Alpine F1

With 10 races gone and nine remaining in the 2013 season, Kimi Raikkonen is Sebastian Vettel’s closest challenger, albeit a seemingly vast 38 points behind. Whilst I must confess that I didn't expect Kimi to be in the top two at this stage of the season and would be surprised if he remains ahead of either Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton by the season’s end, I’m pleased that he is.

Raikkonen is a welcome breath of fresh air to a sport seemingly overpopulated by PR-manufactured robots. The Finn is different. He’s nicknamed the "Ice Man" because of his chilled persona and relaxed attitude that has seen him asleep in the garage only minutes before the start of a race.

He also isn't afraid to say what he thinks from his now famous radio exchange to his engineer in Abu Dhabi last year to saying that someone should "punch Sergio Perez in the face" after the McLaren driver crashed into him at Monaco this year as quoted in BBC Sport.

Just type Kimi Raikkonen into YouTube and you’ll get a number of amusing clips ranging from drunken antics on boats to being kidnapped into signing a contract and his latest Renault advert where he’s hanging out on a beach with no idea as to why he’s there apart from the fact that’s where his car took him.

His fascinating personality aside, the Finn is also quick. And importantly this season, in the James Allison masterminded Lotus E2,1 he also has a car that suits his driving style and the chassis seems to be better suited to manage the Pirelli’s high rates of degradation better than many of its rivals.  

Raikkonen got off to the best possible start in Australia, making one less stop than his rivals en route to a comfortable victory. If Australia was a welcome surprise, Malaysia was a reality check as Raikkonen was slapped with a three-place grid penalty for impeding Nico Rosberg in qualifying before losing part of his front wing at the start of the race. The Finn eventually finishing seventh.

He qualified second in China, and despite losing places at the start and suffering damage in an early contact with Perez, his race pace remained strong and he made his final stop earlier than Lewis Hamilton before dialing in a couple of quick laps to put him second—which is where he stayed.

So after the opening three races, Raikkonen was only three points behind Vettel, but the gap increased in Bahrain as the German drove a flawless race whilst Raikkonen’s drive from eighth on the grid to second again demonstrated the efficiency of the Lotus E21’s race pace. He repeated the fete in Spain as Raikkonen was the only driver to stop three times to the other's four. It proved the correct decision, with the Finn passing both Vettel and Felipe Massa before ending up nine seconds behind race winner Alonso.

The gap was back to three points going into Monaco, but after qualifying fifth with a new steering rack, Raikkonen was punted into an unscheduled pit stop by Sergio Perez. That led to the Finn's comment that perhaps someone should "punch him in the face." Only a single point in Monaco left him further behind Vettel and having been handed a two-place grid penalty in Canada for not exiting the pit lane from the fast lane, a botched pit stop cost him further time and a ninth-place finish.

A wrong call not to stop for a final set of hards under the safety car at Silverstone cost Raikkonen a likely podium as his tyres lost grip in the final stint, but Germany produced an absolute classic duel between Raikkonen and Vettel. Lotus looked set for a two stopper until a safety car period brought about by Jules Bianchi’s flaming Marussia, which forced Raikkonen to pit from the lead with 11 laps remaining. He narrowed the gap to just a second at the flag in the closest finish of the season.

The roles were reversed in Hungary. Vettel was right behind Raikkonen at the finish as Hamilton strolled away with the race win.

It does seem a strong possibility that if Raikkonen fails in his improbable task to win a second drivers’ title with the Lotus team in 2013, he’ll be given the mouth-watering opportunity to go for the title as Vettel’s Red Bull teammate in 2014.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admitted to Autosport that Raikkonen’s salary will not be a factor in the decision of who gets Mark Webber’s vacant seat. So it seems highly likely that the in-demand Finn may well be off to pastures new with a decision set to be announced at either Spa or Monza.

Kimi’s mid-season marks:

Temperament: 7/10

Qualifying: 7/10

Race craft: 9/10

Summary: Kimi is having a blinder of a season and the Lotus E21 seems ideally suited to his driving style. I expect more podiums to come and perhaps the odd win, but ultimately, I see someone else as top of the class this season.

Romain Grosjean has gained himself a bit of an unwanted reputation over the last couple of seasons as a reckless driver.

Whilst undoubtedly quick, as many of his qualifying performances have demonstrated, the young Frenchman has been responsible for a number of accidents leading to no shortage of criticism from his fellow drivers.

