The raging midfield battles

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While the battle for the title is separated by 12 points, the battles for 3rd and 5th is as close as ever. With 3.5 points separating Mclaren and Ferrari, who would finish 3rd in the championship is an unknown at this stage. Ferrari has got better and better as the season went on and closed down Mclaren in the last five races. Now they are within touching distance of 3rd with five races to go. Mclaren on the other hand seems to have drifted backwards slightly for unknown reasons from their role of being the disruptor of the sharp end of the grid. The pairing of Leclerc and Sainz is paying off massively for Ferrari.

The battle for 5th is separated by 10 points but not comfortably by any means. Alpine seats in 5th at the moment but the young pilots of Alpha Tauri are chasing them hard. Gasly has carried forward a consistent level of high performance from last season. Always challenging for 6th in every race, he has helped Alpha Tauri stay in touch with Alpine. With five races to go, anything is possible.

I think the rest of the races of this season are unmissable. The duelling shall be in full at every part of the grid until the very last lap of the season.

Ferrari has surged ahead into 3rd in the championship, demoting Mclaren to 4th with a very healthy 31.5 points gap. The scarlet mare has become a black stallion. And Alpha Tauri has levelled with Alpine wiping out the 10 points advantage that Alpine had two races ago. With three races to go, Ferrari is looking much stronger to secure third in the constructor's championship. Ex-Mclaren driver; Carlos Sainz sealed the points gap at the closing laps of the Sao Paolo race.

Gasly has been quite tremendous in the Alpha Tauri, singlehandedly scrubbing away the points lead of Alpine in the last two races. The pace we saw in Mexico and Brazil suggest the Alpha Tauri team has failed to fully exploit the full potential of their awesome car.

The Williams looks safe in 8th place of the contractor's championship with a solid twelve points lead over Alfa Romeo. This is as good an indication that Williams is in the right direction of recovery to the front of the grid. This fact is also very dissatisfying for Alfa Romeo that has responded by dumping both of their current drivers and opting for a completely new lineup for 2022.

Chinese F2 racer, Guanyu Zhou joins Valterie Bottas, to lineup on the grid of 2022 in the Alfa Romeo. The choice of Zhou over Schumacher is interesting. One would have thought Schumacher with one season experience in F1 and an F2 champion would have been a better choice. Probably Zhou brings some sponsorship money with him.

While the gap at the sharp end has narrowed to 8 points, the gap for 3rd has grown to 39.5 points with Ferrari pulling well clear of Mclaren. Similarly, the gap for 5th has also grown considerable by 25 points with Alpine pulling clear of Alpha Tauri. With two races to go, it is looking like the main positions in the midfield is relatively settled. But this is deceptively so. The battle for 5th is not over by any means. 25 points are recoverable by Alpha Tauri, but can they. The gap between Ferrari and Mclaren is more problematic. It will take something very special from both of the Mclaren drivers to recover lost grounds.