While, contrary to Georgie Thompson's belief, that it was the best qualifying lap ever, Nico Rosberg's pole-winner yesterday was pretty special, not least the confidence he had in it, climbing out of his car with several minutes of the session still remaining. While we're on the subject of qualifying though, his dad's legendary lap at the old Silverstone (1985?) has to be up there with the best.

Whether, Nico can convert his superb effort into a win - like his pole, his first from 111 Grands Prix - remains to be seen, however, there remains a massive question mark over the WO3 and how it uses/abuses its tyres. Indeed, no disrespect to the youngster, if Mercedes has not yet resolved the issue, his teammate might be the better bet today, being that little bit less aggressive - and who thought we'd ever be saying that of Schumi.

Whilst nobody would want to deny Rosberg his maiden victory today or even Schumacher his 92nd, it is unlikely to happen. Mercedes has made progress - helped in part by that controversial rear wing and DRS system - but, in our humble opinion, not that much progress, not yet.

Indeed, again in our humble opinion, today will probably belong to one of the 'old guard', by which we mean Hamilton, Button or Webber.

With the weather conditions ideal, Alonso cannot rely on the weather gods for assistance, the Spaniard and his teammate knowing that today will be about damage limitation and taking away as many points as possible.

Had Hamilton not picked up the five-place grid penalty for his gearbox change we might have opined that today's race is a forgone conclusion, however, starting from seventh makes things that little bit more difficult. Nonetheless, the Englishman, and his teammate, will be worth watching, though Lewis appears far more settled in his car this weekend than Jenson.

Another fantastic performance from Sauber, surely everybody's second favourite team. While sentimentalists would dearly love to see Nico or Michael claim victory today, nobody would deny the Swiss team its first win in its own right. Furthermore, Kobayashi and Perez have already proven they are real racers, both with their own distinct style, both, on their day, highly entertaining. All that aside however, we still believe today belongs to the old guard.

While Lotus has been sending out all manner of different signals this weekend, the fact is that Raikkonen, like Alonso, is able to get just that little bit more from his car, though, in the Finn's case it's because he drives through problems. While we do not expect the Iceman to cause any major upsets today we do expect to see him in the mix and possibly in with a podium finish.