Your thoughts on how the season will shape up from now.

[Knowlesy]

This weekend's GP has been enlightening in so many ways as to where everyone stands on a fairly normal track.

Firstly, I must say I was staggered and taken aback by the pace of the Ferrari. I can only say how thankful I am to Michael for screwing up this morning, because one of the best races ever could easily have been a yawnathon of incomprehensibly gargantuan proportions.

We also have seen Alonsos true steel.......how he stayed so inch perfect and calm under the most immense pressure I'll never know. He had a legend on his rear wing for the final twelve laps, a car disadvantage and an engine down on power and most probably on the verge of blowing up. This, truly, was a champions victory.

Then we have McLaren. Raikkonen probably would have won this one, but just how much fuel did he have onboard? What is the cars true pace and what kind of a step forward will it take in Spain. We know MP4/20 is quick, but will it be able to match the pace of this revitalised Ferrari?

BAR are back, but they didn't seem quite there and I can't see them moving much further forward. Williams will move forward, but I doubt by much more.

The way I see it then, the season is set as a battle between Renault, Ferrari, McLaren. Pretty much as expected.

But will it be a battle, or will it be a race to see who can finish second behind Ferrari every race from now? Michaels pace today was scary, scary stuff....he was two seconds a lap faster for a large period of time with a similar fuel load. The tyres held together beautifully and the car is now better reliability wise, although Rubens didn't last.

Where did this two second advantage come from? Well, I think Alonso's engine was being used very sparingly for most of the race and was down on power in any case due to it's "age". It had after all been through Bahrain, a sandy and hot place.

The conditions were very cool and this also may have made the Bridgestones look better, and the Michelins worse.

You can also add a superhuman performance from Michael I guess.

But you know, I think today was, as Brundle said in his commentary, "an ominous warning". I think Ferrari will be out front for a while now and it will be a case of minimising the damage to the championship lead for Alonso and Renault for some races now. I don't for a second think the ferrari actually holds a two second per lap advantage, but I think it is at least half a second all things considered.

How do you see the situation regarding true pace and how do you see the next races panning out?