After a year's excursion, Formula One returns to the Nurburgring circuit in western Germany. While nothing like the original course, the race inevitably evokes memories of legends such as Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark and Graham Hill lapping a circuit that spanned over 22 kilometers in length.

In its final year of F1 use, 1976, laps took longer than seven minutes to complete, and Niki Lauda's horrendous accident there effectively caused the creation of the current track. The Nordschleife section is still in use today, hosting the famed 24 Hours of Nurburgring each year.

The course used today opened in the mid-1980s and has hosted 16 F1 events heading into Sunday's race. Last time F1 was here, Red Bull finished 1-2, with Mark Webber earning his first series win. In doing so, he became the first driver since Jacques Villeneuve to earn his first career F1 victory at Nurburgring.

Sebastian Vettel has 16 victories to his name, but none have come on his home soil. He recently described racing at home to reporters, saying "One of the objectives a Formula One driver sets for himself is to win his 'home race.' Of course, you always give 100 percent, but at a home race you're always more motivated, simply because you feel at home."

Only four active drivers have won an event in their home nation, and just two have done it more than once.

Michael Schumacher has accomplished it nine times, winning at Nurburgring on five occasions. Felipe Massa is the only other to win more than once; he has two wins in his home nation of Brazil. A quarter of Sunday's field will be German, meaning many drivers will be looking for a strong finish in front of their home fans.

One German may be a bit busier than the rest, as Nico Rosberg will have the privilege of driving Fangio's Mercedes from 1954 around the full course. The W196 won the event at Nurburgring that year, one of nine F1 wins for Mercedes. That season, the marque stormed onto the scene with a car that was rather unique; not only was it technically superior to the competition, but it originally featured a full body with wheels that were covered. The car that won in Germany, however, was an open-wheel version.

Meanwhile, championship leader Vettel likely will have his hands full, as Ferrari demonstrated in Silverstone. Fernando Alonso cruised to a dominant victory after Red Bull was slow in the pits, and the prancing horse should be a strong contender again in Germany. Last year at Hockenheim, controversy was abundant as Ferrari took the top two spots on the podium. Massa was ordered to give way to Alonso as the laps wound down, and the Ferrari squad had many questions to face after the race.

Alonso should be one of the favorites this weekend, as July is arguably his strongest time of the season. He has five career wins during the month, more than any other on the calendar. He's also won at Nurburgring twice, in 2005 and 2007.

For eight drivers, this will be the first time they've competed at this track in an F1 car. It's a challenging circuit that features elevation changes and a variety of corners. The first bend is a tight hairpin that leads into a slow set of left-handers. The cars also have a chance to stretch their legs on a very fast backstraight before heading to the finish line. In short, a well-balanced machine here is crucial.

Many teams have gotten the setup right at Nurburgring recently, as evidenced by the number of constructors that have won here. In the past six races there have been five teams that have come out on top: Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and Williams. This season, however, the first three mentioned are the only ones with a true chance at victory.

China, Spain, Monaco and Canada have all included significant thrills this Formula One season, and Great Britain now can be added to that list.

The start of the British Grand Prix was downright bizarre, as part of the track appeared to be bone-dry while other sections were flooded with water. Sebastian Vettel jumped out to the early lead ahead of pole-sitter Mark Webber, and as is characteristic of the young German, he quickly checked out from the field. But everything went awry for Vettel on his second stop. A long visit to pit lane (nearly seven seconds longer than his first stop) let Fernando Alonso take control of the race, and he took full advantage.

Alonso brought home his 27th career victory, which ties Jackie Stewart for the fifth most in Formula One history. Since 2005, the Spaniard has won 22.4 percent of F1 races, a shade behind Vettel for the best rate in the business.

It also ensured Ferrari would not go winless on the season, something that has not happened since 1993. That streak of 18 seasons with at least one victory is by far the longest of any team in F1 history; it's five longer than the next-longest streak, held by McLaren.

Alonso's second victory in the British Grand Prix means he moves from fifth to third in the standings, and it's a far cry from his race here last year. In 2010, Alonso was penalized for cutting a corner and overtaking, and because of a drive-through penalty he finished 14th in the race, his worst non-retirement result of the year. That sparked a furious comeback, however, as Alonso would go on to win four of the next seven events.

