brazlillian

This weekend it's the Brazilian Grand Prix. Well, actually it's the Brazilian F1 GP and the Valencia MotoGP, but the MotoGP is already decided, as Jorge Lorenzo won the championship several races ago.

The F1 GP is far from decided, as there are still five drivers who could technically win it. Well, I say that, but for two of them - Vettel and Button - it's pretty much a long shot. Both would almost need the other guys to all get no points in both of the remaining races to win it.

And to be frank, it's a bit of a long shot for the third place man, Lewis Hamilton. He's in one of those situations where the others could score a few points and he'd have to win both races to take the title.

Now to be fair, Brazil is well known as a track where unpredictable things happen. It's not unusual for there to be rain, for example, and there have been some big pile-ups in the past. Also, it's a circuit where there's loads of opportunities to pass.

However, the last Grand Prix - Abu Dhabi - has been much more processional and predictable. So although you can see odd things happening and going in Vettel's, Button's or Hamilton's favour at Brazil, it's much less likely at Abu Dhabi, so really you have to say that there are only two contenders with a good shot at taking the championship.

First there's Mark Webber, who's had a very up and down season. By rights, the championship should be a Red Bull fight to the finish. Barring a few circuits they've clearly had the quickest car all year and the number of pole positions and front-row lock-outs they've had is amazing.

In years gone by these would all have been converted to race wins (or at worst second places) and you would have seen both drivers fighting it out for the championship. But that's not really happened - Red Bull have been plagued by all sorts of technical and other problems that have seen them if not throw it away then not exactly help themselves.

But then, to be fair, Red Bull are a relatively new team - they're not like Ferrari and McLaran who have years of race and title winning experience to draw on. They're the upstart new kids who've persevered and got themselves into a championship winning situation.

The other real contender is Fernando Alonso.

Weirdly, Alonso seems to have become something of a pantomime villain for the British press. There was the whole thing of Massa being told to let him through and he can be a bit of a spiky character. Plus he's won several titles already, and the press love an 'underdog makes good' story, which is more what you've got for Webber. And I guess there's something of an antipodean affection, if you will.

My own take is that Alonso is probably one of the best drivers on the grid at the moment and is definitely one of the all time great drivers. So personally, I like him. Plus of course, he's driving for Ferrari, which is my favourite team.

However, I also think it would be nice for Webber to win, so it looks like it could be a cracker of an end to what has, I think, been one of the all-time classic seasons.