And then there were three?

Well, one more GP has gone by and it would seem my my comment about the McLaren having the third best car is holding true. Not only was Hamilton dropping back from Alonso and Vettel, he also got jumped by Webber at the pitstops. While he did slice the gap down from eight to four seconds before the safety car, it was all for nothing as the duo collided on lap 34, leaving Lewis with a broken left rear suspension while Mark escaped with a banged up front right wheel (there was a decent gap between the tyre itself and the rim...see the picture below). Further proof of that was that, despite Jenson being in a perfectly good car, he still couldn't do anything with Webber's wounded Red Bull.

Webber's wheel after the contact...see the gap at the top of the rim? It should be flush with the sidewall.

Considering Lewis' mishap at Monza with his right front being broken from contact with Massa's Ferrari, one has to wonder if McLaren have sacrificed robustness in their quest to keep up the pace of development...

Anyway, the table now sees Webber holding an 11 point gap over the hard charging Alonso, with Hamilton another nine behind that. Vettel and Button are still hanging in, being 21 and 25 points off Mark's tally. Meanwhile, Red Bull have pulled a bit of a gap over McLaren in the Constructors' Championship, with Ferrari really needing Felipe to step it up if they want to make it a three way tussle.

With just four races to go (three if Korea isn't ready in time), Webber is hanging on pretty well. He might not be winning, but he's still scoring decent points and they guys behind him keep swapping places so he's padding to his lead...but Alonso is coming fast and is, quite possibly, in better form now than what saw him claim back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006. The wildcard is probably Hamilton who, after saying his chances were looking bleak, doesn't really have anything to lose.

If Webber can pull it off, it will be an amazing turnaround from 2009. Leaving Hungary second in the standings, he then went four races in a row without scoring a point. With Japan being the last of those, and considering how mighty the Red Bull was there last year in Vettel's hands, he's well on his way to banishing that stretch of races from his mind having gone second, sixth and third in the same three races this year.

Still anyone's title...but McLaren appear to be starting to fade a touch.