Grosjean’s position within his Lotus team is very much under threat and if he can’t cure his ways he will be looking for a new job in 2014.

Grosjean lined up eighth on the grid in Australia but whilst teammate Kimi Raikkonen cruised effortlessly through the pack and made his tyres work on a two stopper, the Frenchman got bogged down by a bad start and struggled with the balance of his car en route to grabbing the remaining point in 10th.

Malaysia was marginally better, Grosjean finishing a place above his teammate in sixth as Raikkonen was compromised by an early collision with Sergio Perez. There were more points in China but only two as Raikkonen pushed Fernando Alonso close for victory.

The pressure was on for Grosjean to deliver a stronger showing relative to his teammate in Bahrain and Grosjean did not disappoint, carving his way through the field from 11th on the grid to his first podium since last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Grosjean put the result down to a change of chassis that gave him more confidence, as quoted by Autosport in his team’s post race press conference.

It's great to be back on the podium and it's a fantastic result for the team. It hasn't been an easy start to the season for me, but we made good progress through the weekend and are now back to where we should be. I felt much more comfortable in the car and the result today is a deserved reward for everyone after all our hard work. It was a really enjoyable race with a lot of overtaking and a couple of tense moments along the way, so to come from P11 through to the podium is really satisfying.

Grosjean’s joy would not carry over to Spain, however, as a rear suspension issue forced his retirement on lap 21 whilst Raikkonen notched another second place. And things went from bad to worse in Monaco, a poor qualifying leaving him 13th on the grid before he ploughed into the back of Daniel Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso on lap 63, earning him a 10-place grid penalty for Canada.

It looked a rookie error and it appeared as though the leopard had not changed its spots. Grosjean was understandably sheepish when quoted by Autosport from his team’s press release.

I'd been following him for almost all of the 61 laps but I was caught out by him braking early in the middle of the circuit and there was nowhere for me to go. It's a frustrating end to the weekend, but the real damage was done in qualifying when I didn't get through to Q3. That was Daniel again who I was held up by, but it certainly wasn't my intention to end my race in the back of his car!

The penalty accrued in Monaco gave Grosjean little chance from the back of the grid in Canada, 13th the best he could have hoped for. And whilst Grosjean outqualified Raikkonen in Britain for the first time in the season, an unexplained front wing failure late in the race led to another DNF.

Germany proved a mirror image of Bahrain, Grosjean achieving his second podium of the season behind Raikkonen and race winner Sebastian Vettel. And like Bahrain, it had come at just the right time, the hot conditions playing to the Lotus’ strengths. Autosport quotes Grosjean as a happy driver afterwards.

After some difficult races, everything went right today and it was pretty special when I was leading the race and returning to the podium is naturally a good thing. My car felt great on the first stint with the soft tyres and it's clear that the summer weather really suits us. Hopefully we'll have a long summer now in Europe! Letting Kimi past at the end of the race was the sensible thing to do as we were on different strategies and he had more of a chance of going for the win than I did at that point.

As is so often the case, Grosjean has appeared unable to string two good performances together and Hungary would offer yet more disappointment. He first ran into Jenson Button at turn six, earning him a retrospective 20-second penalty and was later given a drive-through penalty for gaining an unfair advantage for leaving the track whilst passing Felipe Massa round the outside of Turn 4.

That he still managed to finish sixth shows what he may have been able to achieve. Button accused Grosjean of not thinking and the Frenchman was apologetic afterwards when quoted in his team’s press release on Autosport.

Maybe the strategy didn't quite work how we wanted, but the car felt really good and it was the traffic that cost us. Without this maybe there would never have been a drive-through penalty which for sure didn't help. I haven't seen the footage yet and I thought it was a good move, but unfortunately the stewards took a different view. I've no problem with the time-added for the incident with Jenson and I apologised to him afterwards.

So what to make of Grosjean’s season so far? It’s fair to say that it has been the predictable mixed bag with flashes of brilliance tempered by some all too familiar mistakes. It’s perhaps understandable that he’s been comprehensively outdriven by Raikkonen in almost every race, but how long will Lotus want a team with only one driver performing consistently?

Romain’s mid-season marks:

Temperament: 6/10

Qualifying: 6/10

Race craft: 6/10

Summary: Only two podiums seems a poor return for a man with one of the best cars. Needs a much stronger second half of the year or it could be curtains.

With an “interesting” new development recently introduced by the Lotus team, part 3 in the series looks at what effect the new system may have in the second half of the season.

