After completing 9 rounds out of 19 ahead of this weekend's Hungarian GP, Sebastian Vettel leads the Formula One Driver's World Championship by 34 points.
This is by no means a large lead since only one retirement can easily bring his closest rival, Fernando Alonso to within 9 points with a potential 25 points going to him should he win a race.
This was the fate suffered by Alonso last season when he was enjoying a lead mid way through the season only to have Romain Grosjean smash into him in the first lap of the Belgian GP.
Kimi Raikkonen sits in third place after a promising start of the season where he won the inaugural race in Australia. His stellar performance in the Lotus has other teams sniffing around and rumors of a big move to Red Bull next season have started after Mark Webber announced his retirement.
Lewis Hamilton is still looking for vindication for his decision to leave McLaren in favor of Mercedes but things are not looking so great for him as he sits in 4th place and his team mate Nico Rosberg sits in 6th sandwiching Redbull's Mark Webber in 5th. I suppose he can have some satisfaction in seeing the McLaren's languishing mid table in 10th (Button) and 12th (Perez) in what would have to be the worst showing of the team in the past 15 years.
Despite finding his second wind in the later half of the season last year effectively securing his job for this year, Felipe Massa is once again dropping off the grid and drifting further away from his team mate. Alonso sits in second place while Massa is watching from five places away on 7th place.
Another team which is having a disappointing season is Williams with drivers at 16th and 17th, way below the competitive form that the team used to show.
With still half the season left to race, a lot of things can happen. Vettel looks poised to take yet another World driver's title but Alonso is hot on his heels. At this point, only the top four drivers can realistically take the title albeit not necessarily mathematically. It looks like Vettel is keen on challenging Michael Schumacher's legacy, let's see if anyone can stop him.
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