While the world championship was decided a few weeks back it is only fitting, this being the land of Hollywood, that there is still plenty of drama and intrigue in the air.

At Ferrari there is Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard said to be suffering "persistent headaches" ever since the off track moment in Abu Dhabi that left him needing treatment at a local hospital. Then there is the seeming break down in the relationship between Pastor Maldonado and Williams, the Venezuelan all but accusing the Grove outfit of sabotaging his car.

Will we see Alonso park up this afternoon, the pain too much to allow him to carry on - despite his superb performance in qualifying - or will we see Maldonado park up (or crash out) in Turn in a fit of pique. Time will tell.

Ignoring the 'it's just not cricket' side to the Williams sabotage saga, the fact is that with just one point to its credit, and Marussia and Caterham just behind, the British team simply cannot afford such shenanigans in terms of the Constructors' Championship, which, as we all know, decided the prize money.

Nonetheless, this sorry tail leaves a bad taste in the mouth, Frank Williams and his team deserving better than this.

We said in Abu Dhabi that we fancied Mark Webber upsetting the applecart and taking the win, sadly it was all over by the first corner. The Australian seemed destined to take pole yesterday but then Seb went and spoiled it all, maybe Aussie Grit can make up for it today.

Naturally, the Australian doesn't want charity, he wants to win one under his own steam, and what better venue. If nothing else, it would spoil his teammate's chances of setting yet another F1 record with eight straight wins, though whether that would make up for Multi 21 only Mark will know.

Fact is however, Vettel goes into this as red hot favourite, and based on the evidence thus far - even if we only look at this weekend - seemingly nothing can stop him.

Following podium finishes in three of the last four races, Romain Grosjean must fancy his chances, especially now he is effectively team leader. The Enstone outfit, would dearly love to leapfrog Ferrari for third in the standings and in the Frenchman and his new teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, it has the means to do so. What a pity that the team is in such an obvious mess away from the track.

Sauber was looking good for a strong finish here (no pun intended), and though Nico Hulkenberg looks set for a strong race, the ten-place grid penalty for impeding Maldonado has somewhat damaged teammate Esteban Gutierrez' hopes, especially with the race likely to be a one-stopper.

Lewis Hamilton did well to put his Mercedes on the third row, the Englishman, who describes his recent form as "shocking" having struggled with the car all weekend. The German outfit's hopes of a double points finish have been somewhat compromised by Nico Rosberg's poor qualifying, though ross Brawn claims that this was a better indicator of where the car is here.

Jenson Button was another driver to be hit with a grid penalty, the McLaren driver penalised three places for overtaking under a red flag in FP1, a rookie type error from a world champion. However, this now allows Sergio Perez to set out his stall, the Mexican one of several drivers yet to secure a seat for 2014.

Since the news that Kevin Magnussen will partner Button first broke, Perez' disappointment has been all too obvious. While he has made some mistakes, and appeared a mere shadow of the driver who so impressed us at Sauber, he deserves better and this may be his last chance to prove it.

The same applies to Paul di Resta, a driver who was previously linked with Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren but is now being talked of in terms of Indy Cars. Force India gave a good account of itself in Abu Dhabi, perhaps it can repeat that here today.

As we said, Alonso pulled out all the stops in qualifying for Ferrari, but the fact is that the Italian team is really struggling. Much like Rosberg's performance at Mercedes, Felipe Massa's qualifying showing demonstrates the true performance of the Maranello outfit's 2013 contender.

As for Williams, which is where we started, Valtteri Bottas appears to have new life breathed into him this weekend, let's hope it's no flash in the pan and that we get to see some of the brilliance Frank Williams has talked of.

Being almost the end of season, Daniel Ricciardo is almost in full Red Bull mode, the Australian very impressive yesterday. Sadly, teammate Jean-Eric Vergne, like Adrian Sutil at Force India, was not able to live up to expectations.

The Marussia/ Caterham battle is as fierce as ever, and while both teams are mindful of how the championship (and prize money) was decided, courtesy of Vitaly Petrov, in the season finale last year, both will know that they are only a point behind Williams and that prize pot.

The tyres available this weekend are hard and medium, while there are two DRS zones, one on the pit straight while the other, as in 2012, runs between Turns 11 and 12.

In terms of the tyres, wear and degradation should not be a considerable factor with either compound. As a result, we will probably see just one pit stop for most runners, as was the case last year.