Chinese Grand Prix: Hamilton On Pole For His Date With Destiny

Lewis Hamilton will start what may be the most important race of his young career from pole position after a completely dominant performance in today's qualifying session. Just as in Fuji last week he will have Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen for company alongside him on the front row, setting up a possible repeat of last Sunday's first corner drama. Felipe Massa will start from third place with Fernando Alonso pipping Kovalainen for fourth with another excellent showing. The other title contender Robert Kubica saw his chances all but vanish with a poor performance, meaning he will start the race tomorrow from eleventh place.

The conditions for qualifying were about as perfect as you could imagine; warm but not too hot, with no rain or even a breath of wind around the circuit. There would be no excuses for poor performances. The first session saw Lewis Hamilton continue his fine form from Friday's practice sessions by finishing in first place by a considerable margin. Of course, where it really mattered was at the other end of the field. After Webber's spectacular engine blow-out in morning practice Red Bull were hoping for a big performance from David Coulthard. It didn't come unfortunately, as he was held up a little by Nick Heidfeld on his final flying lap and failed to make it through to Q2. He will start his penultimate Grand Prix from 16th place. Nakajima, Button, Sutil and Fisichella make up the final four positions on the grid.

The second session saw Hamilton again dominate proceedings at the top of the time sheets. His first run on the option tyre saw him set the only lap of the weekend under 1:35s, and comfortably ahead of his rivals. However, the big story of Q2 was the nightmare that Robert Kubica was having. He needs a big result from this Grand Prix if he is to have any chance of upsetting the odds and winning the Championship, but he will find it hard now after he could only manage twelfth fastest in the session. He complained of understeer problems earlier in the session, and he looked completely out of sorts throughout the session. His poor performance was compounded by the fact that his team mate Heidfeld beat him comfortably for one of the first times this season. Rosberg, Barrichello, Glock and Piquet also dropped out at this stage.

Going into the final session it looked as though Hamilton was all but guaranteed a pole position place. It wasn't to be as simple as that though, as after the first set of hotlaps Hamilton was only sitting in fifth place. Although the cameras didn't pick it up Hamilton later confessed that he made a big mistake in turn eight which lost him over six tenths of a second. Kovalainen and Raikkonen were leading the way at the top; were they being run very light as part of a strategic game by their team? Raikkonen was the first of the main men to go out for his final lap, and he was setting green sectors throughout the lap. He was comfortably top by the end of his lap, and had set down a tough bench mark for the others to match. Hamilton was the only man up to the challenge, and he put together a sensational lap to take pole position by a full three tenths of a second. Massa couldn't match either his title rival or his team mate as he ended up in third place. Alonso put in a superb lap out of nowhere to take fourth place. Kovalainen was the last of the main contenders out there, but yet again he failed to live up to McLaren's expectations as a poor lap meant he could only manage fifth fastest.

So going into the race tomorrow Lewis Hamilton will feel confident with his brilliant performance, but will be surrounded by people out to spoil his party. Both Ferraris and Alonso have made no secret about their desire to see Hamilton suffer yet another disappointment, and Hamilton really needed his team mate up alongside him for support. It was another sad chapter in the huge let down that has been Heikki Kovalainen's first season at McLaren. He should have been at least on the second row if not the first, but he choked when it mattered most. With the possibility of thunderstorms for tomorrow's race, if Hamilton is to secure his first world championship it most certainly won't be easy. It could well be a classic...

Qualifying Result

1. Hamilton
2. Raikkonen
3. Massa
4. Alonso
5. Kovalainen
6. Webber (+ 10 place grid penalty)
7. Heidfeld
8. Vettel
9. Trulli
10. Bourdais
11. Piquet
12. Kubica
13. Glock
14. Barrichello
15. Rosberg
16. Coulthard
17. Nakajima
18. Button
19. Sutil
20. Fisichella Read more!

Japanese Grand Prix: First Blood to Hamilton in First Practice

Lewis Hamilton was the fastest man in the first practice session for Sunday's all important Japanese Grand Prix. He took top spot ahead of title rival Felipe Massa, whilst several other of the form drivers put in good showings, whilst a few big budget teams floundered.

The first practice session of the weekend got under way with pretty much perfect weather conditions, in marked contrast to the last time the Fuji Speedway saw any F1 action. In last year's race the drivers would have been better off equipped with out-board motors rather than their usual ultra-effective drive train. Today though the weather looked beautiful.