While Alonso's victory was certainly a large storyline, much of the postrace discussion centered on Red Bull team orders. With the teammates battling for second, Red Bull informed Webber to hold his position, but Webber explained to reporters after the event why he ignored the order.

"I'm not fine with it, no," said Webber. "So that's the answer to that. If Fernando had retired on the last lap, then we would have been fighting for victory. I was fighting to the end; of course I ignored the team because I wanted another place. Seb was doing his best, I was doing my best, for sure I don't want to crash with anyone. That was it."

It's the second straight year at Silverstone that the team has been shrouded in controversy. Last year Webber won after Red Bull used the last remaining updated front wing on Vettel's car, creating noticeable tension among the teammates.

In the end, Vettel held off Webber to finish second, becoming the first driver since Alonso in 2006 to check in first or second in each of his first nine races. He has an 80-point lead in the standings over the second-place Webber, a man who has yet to lead a lap all season.

For home favorite McLaren, it was a race to forget. A costly mistake in pit lane meant Jenson Button departed with a very loose wheel, forcing him to retire after 39 laps. Lewis Hamilton, who won this race in 2008, looked to be faring much better before his team informed him that he needed to conserve fuel. That meant he lost a chance for the podium, and as a result, a McLaren driver is nowhere to be found in the top three of the driver standings for the first time this season.

A great drive that should not go unnoticed came at the hands of Mexico's Sergio Perez. He finished seventh and drove a steady race, which is something to be said considering his frightening accident at Monaco came not so long ago. Although teammate Kamui Kobayashi was forced to retire, Sauber has shown improvement this season over last. In 2010, the squad was eighth in the constructors' standings with 44 points. This year, the team already has collected 36 and sits behind just five teams.

Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty ImagesJenson Button and teammate Lewis Hamilton are going to have to step up if they want to win their home race.

Two teams that are underperforming by their standards may have just gotten the boost needed to compete once again at the top level. While there are two very different circumstances, they happen to be two of the most successful teams in regards to constructors' championships.

Ferrari has struggled to keep pace with Red Bull and McLaren all season, but Silverstone should go a long way in determining whether the team will be competitive for the rest of the year.

Updates to the Ferrari will be in place for Silverstone, and lead driver Fernando Alonso told the Formula Santander website, "England is a very aerodynamic circuit, very similar to Barcelona where we were very far behind and were lapped in the race," he said. "Therefore in Silverstone if we manage to be at the front, it means we have a very competitive car for what remains of the year, but if we are still so far behind, it will be difficult, and we will have to fight for partial grands prix victories: podiums, fastest laps and those types of more secondary things."

The team with an F1-best 215 victories could surely use a strong finish at Silverstone, and perhaps the ban on off-throttle exhaust blown diffusers, which comes into effect this race, will help bring some competitors back toward Ferrari.

A team suffering even more this season has been Williams. The squad has nine constructors' titles to its name, second only to Ferrari, but has collected fewer points this season than the likes of Toro Rosso and Force India.

But a recent announcement that the team will reunite with famed engine supplier Renault could boost morale heading into next season.

Williams enjoyed its best F1 years while partnered with Renault between 1989 and 1997. In those nine years, the team won five constructors' titles and a remarkable 63 races. Both figures are more than the team has been able to amass in the other 27 seasons of existence combined.

All the teams now have their eyes on Silverstone, the track that hosted the first-ever Formula One event. It's certainly changed throughout the years, and this season fans will see the race start prior to Abbey corner rather than between Woodcote and Copse.

It's no doubt one of the most classic venues on the schedule, and has hosted an F1 event uninterrupted since 1987, the fourth-longest active streak.

It's an extremely fast and flat track, so car setup is imperative there. Last year's event brought with it an extended layout, meaning the track is a shade under six kilometers. That makes it the second longest of the season behind only Spa.

Silverstone has long seen men from Great Britain claim victory at the track, but that hasn't been the case lately. The circuit has seen a driver from Great Britain win 16 times (next closest is five by France), but only once in the past 10 races. Finland has produced more winners in that span.

The past eight races have been won by as many drivers, and in the past four years, it's been a bit unpredictable.

In 2010, Mark Webber capitalized on a poor start by Sebastian Vettel to take the victory.

He entered the race fourth in the championship standings, as did winners Lewis Hamilton in 2008 and Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. Vettel entered third in the points when he crossed the line first in 2009.