In first practice of the German grand prix in Hockenheim, Kimi Räikkönen’s car emerged from the pits with a scoop on either side of the roll-hoop, a tube running down the middle of the car to the beam wing, and an outlet hole underneath the so-called “monkey seat.” 

Lotus’ technical director James Allison had described the updates for that weekend as “interesting,” and it seems the Englishman is a master of understatement as well as aerodynamics, because the paddock has been abuzz about it ever since.

Further intrigue was added in practice two of the Hungarian grand prix.   Having been lapping around slowly for a while, Lotus’ team radio confirmed to Räikkönen that the “rear wing is good" and "is working."  He was then told to begin lapping as normal.

But what does this intriguingly visual new development actually do?  Opinion seems to be divided on the subject. 

Some commentators have referred to the device as another “Double Drag Reduction System” or “DDRS,” much like that pioneered by Mercedes at the start of the season. 

Others have referred to it as a kind of “passive F-Duct” in reference to the technology McLaren introduced in 2010, where the driver would cover a whole in the cockpit with some part of his body (knee or glove), diverting air through the car and reducing drag.  

The logic for both is sound—the F-Ducts of 2010 were quickly banned as the driver movement involved raised concerns over safety, as well as bordering on a banned concept of “moveable aerodynamic devices.” 

But the Mercedes DDRS system uses an exception in the rules for the DRS system—the speed boost brought about by a lack of drag that was introduced to increase overtaking—where the act of engaging the DRS allows tubes attached to the rear wing to channel air through the car to “stall” the front wing.  Theoretically, this should provide an increase in speed, particularly for qualifying when DRS can be used at the drivers’ discretion, possibly reducing lap time by as much as 0.3 seconds. 

But more importantly, what the FIA’s ruling on DRS provided was a loophole through which teams could use the primary act of switching on the DRS to produce some secondary function as well. 

It is this ruling that Lotus have said prompted the development of their system, so the idea that it is a purely passive F-Duct system therefore seems flawed.  Likewise, it does not seem to include any tubes directed towards the front of the car, so it is clearly not the same as the Mercedes system either.

More likely, the answer is something between the two.  As the illustration shows, when the DRS is closed, the air is channeled down through the engine cover, and blows over the top of the car’s diffuser (illustrated with the red arrows).  Rather than provide any speed boost, this is more likely to be aimed at increasing downforce, in much the same way as the “cold-blowing exhausts” of 2011. 

However, when the DRS is activated (illustrated with green arrows), the air will then be channeled at a higher angle and out over the beam wing.  This would then further increase the drag reduction from the DRS and thus improve top speed on the straights.

This is, perhaps, an oversimplification of the system and only one possible way in which it could function, but from the limited data we have so far it seems the most plausible.  

Lotus have not yet used the system in either qualifying or the race, but if any top speed is to be gained from the development we are sure to see it for the high speed circuits of Spa and, in particular, Monza—the next two grand prix on the calendar.  

If it functions to the team’s expectations, the already competitive Lotus team could become the class of the field and, with Räikkönen still within striking distance of the world championship, it could be a decisive innovation. 

Unfortunately for them, much like many innovative ideas in Formula One, it’s also banned for next season. 

It must have been a great feeling for Kimi Raikkonen to take control of a steering wheel of a Formula One car again on Tuesday after two years away from the riches and glamour present only here.

Though Kimi topped the time charts during his first stint, the opportunity to announce the dream comeback to the world will only arrive about five weeks from now, when the Formula One season starts in Melbourne, Australia.

Many had cast their doubts about whether Raikkonen would be able to handle Formula One again after a break when it was revealed that he would be one of the drivers for Lotus Renault. The best way to silence them would be to be in the points in Melbourne.

In 2009, even before the season was over, Kimi was contacted by Toyota to race for them. Talks broke down, presumably because Kimi refused to the offer of a low salary and the fact that he would not be driving a race-winning car.

Fast forward to February 2012, and he is humble enough to admit that he had not acquired the habit of winning as such and he would be happy just to race this season. In the same interview, when asked whether F1 was the best thing one may engage in, he added that there were more things that one could do with life.

Such responses must have brought back memories of the cool, calm and composed Finn that so many people admired and fell in love with. Since Kimi left F1, those very fans of his have been dying to hear more news about him, and the story about him returning would have done them nicely.

So what can we expect from the Flying Finn this season?

Remember Braun and how they took everyone apart to win the championship along with Jenson Button in their very first season?