So beautiful in fact that for the first half hour of the session it looked as though the teams were just chilling out, enjoying the spectacular views of Mount Fuji. Aside from the odd installation lap here and there, the only drivers out setting any sector times were the Toyota drivers Glock and Trulli, clearly keen to set the pace at their teams very own stomping ground.

Raikkonen was the first of the big hitters to emerge, and he was soon followed by the rest of the field as the track slowly started rubbering up. Both Ferraris immediately looked quick and Massa led the way for much of the session. However, it was his main rival Hamilton who finally took the honours by being the only man so far to dip into the 1:18s. Massa wasn't far behind in the very low 1:19s, followed closely by the Finnish contingent Kovalainen and Raikkonen.

Following up their first race victory in nearly two years, Renault looked very strong throughout. No surprises as Alonso was the quicker of the two drivers, but Piquet put in a decent showing on the back of his Singapore horror show to come in P6. Vettel and Bourdais again looked competitive in the Toro Rosso, which only serves to underline how far back BMW have slumped since their race-winning form of early-to-mid season. Kubica struggled to 8th, while Heidfeld wound up 14th after two minor 'offs'. Red Bull too continue to be shown up by their junior team, as they looked very average. On their home soil both Japanese teams looked pretty weak, with their cars occupying 15th to 18th place. The top-brass in the board rooms of Toyota and Honda will not be impressed.

Practice One Times

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1m18.910s
2. MASSA Ferrari 1m19.063s
3. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m19.279s
4. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m19.399s
5. ALONSO Renault 1m19.473s
6. PIQUET Renault 1m19.743s
7. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m20.121s
8. KUBICA BMW 1m20.160s
9. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m20.182s
10. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m20.217s
11. SUTIL Force India 1m20.288s
12. ROSBERG Williams 1m20.350s
13. WEBBER Red Bull 1m20.620s
14. HEIDFELD BMW 1m20.628s
15. TRULLI Toyota 1m20.657s
16. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m20.753s
17. BUTTON Honda 1m20.769s
18. GLOCK Toyota 1m20.823s
19. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m20.905s
20. FISICHELLA Force India 1m21.104s Read more!

Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying: Hamilton the class of the field in Spa

Lewis Hamilton secured one of the most important pole positions of his young career in Saturday's qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. At a track where Ferrari were expected to dominate, the McLaren drivers ended up in first and third leaving Massa and especially Raikkonen with plenty of work to do tomorrow afternoon. Nick Heidfeld produced one of his best displays of the year to come in fifth place ahead of Alonso, Webber, Kubica and the two Toro Rosso drivers.

The conditions were decidedly cool with dark clouds surrounding the circuit. Fortunately for the drivers the rain that threatened to throw a spanner in the works never arrived, and the whole session was run in dry conditions. The first session didn't really throw up too many surprises; all of the main contenders made it through comfortably and without incident, and the predicted strugglers went out of the first hurdle. Both Hondas looked pretty appalling, their blushes saved only by perennial back markers Force India and the terribly out of sorts Kazuki Nakajima.

The second session again saw the main title rivals get through without any real issues. There was a real surprise at the top of the timing screens though, as Toro Rosso's under pressure Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais was fastest of all. Fastest in Q2 doesn't really count for much in the end, but I'm sure it's a moment Bourdais will remember for a long time. Kovalainen was second behind the former Champ Car ace ahead of his team mate Hamilton. McLaren were looking extremely comfortable, with Lewis Hamilton running the fewest laps of anyone in the entire field by this point in the day. Were Ferrari holding anything back in store for Q3?

Felipe Massa was the first man out in Q3 and would be the man setting down the benchmark time for everyone to match. He made a bit of a balls up of the final chicane though, and lost plenty of time. Raikkonen was easily faster than Massa, but then both McLarens went faster still and looked very comfortable. Heidfeld continued his excellent showing from yesterday by getting ahead of Massa. Vettel did not bother going out for the first round of flying laps. He clearly was happy enough just to stay in P10 and fill his tank to the brim for race day.