A driver such as England's Hamilton, who sits fourth in the standings, could therefore certainly find himself leading the field to the finish again Sunday.

Elsewhere, the grid will see a new face this weekend in the form of Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who replaces Narain Karthikeyan at HRT.

He's now the seventh driver to compete for HRT in its brief two-year existence, and in that same span the other two newcomers (Lotus and Virgin) have had just five combined.

"From the outside, I'm not sure if it seemed that much was happening in the race," Sebastian Vettel told reporters after winning the European Grand Prix on Sunday. "But I enjoy it so much when it's between you and the car on every single lap."

Vettel's sixth win of the season seemed nearly effortless, but in reality Vettel had to work hard to maintain his lead over the likes of Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber. Vettel drove a faultless race and has now led all but one lap in the last two Valencia events.

While the on-track product certainly left something to be desired in Valencia, at least the record book was getting a workout. En route to his second career hat trick (pole, win and fastest lap), Vettel notched his 16th and final win before turning 24 years old, seven more than any other driver in F1 history.

Modern times have provided drivers with an opportunity at an F1 career at a younger age than in past decades, and Vettel is certainly taking advantage. No driver in history had reached double-digit victories before turning 24 until Vettel, and his pace is over double that of the man third on the list, Alonso.

Even when Vettel isn't winning lately, he's been putting up strong results. His streak of 10 podiums is already good for third-most all time, but he'll need to double that in order to eclipse Michael Schumacher's run of 19 straight in 2001-02.

Vettel has a 77-point lead in the driver standings and a firm hold on a second F1 title before the season even hits halfway. Indeed, any other driver in the sport could win three straight races without Vettel recording a single point and he'd still hold the lead. He's also led over 81 percent of the laps run this season, on pace to shatter the season F1 mark (Vettel also eclipsed 1,000 career laps led in Valencia).

Vettel's situation is nearly identical to that of Jenson Button's from 2009; before the halfway mark, both had nearly double the points of the next-closest driver. Button didn't win a race in the second half of the year, but he was still good enough to clinch the title before the season finale.

Vettel's victory overshadowed some great drives elsewhere in the field. Alonso displayed Ferrari's speed with a second-place result, while Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari sliced through the field from an 18th-place starting position to finish in the points. He's finished eighth in consecutive races, his two best finishes in his F1 career.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Schumacher may have reached the low point of his time with Mercedes. After leaving the pits early, Schumacher made contact with Vitaly Petrov, resulting in a broken front wing. He never recovered, finishing 17th, the worst non-retirement finish in his F1 career.

His two worst non-retirement results have come in Valencia, as he checked in 15th there last year.

The race itself played out extremely processional, but was notable if only for one reason: all 24 drivers crossed the line, the most ever in an F1 event. It tops the previous mark set earlier this year of 23 in China.

It's now on to Silverstone, a track that features a new pit lane and paddock area for this year. F1 fans will also be witnessing the start from a different location on the track. The new start/finish line will be situated between the Club and Abbey turns, rather than between Woodcote and Copse.

Last year's European Grand Prix ended up being one of the most memorable races of 2010, thanks to some defining moments.

Mark Webber's end-over-end crash after colliding with Heikki Kovalainen was shocking, but, in a true testament to F1 safety, Webber was able to walk away.

It continued to highlight his career struggles at the European Grand Prix, an event he has never won in nine attempts. In those starts, Webber has just a single podium (his first with Red Bull back in 2007) and has retired on three occasions. He also has failed to lead a single lap.

Webber has been very consistent this season, as his third-place position in the standings would indicate, so a strong finish is very possible here. A race win, however, might be unlikely.

As for teammate Sebastian Vettel, he returns to this race as the defending winner. Valencia is the site of his last wire-to-wire victory, a feat he has accomplished twice in his career (Japan in 2009).

Vettel turns 24 on July 3, and a victory here would be the 16th of his career. Compare that to all-time wins leader Michael Schumacher, who had one victory before his 24th birthday.

True, Schumacher had fewer F1 races under his belt, but it's an indication of how much Vettel has accomplished at such a young age.

The driver most likely to unseat Vettel at Valencia might be Lewis Hamilton.

