[WSR Fan]

After a mammoth 7-week break, the World Series is back this weekend at the Hungaroring, near Budapest, Hungary. Here's a re-cap of the standings after Monaco (Round 3):

Drivers' Championship

1. Sebastian Vettel 58 Pts
2. Alvaro Parente 51
3. Filipe Albuquerque 29
4. Mikhail Aleshin 27
=. Milos Pavlovic 27
6. Ben Hanley 26
7. Salvador Duran 25
8. Marco Bonanomi 20
9. Davide Valsecchi 18
=. Alvaro Barba 18

Teams' Championship

1. Carlin Motorsport 85 Pts
2. Tech 1 Racing 57
3. Epsilon Euskadi 47
4. Int. Draco Racing 45
5. Prema Powerteam 26
6. Interwetten.com 25
7. RC Motorsport 23
8. Victory Engineering 20
9. Pons Racing 12
=. KTR 12


While Vettel and Parente seem to have broken away from the pack, the action behind them is looking extremely interesting with just 11 points covering third to tenth place in the standings, so the Top 10 could look very different after the weekend. And despite the long break, there's only been one driver change with Celso Miguez leaving Eurointernational to be replaced by former Comtec driver Jaap Van Lagen.

So, what do people expect from the weekend? Personally I hope that Parente can close the gap on Vettel a little, because if Sebastian establishes a decent lead, I think it will be difficult for Parente and Tech 1 to catch up, given the experience & resources that Carlin have at their disposal. I'd also like to see Clivio Piccione do well because despite showing some good speed, he's had a nightmare start with four retirements in five races and just three points on the board. He's raced at the Hungaroring twice before in GP2 so hopefully his track knowledge can lead to a couple of decent points finishes.

And, as always, I hope Ben Hanley and the other Brits can achieve some decent results too


Weekend Schedule

Thursday 12th July

09:00 - 11:00 - Collective Testing 1
14:00 - 16:00 - Collective Testing 2

Friday 13th July

09:00 - 09:45 - Free Practice 1
13:40 - 14:25 - Free Practice 2

Saturday 14th July

09:00 - 09:20 - Qualifying (Group B)
09:25 - 09:45 - Qualifying (Group A)
14:55 - Race 1 (25 laps)

Sunday 15th July

13:00 - Race 2 (25 laps)

(All times are local Budapest times)