Let's take it as read that with a 0.7s advantage over his nearest rival, barring the mother of all upsets, Sebastian Vettel already has his name on today's trophy and the twenty-five points in the bag.

This leaves us free to dismiss the German and concentrate what should be an entertaining battle behind him.

Both McLarens look good however, Hamilton is still having difficulty getting used to tyre management of the Pirellis and also allowing his frustration to get the better of him too often already. Therefore, we suggest Button will ultimately have the edge today, a situation eased by the fact that his teammate has used (and wasted) one full set of softs.

Mercedes has clearly improved this weekend and only a recurring problem with his rear wing - not helped by the red flag period at the end of Q2 - prevented Schumacher from making it through to Q3. Rosberg's performance in Q3 was sensational and even Ferrari admits that the German team has made progress. After the nightmare of Melbourne, when neither of the silver cars finished, it's entirely possible that there will be another double points finish today, possibly with Nico repeating his podium result from last year.

We know from the previous two rounds that Ferrari has far better race pace than qualifying. Therefore, we could see one of the red cars take a podium, otherwise, like Mercedes, the Maranello team will be happy to settle for a double points finish ahead of the three week break which will see some furious activity back at HQ.

Both Force Indias have looked good this weekend as di Resta continues to make his mark on the team. We are not expecting the sort of drama we witnessed in Spa/Monza in 2009 but we do believe both drivers look good for points today, with Sutil almost odds-on to continue his impressive rookie run.

The Toro Rosso duo did well in qualifying, no doubt spurred on by the looming presence of Daniel Ricciardo. Like Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Force India and Renault, the Italian has a 100% finishing record thus far this season, all it has to do now is keep out of trouble and try to benefit from others mistakes.

Qualifying was disaster for Renault, both in terms of strategy and the technical failure on Petrov's car. However, while we don't expect to see the black and gold team to take its third successive podium we do expect to see it up there battling for points. Indeed, if Heidfeld and Petrov can repeat their Sepang starts anything is possible, especially given the obvious pace of the R31.

Sauber also had an unusually disappointing qualifying however, we also expect the Swiss team to be far more competitive today. As in the first two races we expect tyre management to be essential to the team's performance, with both drivers proving themselves to be very adept at this. Also, considering some of the surprises in qualifying - such as Webber failing to make it to Q3 - expect to see more drama from Kobayashi - bet the Australian, Schumacher and the Renaults can't wait.

It's a major weekend for Williams. The Grove outfit might as well forget all bout points and instead concentrate on bringing both - or at least one - of its cars home. From four starts Williams has yet to complete a race, the worst start ever for the British team.

Lotus continues to be the best of the rest, though the Malaysian outfit is still some way off the pace of the main pack, far less the leaders. Little by little the Norfolk based team is improving but there's still a long way to go.