Just another day at the Spa

Phil: The title of this blog doesn't really cut it, unfortunately, but it's the best I can think of.

Spa was another of this season's classics, enlivened as ever by rain and the resultant safety car incidents. Hats off to some blokes in Belgium in about 1920 for chancing across such a classic racetrack with such superb temperamental weather. Maybe they could teach Hermann Tilke's state of the art tracks in the middle of deserts a thing or two.

Hats off also to my co-blogger for such a detailed and insightful analysis, which for once I actually agree with. If I had any hats left I'd also take them off to Lewis Hamilton (who, let's not forget, actually won the race) who didn't put a foot wrong all afternoon - even if his race engineer did add a comedy moment by appearing to tell Lewis not to come in for inters too soon, just as he ran off into the kitty litter (the transmission being delayed, of course, to avoid broadcasting confidential team tactics and Sebastian Vettel saying, 'Scheisse!' whenever he crashes).

Mark Webber may have buggered up the start, but he was there ready to take Kubica's second place when the Pole missed his pit box. If you want to be world champion, it's consistently good results that count, and as my co-blogger insightfully pointed out, the smidgeon of points he got from Kubica's error may make him world champion come Abu Dhabi (but probably not before).

Hamilton may have done everything right, but Vettel and Alonso seem to have done everything wrong. I won't go over Alonso's misfortunes again, but Vettel's collision with Button was frankly bizarre - the sort of crash you have to watch several times on the replay before you can really work out what actually happened.

I'm tempted to agree with my co-blogger that with Vettel's inconsistency and unforced errors and the pressure Alonso is under coping with what's still clearly the third best car, it's a two horse race between Webber and Hamilton. However, this season is so close that a bad day at the office for Button, Alonso and Vettel makes it seem like Hamilton and Webber are pulling ahead. The reality is that the boot could well be on the other foot at Monza. It's still to early to call, and, almost unbelievably, any one of five drivers could still take the title. This season is already a classic and could be the closest ever.

Next stop is one of my favourite tracks, Monza. But before that, Ferrari have to face up to the FIA for the team orders charade at Hockenheim.