Everyone came in and bolted on a fresh set of option tyres and went out to do battle again. This time around Massa held it together really well and went fastest so far. It looked an excellent lap from the Brazilian, and he seemed to squeeze out everything the Ferrari had to offer. Raikkonen couldn't match his team mate, a situation which has now become the norm for the increasingly beleaguered world champion. But behind Kimi on the road Hamilton was absolutely flying, and he crossed the line a full 3 tenths quicker than Massa. A brilliant lap from the young Brit, one which his team mate Kovalainen couldn't quite match. McLaren couldn't quite manage the front row lock out they would have hoped for, but Heikki at least managed to split the two Ferraris in third place. Heidfeld took a well deserved 5th place ahead of a strong performance from Alonso. Webber edged out the struggling Kubica by the slimmest of margins for 7th place, with Bourdais putting in his best showing of his F1 career in 9th ahead of Vettel.

So the run down to La Source on the very first lap will be a straight fight between this year's two main title contenders. Massa will be looking for a repeat performance of his brilliant first lap in Hungary two races ago, but may find it tricky given that La Source is a somewhat easier corner to defend from pole. It should be a great fight between the two, and a perfect test of their title credentials. Hamilton certainly looked a little faster here today, but the suspicion is that he's running a little lighter in the first stint. It should be fascinating to watch, especially if the Ardenne Forest throws up the kind of changeable weather it is famed for at any point during tomorrow's race...

Provisional Starting Grid

1. Hamilton
2. Massa
3. Kovalainen
4. Raikkonen
5. Heidfeld
6. Alonso
7. Webber
8. Kubica
9. Bourdais
10. Vettel
11. Trulli
12. Piquet
13. Glock
14. Coulthard
15. Rosberg
16. Barrichello
17. Button
18. Sutil
19. Nakajima
20. Fisichella Read more!

Hungarian Grand Prix Race Report

Lewis Hamilton will head to the European Grand Prix in Valencia with a slim lead in the driver's championship after a dramatic and unpredictable race in Budapest. The usually tedious race threw up a couple of real surprises, most notably for Hamilton and title rival Massa, meaning that in the end Heikki Kovalainen sensationally took the chequered flag for his first ever F1 race victory.

As ever with races on the Hungaroring, the run down to the first corner would be all important. So often here the man who leads out of the first corner ends up winning the race. With both McLarens on the front row it seemed like the script was pre-written for a straightforward victory for Lewis Hamilton. Felipe Massa clearly hadn't read the script though, as when the lights went out he got an inch perfect start off the line. Kovalainen struggled off the line with starting from the dirty side of the track and within 100 yards Massa had passed him.

Massa was now tucked into the slip stream of Hamilton on the run down to turn one, and was clearly carrying far more speed than the McLaren. Lewis went defensive on the inside as Massa drove up alongside as they approached the braking zone. On the brakes Massa locked up slightly but managed to recover just enough to squeeze Hamilton onto the kerb on the inside. Hamilton wasn't able to get the power down quite as effectively as Massa and the Brazilian won the drag race down to turn two. It was the perfect start from Massa and a real shock to the system for McLaren, who would have expected to have this race sewn up fairly early on. Indeed, the frustration was evident as Hamilton very nearly lost it through the high speed turn three as the back end snapped wide suddenly and he had to correct, losing more ground to Massa.

Behind the battle for the lead there were some very close battles in the very tight opening couple of corners. World Champion Kimi Raikkonen didn't have particularly good start, just to compound his distinctly average qualifying performance. He would have been looking to get past the BMW and Toyota in front of him off the line, but instead ended up losing sixth place to Fernando Alonso's Renault. Another driver having a bad start was Vettel. He lost a place or two from the start, and then at the final corner of the first lap found himself squeezed out onto the run off area. He dropped from 11th to 15th. There was a much better start for Rubens Barrichello who ended the opening lap un in 12th place ahead of team mate Button, despite starting all the way down in 18th. A good couple of minutes for Brazilian F1 fans!

The race settled down within a lap or two into a fairly comfortable pattern with the tight twisty nature of the track making following the car in front closely or overtaking extremely difficult. Hamilton was staying fairly close to Massa but not close enough to attempt a pass. If anything, Massa was starting to pull away slightly. The pace advantage the McLarens were supposed to have didn't seem to be materialising. It wasn't as though Hamilton wasn't pushing or driving well, he was pulling away from team mate Kovalainen in third at almost half a second per lap. So far it was just a flawless performance from Massa.

