Singapore GP Qualifying...

The big story, and the big question on everybody's lips, entering the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, was raikonnen's move to Ferrari and the question of who is better, Kimi or Fernando? Only time will tell, but it is important to recognise that each driver is very different to one another and both drivers are World Champions. The interesting thing to observe next season will be Ferrari's team orders and their notion of which driver is number one and which is number two.

As for the actual qualifying session, well it was completely dominated by a world class Sebastian Vettel. He showed his awesome quality by out classing all of the competition, including his team mate, who was almost a full second off Seb's pace. Vettel was so dominant that he popped his pole position time in at the very start of the third qualifying session and sat watching his rivals trying their hardest to match it. This made for an exciting closing minute to the session as Rosberg, Grosjean and Webber all came close to going faster than Seb, but none of them could manage it.

The woes for McLaren and Force India continue to grow as Di Resta and Perez go out in the first and second sessions, respectively. Force India had such a strong and promising start to the season, but it is slowly slipping away, whilst McLaren are having a torrid year. Both teams must be considering beginning development on next year's cars, since the hopes of achieving much this year is becoming less and less likely.

Italian Grand Prix: A race of two halves...

It wasn't the most exciting of races in Monza. The race started well, with no shortage of excitement as drivers jostled for position, some making contact. Hamilton's race was damaged even more than by qualifying, as he went through the first corner. He drove over a couple of bits of carbon fibre and in a few laps was suffering with a slow puncture. After an early pitstop he was down to nineteenth and watching his race and Championship challenge disappearing.

It was a race for Red Bull to simply scoop up and chalk up as another first and second, however Sebastian Vettel could be seen to have damaged Mark's race, right at the start. Webber had one of his best starts in a long time, finally managing to get away from the grid faster than his teammate. The problem for Mark was Sebastian's aggressive defence, which allowed Felipe Massa to hurtle up the outside and take the second place. As they went through the first chicane Vettel was leading, with Massa following up in second and Webber having to defend against Alonso.

Vettel's win was well deserved, since there were times when he had to preserve the engine and gearbox by short shifting and easing off. Webber was unfortunate not to be able to beat Alonso to second place and it is worth considering that if Sebastian hadn't held him up he may well have made Red Bull's result a clean sweep.

After the start, the race settled in to a processional affair, with the threat of rain bringing a little hope that things might get mixed up. Rain stayed away and it took until around the forty-third lap of fifty-three for excitement to be injected back in to the event. Kimi Raikonnen and Lewis Hamilton, despite fighting it out for eleventh place, were fighting like their careers depended on it. Lewis eventually got past Kimi and then began forging his through the pack in the final laps to finish ninth and pick up some points.

The driver that suffered the most this weekend was quite obviously Paul Di Resta. After everything else that he had to deal with during practice and then qualifying, his race was over very quickly. He was involved in an incident, approaching the second chicane, in which he found himself in a tight spot, squeezed to the point that he lost his front wing and left front wheel. A torrid weekend for some, but a great weekend for Red Bull Racing, who may well have just about sealed the Championship.

The Result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:18:33.352
2.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+5.467
3.	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+6.350
4.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+9.361
5.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber	+10.355
6.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+10.999
7.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	+32.329
8.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	+33.130
9.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+33.527
10.	Jenson Button	McLaren	+38.327
11.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus	+38.695
12.	Sergio Perez	McLaren	+39.765
13.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber	+40.880
14.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	+49.085
15.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	+56.827
16.	Adrian Sutil	Force India	+1 Lap
17.	Charles Pic	Caterham	+1 Lap
18.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham	+1 Lap
19.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	+1 Lap
20.	Max Chilton	Marussia	+1 Lap
Did not finish
21.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	+39 Laps
22.	Paul di Resta	Force India	+53 Laps

Italian Grand Prix qualifying...

