The Title chase is developing nicely

As has been said in many places before this the title is looking very nicely placed indeed. We haven't seen a battle at the front like this for a long time and the points spread is more indicative of a points battle contending 6th to 10th place, and even then it's very close. Raikkonen, the early season favorite (and still most pro's top contender), Alonso, Massa and Hamilton, well the chase was always going to be between these four protagonists but the speculation was that Felipe and Lewis would be playing bit parts and supporting their respective teams in a manufacturers war while their more famous team mates would fight out the title.

Lewis and Felipe have convincingly tossed a screaming and yelling pussy amongst the pigeons and for that we have to thank them. No doubt the title will come down to two in the dying stages but we can hope that it stays tight right up until the end. Naturally this will bring team orders into play somewhere along the line because many titles have been lost letting two top play against each other (most notably when Prost stole the title away from the Williams pair of Piquet and Mansell a good few years back...). Hopefully Ron and Jean let the four play nicely up until a couple of races to go.

Felipe has really impressed me, he was my dark horse for the championship after his particularly brilliant win in Brazil at the end of last year and again has driven superbly, this time in Bahrain while under pressure from Hamilton all the way and again utterly dominant on that Spanish plain. Like most people I expected Kimi (despite being totally new to the team) to get the job done and he started the season off in Melbourne in ominous style, romping away to a big win with a dominant fastest lap as well. Some may argue that his being new at Ferrari means that there is supposedly still a lot to come but these chaps are professionals and I dont see being new to the team hampering either Hamilton or Alonso at McLaren...

Oh and I nearly forgot, the rest of the field have been having fun as well. Top of the list for the most rubbish year is of course Honda who are now bringing out a second "B" spec car in month or two - a desperate measure but the only way is up for the Japanese squad. They were looking spot on at the end of last year but they dropped the ball in a big way over the winter. Red Bull have been applying themselves and are starting to develop the Adrian Newey designed RB3 and it's on the verge of becoming a serious top ten contender. Renault are wondering how they can get Alonso back - no really they're actually trying to figure out how to get rid of Fisichella, 'er no they're going to conentrate on developing the chassis. Just wait, once "Kova" starts beating Fisi on a regular basis we'll see Nelson Piquet jnr replace him. Can't wait. Actually it has started this weekend with Kova out qualifying Fisi in Spain..

Of course Sauber (ha, ha!) BMW have put in a solid season so far and Heidfeld apart from being no world champion has delivered perfectly and leads the best of the rest.

Looking back at the first four races you have to have respect for the much hyped Lewis Hamilton, sure he is in the second best car in F1 at the moment, but he has posted four podiums out of four, has out driven Alonso in both of the last two rounds, outqualified Alonso once and hasn't appeared to make a mistake yet. He has put F1 on the front page of the daily newspapers in the UK (with the cricketers are confined to back...so the poms need someone to cheer for) and generaly spiced things up. Great stuff.

I don't know about you but I'm settling for a stormer of a season and I don't know if it's just me but Never Never F1 has added a positive extra slant to the whole circus.