08 May,2011 08:27 AM IST | | Kunal Shah
German Sebastian Vettel has been in his best driving form yet. The 2011 World Champion clinched two back-to-back victories in the first two rounds (Australia and Malaysia) of this season and has been unbeaten in qualifying in the three concluded GPs this year.
The Red Bull Racing car has been the car to beat. But for the few niggles with its KERS everything seems to be working perfectly fine and they do have the fastest car on track. The Red Bull ufffd Vettel combination looks lethal and almost reminds one of the Ferrari ufffd Schumacher combination that decimated the opposition back in 2004. But China is where Lewis Hamilton entered in his Mclaren and almost put an end to the comparison.
A brilliant tyre strategy saw Hamilton overtake Vettel on track to clinch victory in China, bringing an end to Vettel's dominance. In fact, Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber's statement post the Chinese Grand Prix got me more interested. He said that it was a relief to see his Red Bull team-mate and current World Champion Sebastian Vettel's run of victories come to an end.
While it may be early days this season to conclude Vettel's fate for 2011, it is certainly easier to take into account the drivers who have the capability and the might to mount a serious challenge on Vettel's World Championship trophy.
So who are they?
Lewis Hamilton
Critics expected Hamilton to struggle with the highly degradable Pirelli tyres but Hamilton's podium in Australia and victory in Shanghai has him sitting second in the Driver's Championship table, 21 points behind Vettel. He rated his victory in China as one of his best ever and it will be exciting to see if Vettel can respond to an in-form Hamilton.
Jenson Button
The characteristics of the Pirelli tyres have been reported to favour Jenson Button's driving smooth driving style.
He made that come true in Malaysia when he made his Pirellis last more than any other driver on track and clinched the second step of the podium behind Vettel.
Button is third in the Driver's Championship table, 30 points adrift Vettel.
Mark Webber
The Australian finishedu00a0 5th, 4th and 3rd this year and his drive in Shanghai was most spectacular.
He started 18th after a qualifying error, but still managed to finish 3rd in the race purely on tyre strategy. While Webber hasn't shown consistent pace as Vettel, in equal machinery, he is best poised to out-pace Vettel
this year.
Fernando Alonso
Twin F1 World Champion, last year's championship contender and Ferrari star driver Alonso has been unable to challenge Sebastian Vettel yet. Much of it has been due to Ferrari's underperforming car. The car is clearly third fastest on the grid, after the Red Bulls and Mclarens. Ferrari have struggled to extract pace in qualifying. However, teams will be vary of the Ferrari-Alonso combination that managed to sort out their car troubles in 2010 and make a late season attempt for the World Championship title.
Schumacher/Rosberg
Most of the names are the expected contenders, but there are two drivers that I see with an outside chance. One is a racing prodigy and the other is a legend. The Mercedes GP team hasn't been able to deliver a car that is capable of competing at the sharper end of the grid. However, with Ross Brawn at the helm of affairs, I wouldn't write them off just yet. If their cars manage to run a second quicker, then we will have a three team fight for top honours!
