Depending on your perspective on such things, Kimi Raikkonen and his MP4-21 is on pole for today's race either because the English team has made major progress in the last couple of weeks, or, as the more cynical might suggest, because the Mercedes Benz Stuttgart HQ is just a one-hour drive from the Hockenheim circuit.

In his preview for the German GP weekend, Mercedes Motorsport boss, Norbert Haug, admitted that the team would need to be "aggressive" here, particularly in qualifying; "we have to manage to start from the first two rows on the grid," he said, "this is the only way to turn this pace into the positions we expect."

The German Grand Prix is a big event for Mercedes, its "technology partner" ExxonMobil sponsors the event, while thousands of loyal Mercedes employees will be given tickets for today's race, many of them located in the Mercedes grandstand - where they will receive a free pocket radio in order that they can to listen to the commentary.

This is a big event for Mercedes.

There was never any doubting the pace of the Ferraris, and Michael Schumacher's 13.778 in the second phase of qualifying should have been enough to cause much of the opposition to pack up early and head for Japan, bypassing Hungary, Turkey and Monza. The Ferrari has been getting better with each race, and with it its driver pairing, Felipe in particular showing dramatic improvement this season, the Italian team has never looked better this season.

Without sounding overly harsh, we do not believe that Honda has suddenly found pace, and talk of the new wind tunnel already paying dividends should be dismissed, it is far too early for the windtunnel to be making a difference. Therefore, we feel that the Japanese team is attempting to stop the rot, and the whispering campaign, by banking everything on strong qualifying positions, and the (naïve?) hope that the pace will be maintained in the race.

But what of Renault? Is Fernando starting from seventh, his worst grid position since Malaysia, due to a drop off in form by the French team, an improvement by its rivals, or is it all down to the mass damper saga? After all, if the dampers didn't make a difference they wouldn't have been on the car in the first place.

In all honesty, something doesn't feel right about this, and if, as some are whispering, there is manipulation going on in the background, it could all explode in our faces. A blue & yellow wash, much like a red wash, doesn't do us any favours, but let us hope that we are given a genuine title fight rather than a manufactured version.

One can only hope that the powers that be were watching this morning's GP2 race, where a thrilling event, filled with thrills and spills, ended with Timo Glock taking the lead on the very last lap from (an apparently napping) Jose Maria Lopez. Like yesterday's race, it was one of those events where there was always something happening, where you couldn't afford to look away from the screen - unlike so many Grands Prix threes days, when one often finds oneself distracted… running off for another beer, cup of tea, sandwich or to wash the car.

What we also got to see in the two races is that in addition to a clear lack of grip in some parts of the circuit, fortune favoured the brave - in other words drivers were able to overtake, if they were willing. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't…. but they tried. Is it too much to hope that we might witness a couple of similar manoeuvres this afternoon?