The big question on everyone's mind now was that of fuel loads. Who was running lighter than who in qualifying? Did the McLarens really have that much in hand over their rivals? Massa was the first of the front runners to pit, doing so with a 3 second or so lead over Hamilton. It was a good stop for Massa, and we all waited to see how much further Hamiton could run. The answer was: not very far. Hamilton was in next lap, showing that the two lead cars were indeed very closely matched on pace and fuel. Lewis had no where near enough time in the lead to have overhauled the deficit to Massa, and he emerged back behind the Brazilian.

Everyone had expected Timo Glock to be running extremely light after his stunning performance in qualifying yesterday, but amazingly it wasn't the case. He actually had MORE fuel on board than the front runners, and emerged from his first stop in an extremely strong looking fourth position. The other star of qualifying Robert Kubica wasn't having as good a day. He had nowhere near the pace to match Glock, and after the first stops he had gone backwards in a big way. The other talking point of the first round of pit stops was the fact that there were three minor fires while cars were refuelling. Bourdais received a face full of fire extinguisher foam after his Toro Rosso caught fire. Rosberg was next to have a fiery exit from his pit box, followed by Barrichello in the Honda. There hadn't been any modifications made to the fuelling rigs, so the sweltering heat must have been the culprit.

During the second stint Massa still had the edge over Hamilton. It wasn't a huge difference, but a tenth here and a tenth there meant that he was slowly but surely creeping away into the distance. After all the doubts over Massa after his appalling race in Britain, Massa was doing exactly what was necessary to get his title challenge back on track. Of the two Ferrari drivers, it was Massa looking the most likely title challenger. Raikkonen was still staring at the gear box of Alonso's Renault as he had been all day long. Timo Glock was still having a fine performance, managing to keep a comfortable distance between himself and those behind him, and Kubica was still struggling in the BMW.

Everyone was eagerly checking the timing computers to see how big the gap between Massa and Hamilton was, trying to calculate how many more laps Lewis would need to run in this stint to have any chance of getting ahead of Massa. However, that was all suddenly rendered irrelevant when the cameras cut to Lewis's McLaren creeping through a gravel trap very slowly. It soon became apparent that his left front tyre had punctured, meaning he was having to creep around the circuit back to the pits. He didn't appear to hit anything or go off the track before hand, so it was either a random tyre failure or he ran over some debris. Either way, terrible luck for Hamilton, especially as it appeared to hand the race victory to his biggest rival Massa on a plate.

Hamilton pitted and changed to the super-soft option, meaning he would have to run 25 laps on the notoriously hard wearing tyres. He emerged in 12th place, with a real mountain to climb to limit the damage to his title challenge.

As the second stops arrived for everyone else it was a routine stop for Massa as he had a massive gap back to Kovalainen and had no need to push too hard. In the other big battle on track between Kimi and Fernando, traffic conspired to wreck Alonso's chances. He pitted first, but emerged right in the middle of a battle between the two Williams drivers and Fisichella. He lost at least a second or two, meaning that Raikkonen was able to pass him in the pitstops fairly easily. Raikkonen now had clear air in front of him for the first time in the race, and we would see what kind of pace he had underneath him. With Kubica having a bit of a nightmare and Hamilton's puncture, it looked as though it would be a straight fight between Glock and Kimi for the final podium place.

Hamilton had recovered well and had his old adversary Alonso in front of him, several seconds down the road. That would be his target, but certainly not an easy one. Massa meanwhile appeared to have eased off the gas and was cruising, as the gap to Kovalainen was shrinking with every lap. In the sister Ferrari, Raikkonen was setting fastest laps as he was finally able to show what pace the Ferrari really had. Nice of him to show up to the Grand Prix at last, shame it was about a day and a half too late.

Just when everything seemed set for a well deserved and comfortable victory for the flawless Massa, disaster struck. With just 3 laps remaining his engine blew coming past the pits, causing him to grind to a halt on the home straight. His distress was clear for all to see, as his victory was stolen away from him by the unreliability of the Ferrari. You couldn't really imagine a worse place for something like that to happen, right on the home straight right in front of about ten thousand fans in the grand stands.

The cruel blow for Massa meant that Kovalainen was leading the race, after having a quiet and fairly ignominious performance. He was nowhere near able to match the pace of Massa and Hamilton in front of him, yet here he was with the finish line in sight. He was able to cruise to his first ever F1 race victory with plenty of room to spare. Probably not the circumstances in which he dreamed his first win would come, but a win is a win and it is a moment he will remember for the rest of his life. Massa's misfortune also meant that Timo Glock was promoted to second place and his first ever podium. A fantastic performance from the German. He ended the previous Grand Prix in the back of an ambulance, yet here he was two weeks later on the podium! It also meant that Kimi Raikkonen lucked his way into the final podium spot. After a pretty mediocre performance all weekend long he managed to come away with a sizeable point haul.

