Will Fernando Alonso qualify in the top ten?The Spanish GP in May saw Ferrari start to slip down the pecking order on single-lap pace and since then Fernando Alonso has found himself swimming against the tide. "The dangerous moment is the way that we seem to perform worse and worse," an angry double World Champion declared after setting only the tenth-fastest Q3 time at Silverstone.
Alonso is known to extract more from the car than team-mate Felipe Massa, but at the start of the season the pair usually qualified within a couple of spots of each other on the second or third row of the grid, suggesting the F138 was the third quickest on outright pace. But since then Ferrari have clearly been on the slide: Alonso's last four grid positions read fifth, sixth, sixth and ninth while Massa has not even made Q3 since Barcelona, although a spate of crashes have not helped the Brazilian's cause.
Excluding the 2012 Italian GP, when his Ferrari had suspension problems, last weekend was Alonso's worst qualifying performance since last year's European GP - and the F2012 was considered a bit of a dog at that point. The 31-year-old admits he has been lucky to salvage strong points finishes from these lowly grid slots, but even he knows he cannot rely on that to stay in the title hunt.
With only a week between races, it is unlikely Ferrari will have been able to bring any major updates to the car, thus if Silverstone is anything to go by, a top-ten spot could be challenge, with Red Bull, Mercedes, Lotus, Force India and even now perhaps Toro Rosso all seemingly quicker over a single lap. However, on what is the one-year anniversary of his last pole position, if one man can pull off a shock result in Germany, you would not bet against the Spaniard.
WE
Is this the weekend for Paul Di Resta?Paul Di Resta is making a bit of a name for himself in 2013 and it is a testament to both he and Force India that his odds of finishing on the podium are much shorter than, say, 2009 World Champion Jenson Button.
The Scot is
16/1 to claim his first top-three finish in F1 at the German GP (compared to Button's price of 28/1) but Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and to a lesser extent Lotus are once again likely to dominate the top six, let alone the podium.
Having been denied a career-best fifth-place start due to an underweight car in his home grand prix, Di Resta enhanced his credentials by putting the set-back behind him and racing towards a points finish at Silverstone and he's 1/3 on to secure another top-ten finish.
The bookmakers will have some big pay-outs to make if Di Resta can make a mockery of his 16/1 price at the Nurburgring, but the safer money should go on the 27-year-old to claim his second top-six place of the season
at Sky Bet's 9/4.
JC
Can Sebastian Vettel end his double July jinx?There's not much Vettel hasn't achieved in his already glittering career but there are two rather glaring anomalies on his outstanding CV - he has never won his home German GP, and even more bizarrely, never won at any point of July.
Let's tackle that second statistic first. Of the 109 races Vettel has competed in to date, 12 have taken place in July - the month of his birth incidentally. While it would be overly sensational to depict it as being a 'horror' month for the German - he has climbed the podium five times and been in the top-eight on all ten occasions he has finished - the curious facts are that his victory tally stands at zero whereas team-mate Mark Webber's, by pertinent comparison, is at three.
Of course, given Vettel boasts a stunning 30% winning strike rate across the remaining eight months of the season, it's hardly a coincidence, however odd, he's going to be losing much sleep over. However, what you do suspect is a real nagging July annoyance for him is the fact he has yet to triumph at his home grand prix, be that at Hockenheim or the Nurburgring.
This weekend presents the 25-year-old with his sixth attempt to join the ranks of drivers to have won their own event, and given Red Bull's strong performances in Canada and Britain, it's no surprise to see his victory odds are as short as ever. Indeed, given the way his Silverstone panned out, banishing both parts of his double jinx wouldn't be any better timed for his title defence heading towards the summer break.
JG
