F1 2010: Alonso finds form as it gets even tighter at the top

FERNANDO ALONSO put the team orders controversy behind him by steering Ferrari to a first win at their home circuit in Monza for four years.

Spaniard Alonso finished ahead of Britain's Jenson Button and team-mate Felipe Massa of Brazil in the Italian Grand Prix to complete an excellent week for the Italian team.

Earlier last week, the FIA confirmed they would face no further punishment despite Massa being forced to let Alonso through to win the German Grand Prix earlier this summer.

The governing body agreed with Ferrari's assertion that Alonso had the faster car and that Massa was simply being made aware of this but it upheld the $100000 fine imposed by the race stewards.

In fairness, in the context of the championship chase, Ferrari's decision at Hockenheim was entirely understandable.

Going into that race, Alonso was on 98 points, within two race wins of championship leader Lewis Hamilton. Meanwhile, Massa was just eighth in the standings on 67 points.

But the rather bitter after-taste from the incident came from Ferrari's sheepish insistence that the blatant team order was Massa's choice.

The rather crass apology from Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley to Massa, not to mention the Brazilian's reaction on the podium and in the post-race press conference, certainly suggested otherwise.

More poignantly still, this German Grand Prix was exactly one year on from the day when Massa almost lost his life in the qualifying session for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Of course, it would be foolish to believe that supposedly banned team orders are not endemic throughout the sport.

Perhaps the best way to deal with this far from ideal situation would be for the rule on team orders to be scrapped altogether, the solution seemingly currently favoured by the FIA.

But, regardless of all that, it would be a crying shame if an isolated racing incident was to overshadow what has been yet another phenomenal F1 season.

Alonso's win at Monza puts him third in the Drivers' Championship on 166 points, 21 behind current leader Mark Webber. Fascinatingly, four drivers are within 24 points of the Australian with 25 awarded for a race win.

It is therefore nigh on impossible to predict who will ultimately prevail this year with none of the drivers able to put more than a couple of results together at the moment.

Lewis Hamilton lost the championship lead in Italy after an early retirement, his second in three races - but, in the meantime, he was a clear winner of the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa.

Hamilton is five points behind leader Webber who finds himself looking down on all the others despite having finished only sixth in Italy.

Alonso seems to be the driver in the best current form with two wins and a second place in three of the last four races. But his struggle in the rain and then retirement at Spa could yet prove costly.

Like Alonso, Button also retired in the Belgium after Sebastian Vettel crashed into him before the Frome flyer bounced back with a fine result in Italy.

Unlike Alonso, Button's has his team-mate is ahead of him in the standings.

Being behind is a fate which also befalls Webber's Red Bull team mate Vettel, though goodness knows how that is the the case considering the German has had seven pole positions.

Only once - at the European Grand Prix in Valencia - has Vettel converted a pole into a race win with his only other victory this season coming in Malaysia when Webber was on pole.

It means Vettel has the most work to do and his 15th place finish at Spa, due to his crash into Button and the subsequent drive-through penalty, neatly summed up an error-strewn season.

Indeed, it was Vettel's second penalty in successive races after his failure to stay within 10 car-lengths of the safety car in Hungary.

The punishment in Budapest had been costly for Vettel, demoting him to third place and effectively handing his team-mate Webber the most recent of his four wins - and his current place at the top of the standings.

With five races left, the remainder of the season is spent entirely outside of Europe. First, there are three races in east Asia - in Singapore and in Japan and the first-ever Korean Grand Prix.

Then, the campaign will reach its thrilling climax with races in successive weeks at the start of November in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

After Ferrari's unsurprising dominance in Monza, the remaining tracks are supposed to favour the Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel.

The news would seem to put Webber in an outstanding position to win a maiden world title.

But surely this extraordinary F1 season will not allow it to be as simple as that.

2010 Season Results

PODIUMS
Bahrain GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
2 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari
3 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

Australian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Robert Kubica (Pol) Renault
3 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari

Malaysian GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
3 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes

Chinese GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes

Spanish GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

Monaco GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
3 Robert Kubica (Pol) Renault

Turkish GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault

Canadian GP (Pole: Lewis Hamilton)
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari

European GP (Valencia) (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes

British GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes

German GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
2 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

Hungarian GP (Pole: Sebastian Vettel)
1 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault

Belgian GP (Pole: Mark Webber)
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault
3 Robert Kubica (Pol) Renault

Italian GP (Pole: Fernando Alonso)
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari
2 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes
3 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari

REMAINING RACES

Singapore GP (26 September), Japanese GP (10 October), Korean GP (24 October), Brazilian GP (7 November), Abu Dhabi GP (14 November)

STANDINGS
Drivers' Championship
1 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 187 (4 wins)
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 182 (3 wins)
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 166 (3 wins)
4 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 165 (2 wins)
5 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault 163 (2 wins)
6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 124
7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 112
8 Robert Kubica (Pol) Renault 108
9 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes 46
10 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Mercedes 45
11 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams-Cosworth 31
12 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) BMW Sauber-Ferrari 21
13 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 19
14 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Williams-Cosworth 16
15 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Force India-Mercedes 13
16 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 7
17 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) BMW Sauber-Ferrari 6
18 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Toro Rossi-Ferrari 3
Seven drivers have yet to score (Heikki Kovalainen (Fin), Karun Chandhok (Ind), Lucas di Grassi (Bra), Jarno Trulli (Ita), Bruno Senna (Bra), Sakon Yamamoto (Jpn), Timo Glock (Ger))

Constructors' Championship
1 Red Bull-Renault 350
2 McLaren-Mercedes 347
3 Ferrari 290
4 Mercedes 158
5 Renault 127
6 Force India-Mercedes 58
7 Williams-Cosworth 47
8 BMW Sauber-Ferrari 27
9 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 10
Three teams have yet to score (Lotus-Cosworth, Hispania-Cosworth, Virgin-Cosworth)

Earlier F1 2010 posts on TheIntrepidReporter
14.07.2010 Angry Webber repels Vettel (after British GP)
19.04.2010 Button takes an early lead (after Chinese GP)
13.03.2010 Team-by-team preview