Alonso was able to hold off Hamilton for fourth place, but Hamilton will not have too many complaints with fifth place after his puncture earlier on. He leaves Hungary still with a lead in the championship standings, which will be of huge comfort to him and McLaren. Ferrari will be furious with themselves though for throwing this one away. After their drivers finally managed to get their act together, they were let down by a reliability problem. Back to the drawing board before Valencia for the Scuderia. Little of this will matter to the top two finishers today though. Kovalainen will party the night away after his first ever victory, and Glock will be equally delighted with his superb second place that has really announced him on the global stage in a big way. Read more!

Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Report: Can Anyone Stop Hamilton?

Lewis Hamilton was the class of the field as he cruised serenely to pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix. In the final session he beat his team mate Kovalainen into second place with room to spare, making things extremely difficult for Hamilton's title rivals in the Ferraris in tomorrow's race. Felipe Massa was third and Kimi Raikkonen was a very disappointing sixth place in the sister Ferrari. Kimi was pushed down the grid by two excellent 'comeback' performances, with Kubica returning to form in the BMW and Timo Glock coming back after a nasty accident in Germany to record his best qualifying performance to date.

The whole session played out under perfectly sunny conditions, ideal for the fans and drivers alike. The first session saw the main championship protagonists make it through comfortably, with the McLarens looking very strong and Raikkonen down in a slightly disappointing 6th place, a position he was to become very familiar with. As per usual with Q1, all the action took place in the squabble for 15th place. With the renaissance of the Toro Rosso team the battle for the final places in Q2 was to be fought between the Honda and Williams drivers, who look to be really struggling for pace at this point in the season.

In the final moments of the session both Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg put in excellent laps to get into fourteenth and fifteenth place. This nudged BMW's Nick Heidfeld down into the drop zone. The German was on his final lap though, and was strong favourite to make it through. However, fate managed to conspire against him in the final turns of the lap. Entering the final hairpin he had Sebastien Bourdais in front of him being held up battling for track position with a Toyota. Bourdais had to back right out of the throttle which ended up putting him right in the path of Heidfeld. Nick eventually ended up skidding across the astro-turf on the outside of the turn and could not improve his lap time. His displeasure was clear for all to see as he was gesticulating at the car in front, but really it was just a case of rotten luck. The incident is being investigated, but it would be extremely harsh to punish Bourdais for it. This was just what Heidfeld didn't need though, as he has struggled with tyre performance in qualifying all season long, and this will have done nothing to silence the doubters.

The second session ended with Felipe Massa in top spot, ahead of Timo Glock's Toyota. After his nasty accident in Germany Glock appears to have bounced back with some great form here. He was getting the better of his qualifying-specialist team mate Trulli for the first time this season. Hamilton was a little further down the field than may have been suspected, but he was clearly taking it easy and doing just what was needed to get through to the final session.

In the closing moments things heated up as per usual, with the battle seemingly being between the drivers from the two Red Bull teams. Webber and Vettel were looking strong in the top ten, with Coulthard just fractionally behind them. However, things were to be upset somewhat when Nelson Piquet put his Renualt up into ninth place, knocking out Vettel. He's followed up his best ever race in Germany with his best ever qualifying performance, good stuff from the young Brazilian. One of the final men across the line was Jenson Button. The Honda has looked pretty horrible all weekend, and with Barrichello down in 18th some may have thought Button would be delighted just to get up to 15th place or so. Button though loves this track after scoring his only ever race win here in 2006, and put in a great lap to put himself in P12, way better than was expected of him.

The final session was expected to be the Lewis Hamilton show, and he didn't disappoint. He has looked extremely comfortable in the car all weekend long, and seems to have pace to spare. In the dying moments of the session he set the fastest lap, but the next fastest lap was his own opening hot lap, which just underlines his superiority here. Kovalainen put in a strong performance to complete the all important front row lockout for McLaren, just edging out Felipe Massa by a few hundredths of a second. Robert Kubica put in a great lap for fourth place, finally getting the BMW hooked up after looking pretty ordinary throughout free practice, and Timo Glock also put in a superb lap to take fifth. Glock may well be light on fuel given how far ahead of his team mate he is, but great stuff nonetheless.