Well, I will certainly not be audacious enough to forecast the same for Raikkonen and the newly formed Lotus Renault team, but the thing with Kimi is that you may never rule it out. It is a tall task, but so was winning the Drivers’ Championship when he trailed by 17 points with two races to go in 2007.

For people that may know only about that particular exploit of Kimi's life, well, wait for some more. Heard of Sauber, anyone? He, along with another talented driver in Nick Heidfeld, got Sauber to finish fourth, their highest position ever.

Kimi scored nine points that season, his first in Formula One, after a mere 23 races. Yes, you heard it right: 23. The F1 President, among others, was skeptical about granting an F1 super license to such an inexperienced driver. Raikkonen proved them wrong by scoring his first points in his first race.

It is very clear that Raikkonen is from a rare breed of drivers who can have a profound impact on any team's standing and any car's performance.

Another unique ability of his is to overtake others with considerable ease and panache. Even the legendary Michael Schumacher may able to tell you and his grandsons (if he wishes to) about those manoeuvres that Kimi inflicted upon him. Kimi himself admits that he missed the wheel-to-wheel stuff and physical racing with cars in reach, something that was absent in rally racing.

When all is said and done, I predict our hero will regularly challenge for the points in every race. As far as the Drivers’ Championship goes, he is the dark horse and will do very well to even come close to the drivers of the trio of RBR-Renault, Mclaren and Ferrari.

Even after taking into account the magnitude of competition, I will stick my neck out and predict that he will split at least one of those drivers from the remaining five come the end of the season.

That in itself would be the Drivers’ Championship won for all of Kimi Raikkonen's fans.    

In 2011, Renault were unfortunate to lose the capabilities of their No. 1 driver, Robert Kubica. They made a careful and logical decision in naming Nick Heidfeld as his temporary replacement.

Alongside kept driver Vitaly Petrov, the team had a positive start to the campaign, as both drivers scored a third-place podium finish and amassed a credible run of points.

But then Renault made mistakes. Heidfeld had not led the team the way they had wanted, so they shipped him away in place of the unproven Bruno Senna. 

As Senna and Petrov went into the second half of the season, Renault began focusing instead on the 2012 car and results for the current season subsequently began to dwindle.

Adrian Sutil took full advantage by climbing above Petrov in the drivers championship and Bruno found himself in the points only once. A run of finishes outside the Top 10 was not what they would have expected at the beginning of the season, but the pair could do little to subvert this occurrence. 

In hindsight, you can judge that Renault would have done better to keep Heidfeld.

The German appeared stronger than Senna in the fact that he was visibly faster than Petrov and the Brazilian was not. Maybe he would have snuck a few points scoring finishes and found himself a drive elsewhere for 2012. 

To be fair to Senna though, he was unlucky to come in at a time when Renault lost momentum, speed and development against their rivals. 

We have seen with someone like Jenson Button in his times at Honda that negativity from a team can breed negativity in the drivers, and this seemed to be the case for both Senna and Petrov.

How can you perform if your team are not providing appropriate attention to current development?

Should Sutil take the remaining seat at Williams, there is only one realistic opportunity for a full-time drive in 2012 and that is at back-enders HRT. 

Renault have become Lotus and brought in the capable hands of former world champion Kimi Raikkonen and an inexperienced but celebrated racer in Romain Grosjean.

This leaves both Senna and Petrov out of a drive. You can't help but feel sorry for the latter, who, after a debut season of little note, provided some credible performances in 2011. 

Petrov therefore deserves a chance to prove himself at a team who will not give up halfway through the season. The Russian has highlighted to us this year that he has ambition and spark evident, he just needs to tools to regularly apply it. 

For Bruno, it would be the second time he has been left on the sidelines after HRT did not keep him on for 2011. 

The overall outcome of it all is that Renault have now left three drivers with Formula 1 careers in jeopardy. You have to comprehend that for Nick Heidfeld, it is one confidence-bashing decision too far. 

There are just arguments that all three did not ignite enough excitement to stake claim to a drive, but then for the most part that opportunity was taken out of their hands by a team who nosedived without caution and whose choices seemed misjudged. 

The Iceman is back in Formula 1.

After a year of speculation that he would return to the series, Kimi Raikkonen has signed a two-year contract with the Renault team, who will race under the Lotus name next season.

The move comes after intense speculation for some time that the former world champion would sign with the Williams team, but a deal could not be struck between the two parties.

