Alonso set to create history this weekend as the youngest F1 driver to take the driver title. McLaren need to get 1-2 and Alonso must finished 4th or worst to keep the title dream of McLaren’s Raikkonen alive for another race till Shanghai. This seem quite difficult as McLaren has not secured any 1-2 finish for the last five years.

Nevertheless, Mc Laren has all the reason to continue fighting to secure at least the Constructor Championship this season. The chances is Mc Laren is still be able to catch up.

The race at SPA over the weekend has been a wet one for all team. The races move slowly but look surely to have a 1-2 finish by Mc Laren. Their first in 5 years. After the 2nd pit stop, Raikkonen managed to pass Montoya to take the lead. The Finn was running extremely fast and consistently running at 3 seconds a lap faster than Montoya and Alonso. With only 3 laps away from finish, A Pizzonia of William took Montoya out of the race while trying to unlap himself. An incident stunned Mc Laren fan like as well as Ron Dennis. At about 4 laps from the finish, Klien of Red Bull racing tried to pass Alonso and the F1 commentator was saying that if Alonso did not handle the situation carefully, Klien may take Alonso out of the race. Just minutes later, it happened to Montoya.

Bad lucks has plague Mc Laren for years. Just a few races ago, Raikkonen blew his tire with just a few laps from victory. Years back, Hakkinen has a clutch problem with just two corners away from finish at the last lap of Spain GP.

Even though it is not Montoya fault, should Montoya move slight faster, A Pizzonia should not have any chance to close the gap and take him out. Obviously Montoya has been trying to run a controlled race like what Alonso is doing.

The result after this race is
Drivers’ Standings
Pos Driver Points
1 F Alonso (Spa) 111
2 K Raikkonen (Fin) 86
3 M Schumacher (Ger) 55
4 JP Montoya (Col) 50
5 J Trulli (Ita) 43
6 G Fisichella (Ita) 41
7 R Schumacher (Ger) 37
8 R Barrichello (Bra) 35
9 J Button (GB) 30
10 M Webber (Aus) 29
11 N Heidfeld (Ger) 28
12 D Coulthard (GB) 21
13 J Villeneuve (Can) 9
14 F Massa (Bra) 8
15 T Monteiro (Por) 7
16 A Wurz (Aut) 6
17= N Karthikeyan (Ind) 5
17= C Klien (Aut) 5
19= C Albers (Hol) 4
19= P de la Rosa (Spa) 4
21 P Friesacher (Aut) 3
22 A Pizzonia (Bra) 2
23= T Sato (Jap) 1
23= V Liuzzi (Ita) 1

Constructor Standings
Pos Team Points
1 Renault 152
2 McLaren 146
3 Ferrari 90
4 Toyota 80
5 BMW-Williams 59
7 BAR 31
6 Red Bull 27
8 Sauber 17
9 Jordan 12
10 Minardi 7

Constructor Championship should be within reach of McLaren but the Driver Championship should go to Alonso without doubt.

With European anti-tobacco laws came into force last month, McLaren lost their title sponsor West and instead, they have announced that Hilton will be one of their main sponsor. Hence we will begin to see Hilton logo instead of West in McLaren Mercedes car in this weekend race.

Mc Laren Mercedes blew again at Monza and that really spoiled Raikkonen hope of title chase. As a result, the driver champion now is surely belong to Alonso who is now 27 points ahead of Raikkonen with only 4 more races to go.

Firstly, the engine failure during practise set Raikkonen 10 grid back at starting line. By starting at 11th position cost Raikkonen more than 30 second behind Alonso during the window of the first pit stop. When Raikkonen pit for the first time, a lot of fuel went into his car to make him race to finish with only one pit stop and this look extremely promising. But before long, Raikkonen was called in again for a tire replacement which cost him another 30 seconds.

Montoya who was leading the race also suffer some tire problem during final few laps but he was lucky to finish the race to take the chequed flag. As Michelin tire works well in other Michellion Teams, the tire failure must be due to the suspension setup problem as highlighted by Alonso later.

Mc Laren no doubt has the quickest car at this moment but they simply lack reliability. Renault on the hand simply going to win driver championship on reliability of the car.

