Webber v Vettel for number one spot
11 June 2010
Mark Webber has an excellent chance to seize the number one spot in the Castrol Rankings from Sebastian Vettel at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.
The Australian has been gradually gaining on his Red Bull Formula 1 team-mate since last year's Brazilian Grand Prix and now lies just a handful of points behind the German following their controversial clash in Turkey two weeks ago.
Should Webber take pole position and victory in Canada, then Vettel will be powerless to prevent him usurping him at the top of the Castrol Rankings - even if he finishes second. Vettel has held the number one spot for the last 10 weeks.
The long straights at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve should suit the McLarens, which have been the fastest cars in a straight line all year thanks to the effectiveness of the MP4-25's f-duct.
That should enable Lewis Hamilton to move ahead of Sebastien Loeb and into third in the Castrol Rankings - but only if he can finish in the top 10.
It should also help his World Champion team-mate Jenson Button to redress a slide that has taken him from first to eighth in just 10 weeks.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who has slipped a place to 13th in recent weeks, also expects to challenge for honours, while a repeat of Michael Schumacher's fourth place in Turkey will move the Mercedes driver up from 142nd to the fringes of the top 100.
In Europe the Le Mans 24 Hours takes centre stage as Audi battles for supremacy with last year's winner Peugeot - both having brought three turbodiesel machines.
Peugeot brings along the Castrol Rankings' highest-placed sportscar driver Simon Pagenaud (47) to partner Sebastien Bourdais (62) and Pedro Lamy (132).
But with the likes of Alex Wurz (234), Stephane Sarrazin (207) and Anthony Davidson (382) split across the rest of the squad of 908 HDIs, it certainly has strength in depth.
Audi's driver line-up is just as impressive, although the relative pace of the revamped R15-plus compared to the Peugeot at May's Spa 1000km left some doubt as to whether it can genuinely compete with the French manufacturer.Its best chance comes from Allan McNish (242), Rinaldo Capello (255) and eight-times Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen (103).
A punishing NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule continues at Michigan with Childress Chevy man Kevin Harvick (22) looking to extend his championship lead over form man Kyle Busch - who climbed three places to 16th this week.
Champion Jimmie Johnson (5) has never won at Michigan, but his Hendrick Chevy team-mate Mark Martin has done so a record five times. If he fails to repeat his victory of last year, he will likely lose his 14th place in the Castrol Rankings to Nico Rosberg.
Yuji Kunimoto has won every Japanese Formula 3 race this year in his TOM's Dallara and has climbed to 165th - significantly ahead of his older brother Keisuke, who won the 2008 Macau GP.
Only Koki Saga (318) has got close to Kunimoto, and needs to up his game at Fuji this weekend if he harbours serious hopes of taking a maiden series win.
Euro Series refugee Andrea Caldarelli (478) leads the Italian standings after the opening round and needs to win at Hockenheim this weekend to put an end to a 40 place slide since the start of the year.
The Prema driver should be pushed hard by JD Motorsport's Christopher Zanella (445) and Monegasque Stephane Richelmi (502), who is beginning to shake off his old reputation as a tail-ender and won one of the two races at Misano in April.
The Castrol Rankings is based on drivers' measurable performance over the last 12 months, including everything from their grid position to fastest laps. For further information on how the Castrol Rankings scores are calculated, click here.
