sauber, Vitaly Petrov for Renault and Liuzzi in the other Force India completed the points, the latter benefitting from an off-road excursion for De La Rosa and a 20-second timed penalty for Alguersauri.

Whilst Hamilton and Webber are now the clear leaders in the title race after non-scores for Vettel, Button and Alonso, it would be churlish to think that the latter three are now out of the running. After all, there's only 41 points between the quintet (about 15 in old money), with 6 races to go and thus 150 points left up for grabs. Everything is still to play for.