I had the laptop all poised, drinks in hand, to do the preview but various emergencies happened and I only just about sat down as they were leaving the Bus-Stop Chicane on the warm up lap.

To be honest, it wasn’t a bad preview to miss. Practice and qualifying didn’t reveal too much, other than Red Bull appeared to be “under-performing” relative to the expected pace. The whole storm around the flexible front wings was partially resolved this weekend with beefed up strength tests, with the full solution due next race at Monza where the underfloor also has to pass mustard for an increased load test. Co-incidence?

As with all wet races, there’s a degree of lottery. However, in this case the rain didn’t do a lot of damage. It added a lot of spice, but the big moves of the race would have happened wet or dry. Webber blew the start, Vettel took himself and Button out the race, Hamilton and Kubica got a flier and Alonso was at the rear of the midfield.

Vettel, once again, squandered points due to impetuosity. Button’s early seven race form during the 2009 championship set up the eventual glory, but the extreme tail off in performance in the back stretch left the ultimate destiny of the title only vaguely in his hands. Both Webber and Vettel had a more than decent chance at overhauling the Brawn, but wasted far too many points on foolish mistakes. And, for Vettel at least, this year looks no different – car advantages quite this strong don’t come around very often. Button capitalised on his 2009 good fortune, but Vettel appears to be wasting another gold plated opportunity.

Webber however, appears to be taking a solid approach. I think you can fairly say that Webber has blown two races, but done a good job in the others. And this approach again yielded another 18 points. However, it shouldn’t be forgotten that neither Webber nor Vettel have done a good enough job. Hamilton should be 30 points further up the road but for mechanical failure, in inferior machinery.

Button’s challenge is now over, through no fault of his own today, but the Button supporters (including myself) have to surrender that he’s just not quite as fast as Lewis Hamilton. Then again, probably no-one is. I don’t buy that Webber or Vettel have better speed – let’s see qualifying without the sort of car advantage they have been enjoying and then we’ll see what’s what. Alonso has already been found wanting – and that was in Hamilton’s rookie season. So, this is no disrespect to Button – but guile and solid performances won’t get it done again this year.

The race was quite heart-in-the-mouth stuff. All the nail-biting tension of a greasy, wet race. You can wax lyrical about the various incidents. But, at this stage of the season it’s a mental game. It’s about the ability to handle pressure, the intra-team mate pecking order – and today put clear water between Hamilton/Webber and the rest. Webber enjoys the car advantage, Hamilton is the better driver. Unless either chart a costly DNF, the others are now out of this.