F1 News
Date: 22/August/2011
The month-long F1 summer break comes to an end with the Belgian Grand Prix at the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps circuit this Sunday.
Representing round twelve of 19, the second part of the season will begin with reigning champion Sebastian Vettel enjoying a massive 85-point lead over Red Bull team-mate and nearest rival Mark Webber.
Vettel has won six of the eleven races so far this year, compared with just two wins at the same point last season.
First or second in every race this season other than Germany (fourth) Vettel has already collected 98 points more than this time last year - and is only 22 points behind his entire 2010 tally!
For Webber - a triple race winner by this time last year, but winless in 2011 - to overturn Vettel's advantage he would need to outscore the young German by an average of 10.7 points over the remaining rounds.
The task is ever greater for former world champions Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Jenson Button (McLaren), who have all won this year but are presently languishing 88, 89 and 100 points respectively behind Vettel.
Hamilton and Button have both won two races - the same as this time last year - while Alonso's single win is one less than last year.
If 2010 is anything to go by, Vettel and Alonso will be the drivers to beat in the remaining races - each having won three grands prix from the final eight rounds of last year.
The remaining rounds will be held at the same venues as last year, with the exception of the new Indian event.
A 64-point gap separates Button from Alonso's Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa, in sixth.
The Brazilian had scored three podiums by this time last year but, like Webber, seems to have noticeably lost pace relative to his team-mate in the first year of Pirelli tyres.
Massa's nearest challenger, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, needs to find 22 points to catch the former title contender.
Rosberg finished seventh in last year's championship, but will feel far less satisfaction from holding that position this time around, having taken three podiums by this time last year, but has only a best of fifth (twice) this year.
Despite recent criticism, Renault substitute Nick Heidfeld is matching predecessor Robert Kubica's final 2010 position of eighth, although the Pole could boast two podiums to Heidfeld's one at the stage of last year.
Team-mate Vitaly Petrov began his second year in style with a podium in Australia and is presently just two points from Heidfeld, an improvement of four places over his final 2010 ranking.
Rounding out the top ten is F1 legend Michael Schumacher, whose second season since coming out of retirement to join Mercedes is yet to yield the kind of results expected.
Currently one place behind his final 2010 ranking, Schumacher's best result of this year is a fourth place in Canada - a result he had achieved twice by this time last year.
But if Schumacher is disappointed, spare a thought for former Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello. Tenth at the end of last year with 47 points, the Williams driver has sunk to 17th place, having scored just four points so far this year.
At the tail end of the grid, the 'new' teams that arrived at the start of 2010, are still chasing their first world championship point. Jarno Trulli (Lotus) and Vittoriano Liuzzi (HRT) have so far got closest with 13th place finishes.
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