The move will be sure to put a smile on the face of Rubens Barrichello, whose seat at Williams was thought to be under threat from Raikkonen. The Brazilian has been desperate to stay in Formula 1 and, with Kimi out of the picture, now has a far greater chance of doing so.

Raikkonen began his Formula 1 career with Sauber having only 23 race starts under his belt. Many thought that he was too inexperienced for the drive and he had to be granted special dispensation to gain the FIA Super Licence needed to race in F1.

All fears were allayed after Raikkonen finished sixth in his first F1 race. He continued to impress in his debut season which led to McLaren signing him to replace fellow Finn Mika Hakkinen.

Five seasons at McLaren saw Raikkonen secure nine wins, but no titles, before moving to Ferrari in 2007. Raikkonen won the title by a single point after Lewis Hamilton struggled to seventh with a gearbox problem.

The next two seasons saw a dip in form which resulted in only two wins for Raikkonen. Ferrari decided to pay off the Finn to make room for the incoming Fernando Alonso.

In the years away from Formula 1, Raikkonen has spent two seasons racing Citroen's in the World Rally Championship. He has had moderate success, finishing 10th in both seasons. He has also dabbled in one-off races in the NASCAR Truck Series and Nationwide Series.

Renault have made the move to sign Raikkonen after they announced last week that former driver Robert Kubica would not be returning to the series in 2012. An experienced driver was required to take that spot and Raikkonen seems a great option.

How well can Renault do with Raikkonen at the helm? Can he make the podium in his first season back? Leave your comments below.

Here on Bleacher Report and on other F1 fan sites, Robert Kubica has an almost mythical status. He is often portrayed as the king across the water, and it is somehow implied that when he returns all will be right with the world; the blind will see, the lame will walk, and—most miraculous of all—Lotus-Renault might win races.

Dream on, Kubica fans, but the cold light of day can often make dreams seem pathetic.

In February, 2011, Kubica was driving to the start of the Ronde di Andora rally when his Skoda-based car left the road and struck a crash barrier. Part of the barrier penetrated the car's cockpit, as shown in the photo, and whilst his co-driver Jakub Gerber escaped unharmed, Kubica was severely injured.

Looking at the photo, we may be thankful that Kubica escaped with his life, but his injuries were calamitous enough, being described as "partial amputation of his forearm, compound fractures to his right elbow, shoulder and leg, as well as significant loss of blood" (text from Wikipedia).

Has any F1 driver ever returned successfully after such serious injuries and a season (at least) out of the sport?

In terms of both mental preparedness and physical fitness, F1 makes demands on drivers that we mere fans can acknowledge but barely comprehend. When his edge has been dulled, a driver is cruelly exposed in a sport where tiny fractions of a second separate the stars from the also-rans.

After suffering a head injury at the Hungarian F1 GP in July 2009, Felipe Massa missed the rest of that season. He returned for the start of the 2010 season, but few would argue that he has been the same driver, and he has been totally overshadowed by his team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Everybody in the world of F1 must wish Robert Kubica well. We all love to see a guy make a comeback against the odds, but the odds against a surgically-reconstructed Kubica lengthen every day he is not in an F1 car.

As Lotus-Ranault and Kubica's management issue conflicting statements about his possible return, it seems to this writer that we are seeing the final and most difficult phase of Kubica's career—the long goodbye.

After months of speculation, Robert Kubica has announced he is unlikely be ready for the start of the 2012 season.

“Even if I've been working very, very hard over the course of the last few weeks, I came to the conclusion that I am not yet certain to be ready for the 2012 season.  I have called the team and I have informed them of the situation,” he said.

The Pole's statement will come as a disappointment to fans hoping for a more concrete answer to whether he will drive next year.  As with most of the reports on his progress we've received over the last few months, this one was vague and difficult to read into.

It was, however, interesting to read Lotus-Renault's accompanying statement, which appeared to rule Kubica out of the opening race of the season altogether.

“Everybody in the team is, of course, very disappointed today.  Robert not driving in Australia at the start of next season is not what we were all hoping for."

It would appear they know something we don't.  Kubica's manager, Daniele Morelli, questioned the wording of Renault's comments.

"I don't understand why Renault has changed Robert's words.  It's not true he won't be ready for 2012.  He stated he doesn't have certainty that he will be in shape for the first tests in February."

Morelli continued and dropped in a little more confusion of his own, by adding that Kubica's contract with Lotus-Renault does not extend into 2012.

"His contract does not extend into 2012.  It ends at the end of December, so from January 1 we will be free to go in whatever direction."