Montoyo vowed to help Raikkonen to win remaining races but it is now a little bit to late and there is no way Raikkonen can win the driver title unless Alonso crash out of the remaining three races. That look quite impossible of course.

As a McLaren fan, all I can do is wait for another year to see if Raikkonen can take the title again for Mc Laren.

Drivers’ Standings
Pos Driver Points
1 F Alonso (Spa) 103
2 K Raikkonen (Fin) 76
3 M Schumacher (Ger) 55
4 JP Montoya (Col) 50
5 J Trulli (Ita) 43
6 G Fisichella (Ita) 41
7 R Schumacher (Ger) 35
8 R Barrichello (Bra) 31
9 N Heidfeld (Ger) 28
10= M Webber (Aus) 24
10= J Button (GB) 24
12 D Coulthard (GB) 21
13 F Massa (Bra) 8
14= T Monteiro (Por) 6
14= A Wurz (Aut) 6
14= J Villeneuve (Can) 6
17= N Karthikeyan (Ind) 5
17= C Klien (Aut) 5
19= C Albers (Hol) 4
19= P de la Rosa (Spa) 4
21 P Friesacher (Aut) 3
22 A Pizzonia (Bra) 2
23= T Sato (Jap) 1
23= V Liuzzi (Ita) 1

Constructor Standings
Pos Team Points
1 Renault 144
2 McLaren 136
3 Ferrari 86
4 Toyota 78
5 BMW-Williams 54
6 Red Bull 27
7 BAR 25
8 Sauber 14
9 Jordan 11
10 Minardi 7

Raikkonen suffered another engine failure today during practise. Does that sound familiar ? Yes indeed. Each time when Mc Laren catch up slightly with rival Renault, some technical issue will surface and that will like make Raikkonen slip back slightly again. Two previous incidents make Raikkonen demoted 10 grid positions and he managed to finish 2nd and 3rd place behind rival Alonso for those two races. If Alonso starts well tomorrow, then it is likely the gap between Alonso and Raikkonen will widen up. Ron Dennis maintain that Raikkonen can still win tomorrow, that is possible but difficult. Anyway the race tomorrow will be interesting and let enjoy !

Finally the Constructor Title of the current Formula 1 season is within the reach of Mc Laren Team. With only 9 points behind that of Renault and with the current form, Mc Laren will have no problem to catch up and lift the Constructor within the next few races.

As for the Driver title, the pictures look rather different. Raikkonen is currently trailing 24 points at second place and to catch up with Alonso, the title leader is definitely an uphill task. It now depend on whether Alonso will bring any cheers to the Mc Laren camp by having one or two non finishes. Renault car has been very reliable when compared to Mc Laren this season. Even if Alonso finish 3rd in all remaining races and Raikkonen win all the remaining races, he will still win the driver title. Mathematically, it still bring some hope but we will have to face the fact that Alonso will be the eventual champion. Not to my liking that that will the result. Guess I will have to wait for another year and hopefully Mc Laren will still be able to maintain the advantage that they are enjoying now.

Drivers’ Standings
Pos Driver Points
1 F Alonso (Spa) 95
2 K Raikkonen (Fin) 71
3 M Schumacher (Ger) 55
4 JP Montoya (Col) 40
5 J Trulli (Ita) 39
6 G Fisichella (Ita) 35
7 R Schumacher (Ger) 32
8 R Barrichello (Bra) 31
9 N Heidfeld (Ger) 28
10 M Webber (Aus) 24
11 J Button (GB) 23
12 D Coulthard (GB) 21
13 F Massa (Bra) 8
14= T Monteiro (Por) 6
14= A Wurz (Aut) 6
14= J Villeneuve (Can) 6
17= N Karthikeyan (Ind) 5
17= C Klien (Aut) 5
19= C Albers (Hol) 4
19= P de la Rosa (Spa) 4
21 P Friesacher (Aut) 3
22= T Sato (Jap) 1
22= V Liuzzi (Ita) 1

Constructor Standings
Pos Team Points
1 Renault 130
2 McLaren 121
3 Ferrari 86
4 Toyota 71
5 BMW-Williams 52
6 Red Bull 27
7 BAR 24
8 Sauber 14
9 Jordan 11
10 Minardi 7