Despite no wins in three career Valencia races, Hamilton has finished runner-up there in each event. Last year, he gave Vettel a strong battle early on before having to serve a drive-through penalty midrace for overtaking the safety car. Despite that, Hamilton managed to close the gap on Vettel again before simply running out of time.

Hamilton is coming off a very rough two-race stretch, but that doesn't mean much in regard to his chances for victory in Spain, as six of his most recent seven wins have come directly after a nonpodium finish.

Valencia is a varied track that throws fast and slow corners at drivers. The 25 turns are the most of any course on the schedule, and the venue provides a few good overtaking opportunities, one of which comes on the run down to Turn 12.

"The lap is made up mainly of straights and hairpins, so it's not the most challenging place to go racing," Adrian Sutil of Force India told reporters. "Although the walls are close, it doesn't really feel like a street circuit, and it's nowhere close to racing in Monaco."

Force India as a team has taken a step back in performance this season, but not quite to the degree that Williams has. This, however, could be a race when fortunes change for the likes of veteran Rubens Barrichello. After failing to score points in any of the first five races this season, Barrichello has made small progress in the past two.

He collected points at Monaco and Canada, and Williams has a good track record in Valencia. The team scored a fourth-place finish there last year with its lead driver and finished fifth a year earlier with Nico Rosberg behind the wheel.

Confidence should be high for Barrichello entering this race; he has won this event before and will be behind the wheel of a car with recent upgrades to its diffuser. Considering that Barrichello had eclipsed his 2011 points total through just two races last season, he has a considerable amount of catching up to do.

Over at McLaren, reports have recently surfaced that Jenson Button is on the verge of signing a new multiyear contract with the team.

Wanting to race with a contender is understandably a huge motivation, and McLaren's 33 victories over the past six seasons are tied with Ferrari for the most in F1. Although being in the Italian automaker's stable is the dream position for nearly every driver, McLaren has looked stronger this season and might just hold a bit more appeal right now.

Then again, everyone is trying to keep up with Red Bull these days.

The championship battle in Formula One has grown quite dull, but you wouldn't know it from the excitement still occurring on the track.

Jenson Button proclaimed Sunday's win in the Canadian Grand Prix the "best victory of my career" to reporters, and there's certainly no arguing that. The 10-time F1 winner was at one point in 21st position, having made five stops already in the event, and a collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton could have shaken his confidence, but it seemed to do just the opposite.

As the track dried, Button excelled. He posted the fastest time of the race on the penultimate lap after having diced his way through the field, capitalizing on others' mistakes. He was superb in both wet and dry conditions, and fully deserved the race win. While Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton and Michael Schumacher are all names associated with supreme driving in the wet, Button is quickly becoming another name to add to the list. In his last three victories, including China and Australia last year, Button has overcome wet conditions to cross the line first.

He also completed the first last-lap overtake since Japan in 2005, when Kimi Raikkonen shot past Giancarlo Fisichella on the final circuit at Suzuka. That year also saw Raikkonen lose a race on the final lap when his suspension broke at the European Grand Prix.

Button became the 32nd driver in F1 history to notch double-digit career wins, and over the past three seasons, his nine victories are second only to Vettel.

No driver had won a grand prix having only led the final lap since Fisichella at Brazil in 2003 while driving for Jordan. That, much like Montreal, was a very compelling race. The event was run in rainy conditions and also began behind the safety car. It featured several huge accidents and an ending that left many confused. As Fisichella celebrated, Raikkonen was deemed the winner as the race length had been shortened.

The results later were altered by the FIA, and Fisichella became the winner after having officially led only the final lap. Much like Button, Fisichella had to battle back in that grand prix; after pitting early, he spent much of the early portion running outside the top 15.

The victory Sunday also vaults Button from fourth to second in the standings, 60 points shy of Vettel.

At over four hours in duration, Canada proved to be the longest race in F1 history, and Vettel nearly held on for the victory. His last-lap slip-up meant he checked in runner-up. The past three times Vettel has not won, he's still been in the mix very late in the race, a testament to his consistency.

Earlier in the season in China, Vettel held the lead with only a handful of laps to go before Hamilton got the best of him. And last year in Korea, Vettel led with just 10 laps remaining before his engine gave way. Canada was similar to that event in that early in both races there were doubts about whether the event would reach completion due to heavy rains.

