Formula One / Ralph Ellis / 31 August 2010 /

Ralph Ellis reflects on a fascinating Grand Prix where the best driver triumphed over the best car...

It's all about the car, of course. Formula One cynics will tell you that, before trying to dismiss Grand Prix racing as not being proper sport.

Well, sorry but last Sunday proved it's actually still all about the driver. There's not much doubt Red Bull have the fastest machines on the grid. That's proved by seven pole positions in 13 attempts for Sebastian Vettel, while Mark Webber has zoomed in for five more. But in only three of those 12 races has the man who started number one on the grid gone on to finish first.

Sunday's magnificently compelling race in Belgium was a day to find out the drivers. In the showery conditions, where one part of the track was wet and another dry all at the same time, it became a test of nerve and skill.

Lewis Hamilton underlined that he's the best driver in the sport, keeping the delicate balance between maximum speed and maximum control. And a word too for Force India's Adrian Sutil who nursed his comparatively limited car into a fifth place finish for the second time this season.

Meanwhile, Webber might have the status as Red Bull's number two but he proved he's actually the number one. When it rains you find out the man who can best handle the delicate balance of maximum speed with maximum control. While Hamilton got a brilliant, flying start, Vettel first made a mess of qualifying and then made an even bigger horlicks of the race itself.

As if causing one crash, when he went broadside into Jenson Button and put the reigning world champion out of the race, wasn't bad enough he then got involved in another that forced him to drive nearly a full lap with a flat tyre. It was careless and fits the record of a man who has failed on four occasions this season to turn pole position into a place on the podium.

You sense that the more Vettel needs to make up ground, the more he'll take silly risks in racing, and the more he'll blow the advantage his car gives him. At 23, he's still driving like a boy racer. Not only is he now 31 points behind Hamilton, he's only four in front of Button and about to get involved in another squabble in his garage because Webber wants the team's efforts all behind his bid to be number one.

Meanwhile, Button and Hamilton have agreed they'll both go on racing each other. As Hamilton says: "If they're giving me 100% and they're giving Jenson 100% then we're going improve twice as fast as a team."

All of which brings great value in backing the McLaren team for the last part of the season. Button is the standout bet at between [3.0] and [3.9] to overhaul Vettel and get into the top three of the final standings. But there's money to be made too in supporting McLaren for the constructors' championship at [2.76] and Hamilton for the title at [2.98].


Five things you might not know about Adrian Sutil

1. Born January 1983 in Starnberg, West Germany, his dad Jorge is a concert violinist from Uruguay and mum Monika also a professional musician

2. Adrian inherited his dad's talent and was a child prodigy on the piano - until he went go-karting for the first time aged 14 and fell in love with motor sport.

3. He speaks German, English, Spanish and Italian and is close friends with Lewis Hamilton, having raced alongside him in the ASM Formula Three team in 2005.

4. He is obsessively tidy, and says he can't sleep if the shoes at the bottom of his bed are not in neat rows

5. He collects model cars - and pens. The most expensive is a limited edition Taj Mahal silver pen worth more than 2,000 dollars. He bought it for himself as a reward for his fifth place finish in Malaysia

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