Valencia

Justin: Well, it was my fault I guess. I labelled qualifying a bit dull and then said we should hope to look forward to a more interesting race. On one hand, I'm going to say it was a rather dull race compared to others frankly. On the other though, there was plenty of interest up front as Vettel, Alonso and Webber stayed within 3-5 seconds of each other until the final pitstops.

Vettel made an excellent start whilst Lewis dropped from 3rd to 5th, being swamped by the two Ferrari's. Massa backed out of a move on Webber in turn two and Alonso pounced around the outside. From then on it was a story of Vettel maintaining a small advantage whilst Webber, Alonso, Massa and Lewis pushed each other behind him. At one point during the race the first 6 cars were no more than 6 seconds apart. The front 3 eventually dropped the other guys and we then had a battle on our hands, or so we thought.

Webber was second, followed closely by Fernando going for a win in his home race. Alonso pulled a gutsy (as we saw, the DRS zones weren't as beneficial as they normally are on other tracks) overtake on Webber to take second place. Later on though Webber got the place back via the first pit stops. It was as you were after the first stops, with Vettel 3 or 4 seconds ahead of Alonso in 3rd, with Webber between them. Whilst it looked a lot like Webber was catching Vettel at one point, given what Vettel said afterwards ("managing the tyres whilst going as fast as possible") you suspect he was going as fast as he needed to and nothing more. That must be entirely deflating for those trying to beat him frankly, and since the end of the race both Lewis and Fernando have conceeded that the title is all but done for this year.

At the second pit stops Vettel pumped in a series of flying laps to increase his gap to a comfortable 9 seconds. Webber pitted for the hard tyres first hoping they would be better used softs, but they weren't and the others stayed out on softs for a couple more laps, able to do better lap times. Alonso jumped Webber back into second via the second pit stops, by which time Vettel was gone.

Other than the front 3 keeping things intriguing, there wasn't much else going on.

Lewis Hamilton sounded very frustrated in his car. When his engineer mentioned to him that he'd just done two fastest sectors but he needed to manage the tyres and pace himself, Lewis replied "I can't go any slower guys". When they asked him to speed up later on he replied "This is as fast as I can go guys", in a deadpan voice. Who reckons he will leave Mclaren sooner rather than later eh?

Vettel has by far the best car, that much is certain. What is setting him apart from Webber in the same equipment is that he is much more comfortable with the car on the new types of tyres. Webber himself has said he struggles to get much out of the first stint of tyres. Lewis tends to race off and burns his tyres up so he can't go fast later on a stint. The Ferrari's are kind to the tyres but arent on the same pace as Red Bull right now.

The happiest guys in the pitlane aside from Vettel are probably Webber and Alonso, though when I mean happy I mean...satisfied in Webber's case....I doubt he is happy being Red Bull number 2 these days. Webber seemed pretty satisfied yesterday and called it his best race of the year (possibly because he kept within touching distance of Vettel or possibly because he tussled with Alonso throughout the first stint and kept his tyres in better order). Alonso has stated he is driving the best he has ever driven and a second in your home race whilst splitting the fastest cars out there would bring a smile to your face.

So, what of the title race? My co-blogger stated long ago that it was Vettel's title. I now reluctantly agree with him.....I've given up hope, as have Lewis and Fernando it seems. At least I'm in good company.

Onto Silverstone we go.