Qualifying in Monza started slowly and then by the time Q2 arrived things really took off. There were some shock results at the end of the second session and many of the top players failed to make it through to the final shoot out. The Force India drivers look to be having another one of their difficult weekends, Paul Di Resta having a crash in Free Practice and then both cars failing to make it in to Q3.

Both Lotus cars failed to make it to Q3, which is a huge blow to Kimi Raikonnen's championship challenge. The small consolation for Kimi will be the massive shock of Lewis Hamilton dropping out in Q2. He was back to his unprofessional ways in his post session interview, in which he decided not to be reserved and diplomatic, but instead to call himself an idiot and blame Adrian Sutil for one of his poor laps. However, Lewis will certainly feel that he has thrown away his chance at the Championship.

Red Bull Racing were wonderfully dominant again and showed up the Ferrari drivers who attempted a bit of team strategy, which couldn't have backfired better. Alonso was meant to receive a tow in Massa's slipstream and instead was out qualified by Felipe. Vettel took pole position, with Mark Webber taking the second place on the grid. Hulkenberg was the surprise qualifier, securing the third grid slot, without a Mercedes car in sight. It will be interesting to see what Lewis and Kimi can do from way down the grid, but it is more likely that we will see the Red Bull's flying to yet another victory.

Belgian Grand Prix: Far from a relaxing Spa weekend!

Spa was an action packed affair this weekend, with passing by the truck load. The 2013 Belgian Grand Prix should be entered in to the Guinness Book of Records, for being the Grand Prix with the most overtakes, and many of them featured Romain Grosjean. In fact, Grosjean should receive a very large pat on the back, since he was heavily involved, but amazingly managed to avoid catastrophe. There was one incident involving Romain, which caused some controversy. Perez was deemed to have squeezed Grosjean of the circuit and as a result had to serve a drive-through penalty. Some feel the penalty was a little harsh, whilst others seem to side with Grosjean, perhaps feeling it was time something went his way.

In regards to the result, Vettel was totally unstoppable. Lewis Hamilton was visibly disappointed, whilst still allowing himself a wry smile with Sebastian after the race. Vettel stretches his lead even further in the Championship fight and is looking more and more like sealing his fourth consecutive World Championship title. Alonso stays within touching distance after another consistent podium finish, but will need to try push his Ferrari harder in the next few races, just like in previous seasons. It's fair to say that if anyone can do it then Fernando Alonso can

There were a lot of daring overtakes and at times the drivers were racing like it was the last race of the season. One of those times was when Maldonado got out of shape near the end of lap 30 and found himself challenged by Gutierrez and the two Force India cars of Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta. They weaved and passed each other right up to the bus stop chicane, where it all became a little too much for Pastor and he ended up clipping Sutil's car before careening in to a helpless Di Resta. It was a situation that provided a huge amount of entertainment but, for the rival teams, was easily avoidable, half way through a highly competitive and close season.

The race ending was quite an anti climax, with Vettel storming to victory and barely any racing in the closing laps. The threat of rain was in the air and on the weather monitors, however it stayed away and Sebastian's race was unhindered. It deprived the fans of another exciting race finish
, but for Vettel and Red Bull Racing it was exactly what they needed. 

Hungarian Grand Prix: Who says you can't pass in Hungary?!

Clearly nobody told Romain Grosjean or Lewis Hamilton that you can't pass in Hungary, although it is fair to say that Lewis was a little more composed and legal with his passing, whilst Romain was quite a bit wilder. Lewis Hamilton secured the win single-handedly, with some sublime overtakes, namely on Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso. He knew he had to make up the places after his pit stop and simply did exactly what was required. It marked his first win in a Mercedes and that's impressive when you take in to account Hamilton's hopes and targets at the start of the season.

There were passes all over the circuit, but noticeably from Grosjean who kept doing so illegally. He passed Massa off the circuit and was given a drive-through penalty, however many will consider his incident with Button as much more cynical. He squeezed Jenson to the point that they made contact and an irate Button lost a lot of time and a couple of positions. The passing was intense through the first couple of laps, with cars touching and weaving desperately.

