With a winning strike of three consecutive wins, Fernando Alonso bags Castrol Edge Performer for July 2012

With a winning strike of three consecutive wins, Fernando Alonso bags Castrol Ed

 

Fernando Alonso, standing second in the Castrol EDGE Rankings, has been awarded the Castrol EDGE performer for July 2012. The accolade came Alonso’s way considering his outstanding form in the recent Grand Prix with the Spanish racer poised much ahead of other drivers. Race driver of the Team Ferrari commenced with a bang by winning the British Grand Prix, which he continued to dominate until the last stage when Mark Webber snatched the pole position from him. Scoring a double win, Alonso went on to the following race in Germany as well in the tough and dynamic racing conditions at the Hockenheim circuit. The consecutive win gave him a significant advantage in the drivers' championship, which was further reinforced by him with yet another superlative performance in Hungary, a week from his last victory. He claimed fifth position in Hungary and sealed his claim on the July 2012 performer of the month award.

If taking only the movement along ranking chart, ex-F1 driver, Antonio Pizzonia happens to be one of the biggest shifters on the Castrol EDGE Race for the year 2012. Competing in his native V8 championship, the Brazilian driver was the star of two guest drives in Auto GP in July 2012. He won both the races held at Curitiba to take a giant leap of 242 spots in the race.

Besides Pizzonia, it was Spanish driver, Daniel Junacadella, who moved by huge margins on the charts owing to a one-off appearance. He won the F3 masters title with a brilliant performance at Zandvoort, where competing against former legends like David Coulthard and Lewis Hamilton, he grabbed the pole position. This feat alone sent him surging by 68 spots to land at 134th in the rankings.

On the other hand, Kimi Raikkonen failed to mirror the performance by either Pizzonia or Juncadella; however, he too rose significantly in the Race for 2012 rankings. He shot up by 15 positions owing to two podium finishes in the last two F1 Grand Prix and is now perched on sixth spot overall. However, he is miles ahead of his F1 competitors like Jenson Button and Nico Roseberg.

Considering his five wins out of seven rallies, it is always safe to pinpoint Sebastian Loeb, who is sixth in July 2012 rankings, as the potential winner in any rally. However, when it comes down to a victory in Finland, the chances are strong that Loeb can miss it in the country. To illustrate, the 23rd position holder in Castrol Edge Rankings, Jari-Matti Latvala is the one with highest Castrol EDGE Rankings total score in Finland. Besides Latvala, 14th place holder, Mikko Hirvonen has outperformed Loeb during the 2008 and 2009 events. Finland happens to be one of the rallies, wherein Loeb has claimed only one win so far in last three years. This means that the country can be the only place to stop his parade to the ninth consecutive WRC championship title.

Taking into account the Castrol EDGE Rankings, Fernando Alonso scored just a little bit in the first half of this season above what he scored back in 2010-2011. However, the year brings with the change in level of competition. To illustrate, Sebastian Vettel who accumulated a whooping 18,000 ranking points last year during the summer break, now has only half of it. Succumbing to the unpredictable F1 season in 2012 with several winners and dynamic order, Vettel has fallen back. At the same time, Alonso has been progressing with more ranking points scored this year than in 2011. The excellent performance by the Spanish driver is mirrored by the fact that except once, he never finished a race outside of the top seven and not even once outside the points in 2012. This consistency in performance along with top position in the Castrol Race for 2012 rankings is the proof that Alonso is at his peak as of now.

Speaking of Sebastian Vettel's poor performance, in all possibilities he may also lose his number one position at present considering the difficult season this year for everyone and not just Vettel. However, he may hang on to his current position considering that he is second to Alonso in the Castrol EDGE Race for 2012 rankings with narrow margin. This clearly states that he is ahead of ace drivers like Lewis Hamilton and his team-mate Mark Webber. Even though there are chances that the advantage of Vettel in the rankings may get outscored, he has shown his potential to hang on to the numero uno position for at-least till the end of this year and possibly longer.

*Data correct as of August 1st 2012

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