You may be shocked an surprised to see the Pole Poll this early in the week but this is due to our ace reporter Bearded Stew heading off to the Massif Central himself to see them there Formula 1 cars going round for himself. I hope he’s taking some ear defenders and a note book. We want a report and we want him to be able to enjoy Led Zep again.

So all of that’s very exciting. Of course there’s a chance that it will be more exciting than the French Grand Prix itself. If it rains, and it often rains in France it can be spectacular. If it doesn’t it can be a bit of a procession. So the whole race will probably be once again decided on Saturday and the first five minutes of the race.

So what does that mean for the form?

McLaren still dominate and so we should see the main race between their two drivers again. Alonso was apparently heavier on fuel in qualifying than Lewis last time out and didn’t make it round fast enough. He may decide to switch back to the lighter strategy this time out. But is he in charge of that decision?

Last year Ferrari had a weird pattern in their press conferences they basically seemed quietly neutral on races that they didn’t do very well at and very down on themselves at races where they won, they would say things like, “we expected to be faster here”. So what it means now that Kimi and Massa have both said they think they’re likely to be winning here is anybodys guess. As is what’s going on with Ferrari’s management. Check out our poll for the latest in unsubstantiated opinion.

BMW are hot on Ferrari’s heels, Kubica should be back up and running this weekend, Renault are really not far behind. Surely they’d like to do well at their home race.

The only real wild card is Honda. They introduce their B spec car this weekend, and to be ultra secretive they ran in a seperate test to everyone else (except Super Aguri). So we don’t know how much slower they’ve made that car with all their new improvements.