The whole race began with a bad start from Sebastian Vettel, immediately followed by fantastic defensive manoeuvres in to the first corner and, unbelievably, he managed to hold on to second place. He was later forced to defend against Romain Grosjean for a number of laps and again held his position. Whilst Hamilton's passing was a fantastic display of his skill and ability, Vettel's defending was a display of his. Both drivers are showing themselves to be the best out there.

It was a race that proved very difficult to follow, with pit stop strategies and tyre degradation making it a task for only team strategists to work out the true standings. Just when it seemed somebody had taken to the lead from seemingly nowhere, they would take to the pits and drop down the order again. Eventually the field panned out and it was obvious that Lewis Hamilton had raced a blinder. He had a comfortable end to the race, having done what he needed to earlier on. The biggest fight came from Vettel and Raikonnen, who diced for the second podium position right up to the chequered flag. The big story of the weekend is that Mercedes are clearly making progress and bringing the fight to Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus. They will hope that the summer break passes nice and quickly.

The Result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:42:29.445
2.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus	+10.938
3.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	+12.459
4.	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+18.044
5.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+31.411
6.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	+52.295
7.	Jenson Button	McLaren	+53.819
8.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+56.447
9.	Sergio Perez	McLaren	+1 Lap
10.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	+1 Lap
11.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber	+1 Lap
12.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	+1 Lap
13.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	+1 Lap
14.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham	+2 Laps
15.	Charles Pic	Caterham	+2 Laps
16.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	+3 Laps
17.	Max Chilton	Marussia	+3 Laps
Did not finish
18.	Paul di Resta	Force India	+4 Laps
19.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+6 Laps
20.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	+28 Laps
21.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber	+42 Laps
22.	Adrian Sutil	Force India	+51 Laps

Hungary Grand Prix: Qualifying

The talking point in the run up to the Hungarian Grand Prix was the track surface temperature and a few nervous rumblings regarding the Pirelli tyres and the fear that we may have a repeat of the ludicrous events of Silverstone. Nothing materialised in the qualifying session but we will have to wait and see what happens in the race.

The first session was relatively predictable, with the exception of Di Resta's exit. Di Resta's poor fortunate, that saw him drop out in the first session, was a precursor to Force India's turn of luck this weekend. Sutil was knocked out at the end of the second session and the two Force India drivers will find it difficult to achieve much in the race from outside of the top ten. It was McLaren's Sergio Perez who threw up the surprise that bumped Sutil out of the top ten in the final seconds of Q2. He outpaced his teammate, Jenson Button, once again, as Button's woes deepen and the he continues to watch his contention for the title dwindle.

It was yet another Mercedes versus Red Bull fight, in the final session of qualifying. Sebastian Vettel's strategists made a smart move by saving a fresh set of option tyres, for one very quick lap, halfway through the session. Nobody was able to quite match Vettel's earlier time, as the chequered flag flew for each of them. That was of course until Lewis Hamilton put in his final quick lap. He pipped Sebastian to pole and despite Seb's best efforts he was unable to retake the top spot. It was an exciting end to the Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying, regardless of the familiar result. Will Mercedes race pace continue to improve in to Sunday's grand prix?

Qualifying result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	01:19.388	15
2.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	01:19.426	12
3.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	01:19.595	15
4.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	01:19.720	16
5.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	01:19.791	15
6.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus	01:19.851	17
7.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	01:19.929	15
8.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	01:20.641	14
9.	Sergio Perez	McLaren	01:22.398	16
10.	Mark Webber	Red Bull	no time	13
11.	Adrian Sutil	Force India	01:20.569	17
12.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber	01:20.580	13
13.	Jenson Button	McLaren	01:20.777	10
14.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	01:21.029	12
15.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	01:21.133	15
16.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	01:21.219	13