Kimi Raikkonen will be hoping that Glock is indeed light on fuel, and that his Ferrari is running a heavy first stint, otherwise he could be in line for a fairly miserable race tomorrow. At this crucial moment of the season he really isn't rising to the challenge of defending his world title. There have been rumours filling the F1 press for a couple of months now that Kimi is considering retirement when his current contract expires in 2009. Whether all this speculation his distracting him, or he just isn't happy with the set up of the car remains to be seen, but unless he gets his backside in gear quickly he can kiss goodbye to any hope of retaining his championship. Felipe Massa is looking the driver most likely to take the fight to Lewis Hamilton at the moment, and given that we know how poorly Massa seems to handle pressure situations, Ferrari are not in an enviable position at the moment.

Alonso continued his decent form with a 7th place, ahead of Trulli, Webber and Piquet.

So given the strength of McLaren so far this weekend, and the tight and twisty nature of the Hungaroring track, only a fool would bet against a silver car taking the chequered flag tomorrow. Of course, the race to the first corner will be all important here, and Kovalainen will need to have his wits about him to fend off Massa given that he will be starting on the dirty side of the grid. The other major factor tomorrow may well be tyre wear. So far the softer compound tyres have not performed well in the sweltering Budapest heat. All drivers will have to run at least one stint on the soft tyres, and given how badly they have been graining up in practice, it will be a real test for the drivers to manage things effectively.


Provisional Race Grid

1. Hamilton
2. Kovalainen
3. Massa
4. Kubica
5. Glock
6. Raikkonen
7. Alonso
8. Webber
9. Trulli
10. Piquet
11. Vettel
12. Button
13. Coulthard
14. Bourdais
15. Rosberg
16. Heidfeld
17. Nakajima
18. Barrichello
19. Fisichella
20. Sutil Read more!

The Six Million Dollar Driver

In response to Ron Dennis' comments in the press this week about having to "rebuild" Heikki Kovalainen after his Renault experience had left him broken and disillusioned, I have decided to crack out my MS Paint skillz for the world to see. Yes, you guessed it folks, Heikki Kovalainen IS the Six Million Dollar Man! But in all seriousness, it has been a rough couple of days for Renault in the media for a number of reasons...

Whilst public boosting the confidence of his new driver Heikki Kovalainen, Ron Dennis was undoubtedly having a sly dig at the Finn's former employers. He was quoted as saying of Heikki's time at Renault, "It is a story about how this guy lost his motivation and was misguided in how he should go about his physical preparation." In other words, Renault treats its drivers like crap.

That's something that I'm certain Renault will be rather annoyed to have brought out into the public domain. F1 teams pride themselves on being at the cutting edge of every facet of performance, from the cars right down to the sack of bones and organs that pilot them. McLaren in particular like to make a song and dance about how they lead the way. The revelation that Kovalainen came to them demoralised and unfit suggests that Renault are falling someway behind their competitors in driver preparation, and their results on the track make it clear for us all to see that they have fallen behind in terms of car performance.

One man who was all too keen to swap the ultra high-tech surroundings of McLaren for the more parochial surroundings of Renault was of course Fernando Alonso. The fact that their prodigal son had returned to the fold was a massive coup for the French team. However, their star driver has also been having something of a backhanded dig at the Renault team.

He has been openly talking up the prospect of a move to Ferrari after seeing the superb pace of the Scuderia in Malaysia, and the abject performance of Felipe Massa. There could be a seat available in Maranello in the not too distant future, and Alonso is throwing his hat into the ring nice and early. This does not shine too favourably on his current employers as it seems he is giving up on their chances after just two races and wants out, publicly revealing the fact that he has an escape clause in his contract should he want to move somewhere more appealing.

Bad news for Renault, but I'm not sure what Alonso will actually be achieving through this action. We all know he's a fantastic driver, one of the best around. The only question mark currently hangs over his ability to work effectively within a team, or his complete lack of that ability I should say! Publicly stating that you think your new team is incapable of challenging, and that he wants to bail on his contract will only fuel the tabloid characterisation of Alonso as a spoilt brat, who throws his toys out of the pram when he doesn't get his own way.

I'm not convinced Ferrari will be knocking on his door begging him for his services any time soon, especially with such exceptional young talent out their like Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica... Read more!