Most in the paddock thought it did cover 2012 as well, including Lotus-Renault.  It was widely reported in 2010 that an extension had been signed, and an accompanying press release was issued.

I can only speculate, but it sounds like Morelli could be referring to a team-performance-related release clause, which I imagine Kubica's contract would have contained, and which Renault may have failed to meet.

But that's just speculation.  It'd be safer to assume the 2012 contract will stand, regardless of what clauses exist and irrespective of what Morelli says, because there just isn't anywhere else for Kubica to go right now.

So what does all this mean for the team and driver?

First of all, it looks like Lotus-Renault have decided they need to push on and lay concrete plans for 2012, and can no longer afford to wallow in uncertainty. 

However, uncertainty is exactly what they'll continue to wallow in.  They'll remain hamstrung by the shadow of Kubica, especially when sorting out their driver lineup.

Whoever they choose as their second driver (alongside Vitaly Petrov) will be signing on the clear understanding that they can and will be removed from the race seat at any time to allow Kubica to return.

So rather than looking for an established or sought-after driver, they'll have to go with a drinker in the last-chance saloon—a man who'll take what he can get, even if his race seat will be insecure.

Romain Grosjean looks the favourite, but Bruno Senna will be shaking a lot of hands at his home race this coming weekend, hoping to secure some lucrative sponsorships to tip the balance in his favour.

And that means that unless Petrov suddenly morphs into a 1996-spec Michael Schumacher, Renault will start the season with one of the weakest driver lineup on the grid.  Probably the weakest.

For Kubica, it actually adds a greater degree of uncertainty about his future.

His contract ends after the 2012 season, and there are two very desirable race seats which may well be opening up at that time—Felipe Massa's at Ferrari and Mark Webber's at Red Bull.

But if he wants a midseason return for Lotus-Renault, they may well demand he commits to drive for them in 2013 as well.  No team wants to assist in the recovery of a driver, ease him back into racing, then have him leave straight away for pastures new.

They'll want at least a whole season out of him. 

So if he does fully recover, a major decision may have to be made.  Take the chance of a faster return at the expense of missing out on a golden opportunity, or sit out the entire 2012 season and pray that the golden opportunity is still available at the end.

Unless he's ready for the start of the season after all, in which case everything changes again.

Whichever way it goes, it will at the very least provide one story for fans to discuss and speculate on throughout the barren, race-free winter.

If there is anyone involved with Renault who could feel smug after today's showing it's out of favour German driver Nick Heidfeld. 

After scoring the same amount of points as his resurgent team mate Vitaly Petrov, he was hustled out of the drive for the unproven Bruno Senna.

Renault felt disappointed that Heidfeld had not taken the role of lead driver from Robert Kubica and lead the team to consistently strong results. 

Renault could be forgiven for taking the risk on the basis that Senna was not afforded a strong car during his debut season at Hispania. 

Maybe he just needed a stronger car to show his mettle, and as a test driver he was showing promise.

But here we are, four races into his Renault drive, and after today surely many will heap a great deal of criticism on the initial decision. Hindsight can indeed be a wondrous thing. 

Renault have gone backwards, with Petrov losing form and Senna not performing to expectation. Whether this expectation is too high for anyone in the shadow of the sorely missed Kubica is another question entirely. 

Petrov was in a great position to pick up a handful of points today. It would have further strengthened his grip on an overall top 10 finish. 

Yet, whilst battling with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari, the two broke late and Petrov flew into an unfortunate Michael Schumacher, whose Mercedes was subsequently unable to continue.

Bruno Senna left without much of a trace. Midfield scraps with the likes of Team Lotus and Williams highlighted the massive gap between the two Renault drivers. Possibly it further enhanced the idea that Senna is falling backwards since his solitary points finish in Monza.

Indeed it has been, and will continue to be, a difficult transition for the young Brazilian. There is always the philosophy that to give someone capable the time to succeed is to give yourself the opportunity of results. 

Sadly though, he had no pace in qualifying and did little to subvert this in the race. Therefore he now has three races to prove that he is worthy of a seat at Renault, or in fact at any team within Formula 1. 

When you consider that Robert Kubica may return and gift the team their No. 1 driver back, Bruno's chances look slim. 

Could it just be that the offer of a stronger drive has put in motion the end of Senna's career, and in doing so make Nick Heidfeld's drive look like a lost opportunity? Neither are lead drivers, but you can't help but feel that the latter would have achieved more.