Monza

Phil: I have fond memories of Monza, watching the 2008 race in the wet, standing by the armco on the inside of the entry to the Ascari chicane, where the track cuts underneath the old, banked track. Vettel took his maiden victory that day, and he won again today. It was a good race, but not a great race, and one that he dominated completely. Once he had passed a fast starting Alonso - almost unbelievably, around the outside of Curva Grande - he never looked in danger of not winning.

Button, who passed Alonso, Hamilton and Schumacher to finish second, seems to me to be at the peak of his game. He has consistently outdriven his teammate Hamilton this year, hasn't made the mistakes that Hamilton has, and has performed particularly well at the real drivers' tracks, like Spa, or Montreal in the wet where he drove a really masterful race. I think that technically he is one of the best and most underrated drivers out there.

What else happened today? Bruno Senna, apparently unnoticed by the BBC team, took the first points of his career today with ninth place. And as a Phil who is often mistaken for a Paul, it was refreshing to hear Paul di Resta's race engineer, who ought to know him fairly well by now, call him 'Phil' over the radio.

Vettel is now 112 points ahead of Alonso, and 117 points ahead of both Button and Webber, with six races left. If Vettel wins his third race in a row next time out at Singapore, Button must finish second (again) and Alonso must finish third (again) for either of them to stand even a mathematical chance of taking the title. Put it another way. Vettel could be world champion in a fortnight's time.

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.