Away from the top two, BMW Sauber will be very competitive and maybe when we get to Fuji it will go their way and they will be able to compete for the overall win. I don’t think it is likely as they are still a step away from
Ferrari and
McLaren and they just can’t seem to make any real inroads into them. However, stranger things have happened.
They are definitely doing a great job though and are knocking in consistent points finishes. Both
Nick Heidfeld and
Robert Kubica are pushing each other along too, which is what you want.
As for the other points’ contenders,
Renault should be up there. They have made a bit of progress although they are still not strong enough to make a big impression and challenge
BMW.
Williams have also been doing well, thanks to
Nico Rosberg. He is maturing and maturing very quickly. Nico has been outperforming his team-mate, Alex Wurz and is making him look a bit shabby at the moment.
But I think where Williams are, is where they will remain until the end of the season. I don’t think they have got enough resources to go further forward and maybe we will have to wait until 2008 to see if they can develop further and go to a different level. It is encouraging though to see a youngster like Nico performing so well and taking the lead role.
Of the others you may see Honda get into a points scoring position because it looks like the circuit will be predominantly lower downforce levels and that seems to suit them more than anything else.
They might surprise us and
Toyota will be keen to do well too, as like
Honda, it will be there home race.
That same thing will apply to
Super Aguri and they will have a lot to live up to, especially as
Takuma Sato is a Japanese driver and will surely be the crowd favourite.
The battle between Aguri, Toro Rosso and Spyker has closed up a bit lately and the latter has definitely made progress since introducing its B-spec car at Monza.
We saw a Spyker all the way up in 12th position at Spa and
Adrian Sutil was doing a very good job.
He is a little bit inconsistent and when he is on his form he is superb and when he is off it, he is off the circuit, but again it is a learning curve. It won’t be the easiest of cars to drive either, but I think Spyker have made some changes which are helping them to progress.
All-in-all it is good to see the battle at the back is as competitive as it is at the top of the grid.
So finally I come to my prediction and back to the front runners and I am going to go for Kimi again to win, as he is just on a roll at the moment. I believe he will head home another Ferrari 1-2, with Massa second and Lewis third.
Fernando will have to make do with fourth, with Nico and
Jenson Button fifth and sixth respectively.
Enjoy the grand prix...