Farther back in the field, Mark Webber capped an entertaining battle with Schumacher by completing the pass for third late, ensuring his third podium of the season. It meant Schumacher was relegated to merely tying his best race finish since his return (fourth), but it was by far his best drive in a Mercedes.

On the opposite end, both Fernando Alonso and Hamilton took huge hits in the championship race, having failed to collect any points in Canada. Alonso is now 92 points shy of Vettel and has 12 races to make up the difference. That means he'd need to average per race nearly an eight-point gain over Vettel to match him by the end of the season, a feat at this point that appears out of reach.

Many fans will recall that with nine races to go last year, the two-time world champion trailed leader Hamilton by 47 points and nearly came back to win the championship, but this deficit is nearly twice that.

In 2010, Lewis Hamilton converted a win in Turkey into a victory at Canada, a race that featured over 60 pit stops and exciting action throughout the field.

McLaren appeared to be at the top of its game, and with that victory Hamilton vaulted to the top of the standings with teammate Jenson Button a close second.

Hamilton, the 2008 champion, was certainly not the first to ride momentum to a win in Montreal. In reality, the past eight races at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve have stressed a solid performance in the race immediately prior on the schedule.

Only once in those eight events has a race winner not finished on the podium in the previous event. That was in 2005 with Kimi Raikkonen, who was leading on the final lap of the European Grand Prix before his suspension broke.

The Canadian track is located on a picturesque man-made island and posses several dangers. The circuit is relatively narrow and is lined with walls mere feet from the pavement.

The final chicane is very tricky, and a slight mistake can send even the best of drivers into the Wall of Champions. The first bend causes headaches on the opening laps, as Felipe Massa and Vitantonio Liuzzi can attest to from last year.

Already this season, Sebastian Vettel has gone from tied for the 27th most wins in F1 history to equaling Hamilton in 15th. With another victory, Vettel would match Stirling Moss, one of F1's legendary drivers. Vettel has won seven of the past eight races, arguably the best eight-race stretch in F1 history, considering his other finish was second in China.

Most impressive is that he's won in several fashions this season. While he cruised to victory at places such as Australia, he was tested considerably in Spain and Monaco. A younger Vettel may have given those races away, but he's come a long way in a very short amount of time.

A midpack driver to keep an eye on this weekend may just be Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi.

He crossed the line eighth here last year in an outdated machine and said he believes this year's event will feature easier overtaking because of the Drag Reduction System on the cars -- essentially an adjustable rear wing -- as he explained on Red Bull's official website.

"The DRS is going to work immediately, and with that 10-15 kph extra, you're going to be able to pass easily, on the inside or the outside," he said. "So far, we've seen that DRS works best on a circuit with a very long straight, like China or Turkey. The back straight in Canada is like that."

Montreal will feature two DRS areas, so overtaking will likely be abundant Sunday.

Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher is no doubt struggling this year, collecting just 14 points through six events.

He's behind his pace from last season (he had 22 through the same number of races), but Canada is arguably his strongest track among all active venues.

His seven victories here are second most by a driver at one track in F1 history, behind only his eight wins in France. While a win seems like a distant goal, a solid finish for the seven-time champion is not out of the question. At this point in his return, it is badly needed.

Elsewhere, the 2011 schedule is experiencing a bit of a shakeup, at least for now.

Bahrain has been reinstated on the calendar, taking India's Oct. 30 date. That means India's race may take place on Dec. 11, which would be the first F1 event in December since 1963.

As it stands, the final two dates in 2011 are already two of the five latest ever to be held in the series. The only events to occur later are races in South Africa in 1962 and 1963 and an event at Sebring on Dec. 12, 1959.

Nothing about the change is certain yet, and there is the possibility Bahrain could be scrapped altogether.

AP Photo/Claude ParisSebastian Vettel is all wet, and he's won five of six races this season. Catch him if you can.

Monaco certainly continued the thrills experienced so far in the 2011 Formula One season. From red-flag restarts to strategy changing on the fly, the smallest track on the schedule delivered in a big way.

The rules and gadgets put in place for this season were there to ensure that last season's excitement would continue.

It has, but one driver has managed to spoil the party. Sebastian Vettel became the 32nd driver to win the most prestigious race on the schedule, and in turn continued to tighten his hold on a second title.

