Vettel must be odds-on favourite to get his third consecutive championship, but that may be tempting fate a bit. It's been an odd weekend for McLaren and a very subdued drive from Lewis. Jenson did well but a podium was just out of reach. But it is fair to say the McLaren has a very narrow sweetspot as regards setup. Lewis got it wrong this weekend, and he is a longshot for the championship. Vettel demonstrated how to have a perfect weekend. Pole and a dominant win. No mistakes in the race, no pitstop problems, just a professional drive and professional teamwork.

He is: Vettel 4/7 Alonso 7/4, everyone else 16/1+

Not sure that Alonso left a car's width for Kimi either.... penalty for the next race?!

Can't see any point in Grosjean going to the next race as surely he is going to pick up another ban

Bit of a boring race, but seeing Kobayashi so delighted was great

Jenson Button on Tooned: "Nico Rosbot"

Well it’s not really seemed that way for the last three races McLaren have been consistently good. Suzuka is not so different from Spa and with no problems in practice I can’t really see why McLaren should struggle to find a set up. I think it is more possible they were affect by the new front wing test. Red Bull the other team to be exploiting a wing pivoting system had a lot of other upgrades which appear to have compensated. McLaren may have fallen foul of the regulations being applied more stringently.

excellent

fantastic for kobayashi to get a podium in his home country, and a thouroughly enjoyable race

I think that they will not penalise either, Alonso lost out a lot more than Kimi and Grosjean was given a penalty during the race.

Ohferchristssake.

Tell me Vettel isn't going to win three straight championships. This is absurd. The combined power of the biggest names in motorsport, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes et al, can't beat a freakin' soft drinks company??

McLaren have perfected the art of how to lose a championship in style, Ferrari have been nowhere with their crumbling wind tunnel, and Mercedes always go backwards over the course of a season, instead of forwards. Plus Red Bull have Newey. I wouldn't be surprised if Vettel wins 3 straight championships, but it would surely run salt into the wound for McLaren and Ferrari.

Delete

Lewis Hamilton-Just noticed @jensonbutton unfollowed, thats a shame. After 3 years as teammates, I thought we respected one another but clearly he doesn't.

You would have thought he would have waited till the end of the season

He then wrote:

'My bad, just found out Jenson never followed me. Don't blame him! Need to be on Twitter more!'

...and is currently trending in the UK as a result. He's getting some stick on there as many people already knew that Jenson had never followed him! I'm sure the PR team at McLaren think Lewis needs to be on Twitter less not more though - must be about his 5th Twitter mishap.

I used to be a fan of Lewis, but not any more. His attitude over the past year has changed my thoughts on him. What is up with him being a wannabe-rapper in his twitter picture.
XIX Management being hired as his management was a stupid move and no doubt the cause of all this.

Pretty uninteresting race but good to see Kobayashi make the podium at his home race, I hope he gets a drive next year. It looks as if Red Bull now have the upper hand and a third title for Vettel now looks a distinct probability.

Lewis, Next time put your bloody brain in gear first. Arse thing to do.

Sooner he goes to merc the better, think Ross will stamp this silliness out. He also needs to start acting his age and stop trying to be some gangsta rappper, re his photo on twitter

Strange though, button and Lewis have never followed each other, button has just started following Perez.

Maybe Lewis and button have never got on with each other.

I believe Lewis and alonso even follow each other.

Now, there is no law to say team mates have to follow each other on twitter, just find it interesting.

I think at lot of interesting news articles are going to come out this winter regarding mclaren, Lewis and button, don't think it's all sweet and wonderful at Mclaren these days.

He has being acting a bit petulantly over the past 2 seasons. Sad thing is he makes a big show of trying to be more mature and circumspect then he does things like this. It's approaching the point where you can't take half his press releases at face value.

That said I'm still a fan of his driving, though this year I'm hoping Alonso can win as it seems out of reach of Hamilton and Button.

A friend did some work for a company that provides conflict resolution/team work psychological services for corporations. He was told that they had worked at McLaren when Jenson joined the team.

They didn't say much more than that but it was said in response to my friend telling them he thought Jenson and Lewis would get on great together.

Hehe!

I bet Ross Brawn is already lamenting not writing something to that effect into Hamilton's contract, if he hasn't already.

Bet Ross is quickly telling Nico to follow Lewis

Moving teams for commercial reasons rather than pure racing ones is the beginning of the end of Lewis' F1 career. You can see what's going to happen. Lewis will become more and more frustrated and disillusioned with his racing, not having a car under him that can seriously challenge for the Diver's Championship, whilst off track image and sponsor promotion activities will become a major distraction. I'm afraid he is destined to be one of those driver's who only manage to win one World Championship.

He'll be doing that for the next 3 years, I suspect, regardless of any orders to do so.

He's a prized pr*ck. He's got no chance at Mercedees when that silver spoon stops drip feeding him.

Speaking as a Hamilton fan, I'd have to admit that there might be some truth to at least part of what you say.

Thing is, Ross Brawn isn't daft.
He'll know if Hamilton comes with any "needs" and he'll be prepared to cater to them.
If Hamilton needs somebody to tell him when to pit for wet tyres or how big the gap to the next car is Brawn will ensure that he gets somebody to do that for him.

The only time Lewis is ever going to come unstuck, if at all, is when he's not in demand.
If, in years to come, he's "just another driver looking for a seat" then team owners are gonna expect him to bring something extra to the table, in addition to the heavy right-foot which many young drivers can supply, and that's when he's going to need to prove he can motivate a team, develop a car and make the tough decisions which can sometimes win races in a car that doesn't deserve it.

Not the first time Hamilton has created problems via his Twitter account...another sports person who needs to learn how to use it?