Having won all but one race this season, Vettel has given himself a 58-point advantage in the standings, and even if Lewis Hamilton wins the next two events without Vettel scoring a single point, the defending champion would still be the leader.

It's a relatively new phenomenon for an F1 driver to win five of the first six events. Since 1992, it's happened six times. Before that, fans only witnessed it twice in the initial 42 seasons.

The red-flag period undoubtedly aided Vettel as he was able to get fresh rubber and stave off the fast-approaching cars of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. But good fortune should not take away from an excellent drive by Vettel, as Red Bull team principal Christian Horner noted, "Over the last seven days I would say he has produced the two best drives of his career."

Red Bull has much to beam about. The constructor has now won consecutive events at Monaco, only the second team to do so (McLaren) over the past 16 seasons.

The weekend itself was certainly chaotic, as it sent Sergio Perez to the hospital in qualifying and Vitaly Petrov there during the race.

Both were later released, and Kamui Kobayashi's fifth-place result likely provided a needed boost for the Sauber squad after Perez's accident.

Kobayashi did an excellent job managing his tires, and therefore pitted just once. It was his best career finish, and the fifth straight race in which he earned points.

The man who tops the active list of consecutive races earning points is Fernando Alonso, who has added to his points total in 12 straight races dating back to 2010. Monaco was a track that allowed for Ferrari to compete at a closer level to Red Bull, and Alonso took advantage.

Without a late red-flag period, Alonso may have won, but his second-place finish is certainly a welcome one. It gave Ferrari its 47th podium in Monte Carlo, nearly double the next-closest opponent.

The only other driver with a true shot at the victory was Jenson Button. The 2009 Monaco champion led 16 laps in the middle portion of the race, and it's not a huge surprise that he finished on the podium. As one of the smoothest operators on the grid, Button is among the best at conserving tires. Monte Carlo stressed that immensely this year, and Button capitalized.

It was a tough weekend for the constructor fifth in the standings, Mercedes.

The team failed to collect any points for the second time this year, which already eclipses the total from all of last season. Michael Schumacher started fifth, but was uncompetitive and ultimately retired.

Teammate Nico Rosberg looked primed for a good result early on, but was the third-earliest driver to pit and ultimately had to try and salvage a respectable finish from that point on.

Fans of Hamilton were also left sorely disappointed following Monaco.

He was penalized for cutting a chicane in qualifying, and that was only the beginning. Hamilton finished sixth, but was penalized for collisions with both Felipe Massa and Pastor Maldonado during the race. Since his win at Monaco in 2008, he's yet to return to the podium.

If there's any consolation, it's the fact that Canada is next on the calendar.

Tire wear was an enormous factor there last year, and will be even more so this time around. Hamilton led a McLaren 1-2 finish in 2010, and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is one of three courses he's won at multiple times.

Sunday at Catalunya had all the makings of Shanghai: Sebastian Vettel in the lead late, nursing an ailing car with Lewis Hamilton fast approaching in second. But, unlike in China, the defending Formula One champion held off his opposition in Spain to take his fourth win of the season.

It's beginning to look like one of the best title defenses in the history of the sport. Through the first five races, the young German has led 223 of the 294 laps run while outshining teammate Mark Webber. He saw his pole position streak snapped in Spain, but still started on the front row for the 10th straight race.

Vettel's victory means he has earned more than 94 percent of the possible points thus far this season. Through five races, it's the second-highest percentage of points earned by a defending title winner in the past 50 F1 seasons, behind only Michael Schumacher's 2004 campaign.

That year, Schumacher won the first five races en route to his seventh career title, which he clinched before September.

The other most dominant starts in that span include Fernando Alonso in his successful title defense of 2006, as well as Schumacher in 2002. Niki Lauda got off to a flying start in 1976 with Ferrari, but his devastating accident at the Nurburgring sidelined him for the next two races. Miraculously, he returned to battle James Hunt a little more than a month later but ended up withdrawing in Japan because of horrendous weather conditions. In the end, Hunt took the title by a single point.

After a Red Bull front row Sunday, the start of the race told a much different story, with crowd favorite Alonso snatching the lead from the second row. But it wasn't to be, and Alonso wound up a lap down to the leader by the end of the event.

Spain was the third straight grand prix in which fans saw a driver start at or near the back of the field and wind up having an impressive day. Nick Heidfeld was the man to accomplish the feat this week; he started from the back after a fire in practice, yet wound up eighth after a stellar drive. The race before, Kamui Kobayashi also started from the rear and finished in the points.

It's quickly becoming apparent that a poor starting position does not spell complete doom for a driver on race day.

Teams have very little time to prepare for Monaco, the biggest race on the calendar. Red Bull and McLaren enter as the clear favorites, and for Vettel, a Monaco win is yet another accomplishment he'll be looking to remove from his checklist. If he does find victory, he'll be the 32nd winner of this event as well as the fourth straight first-time winner. Only twice in the F1 era of this famed race has the event seen a first-time winner in at least four straight seasons. One of those occurrences came recently (2003 through 2006).

The street circuit of Monte Carlo might be the shortest on the schedule, but it's arguably the most demanding. It also has hosted some of the greatest races in F1 history. The 1992 edition saw Ayrton Senna hold off a furious run from Nigel Mansell, who lost the lead after pitting late. The two crossed the line just two-tenths of a second apart.

A decade earlier, nearly half a dozen drivers had a chance at the win very late in the race, but each suffered remarkable trouble. In the end, and despite spinning, Riccardo Patrese took home the victory to cap a thrilling conclusion.

Monaco is one of three notable races Sunday, along with the Indianapolis 500 and the 600-mile Sprint Cup race at Charlotte. Last year, the trio of races took a combined nine hours to complete, meaning more than a third of the day will see racing action. Exactly 100 drivers will be covering more than 1,200 miles while competing for three trophies, so there should be no shortage of excitement.

Fans can make a strong argument that there is no series on the planet that stresses the importance of qualifying like Formula One.

The qualifying session itself is a spectacle like no other, with fast laps constantly being set even after the final bell rings. The pressure of making the second and third sessions often makes for entertaining moments, and the man sitting on the top of the times at the end of the three sessions has reason to feel very optimistic entering Sunday.

There is no track on the schedule that emphasizes how critical qualifying is more than Catalunya.

While clinching a front-row spot at Monaco is important, history says it's imperative in Spain.

In the 20 events held there, only once has a driver won after starting outside the front row. That was Michael Schumacher in 1996, a race marred by rain. Only six finishers were classified, and it was Schumacher's first victory with Ferrari. He started the race third.

What's more, the polesitter has converted his prime position into a victory in 10 straight races here. No other track on the 2011 calendar has an active streak of more than two straight.

An offseason testing venue for teams, Catalunya has often been tabbed as a relatively dull race with little overtaking, but it has not yet seen the combination of KERS and DRS.

If Red Bull takes the front row like it did at Turkey, however, this race could well be over before the drivers even see the red lights go out.

Despite its tame nature, the track has featured some late-race drama recently. Last year, Lewis Hamilton saw a potential second-place finish wash away after an accident with only a handful of laps to go. It was no fault of his own, but it allowed for Sebastian Vettel, who was having brake issues, to come home with a podium finish.

The year prior, Felipe Massa had to ease off the throttle for the late stages of the race after Ferrari miscalculated his fuel load. It resulted in both Vettel and Fernando Alonso overtaking him in the waning moments.

Mark Webber is one man who has a great chance at claiming a spot on the front row Sunday.

He cruised to victory there last year, and has improved on his finishing position in every race so far this season. This time last season was arguably his strongest portion of the year, winning back-to-back events in Spain and Monaco during the month of May.

This is the shortest track on the schedule thus far at just more than four and a half kilometers.

That's great news for Webber, the driver who found the most success in 2010 on the five tracks that are shorter than five kilometers (Spain, Monaco, Canada, Hungary and Brazil). In those events, he took three wins and was the only driver to amass more than 100 total points.

The Australian will also be looking to buck a trend of late at the track.

Catalunya, on the schedule since 1991, was once rife with defending winners again reaching the top podium step the very next season. In the first 14 events here, the defending winner also won the very next season on seven occasions.

The phenomenon has not occurred from 2005 through the present day, however. Legends such as Nigel Mansell, Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen were all able to successfully defend their victories at the Barcelona circuit, but lately, greats like Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen have failed to do so.

Perhaps the amount of preseason testing here has given more of the top teams an even playing field, as the extensive track time means few stones have been left unturned when the teams arrive at Catalunya during the season.