I've never placed a sports bet in my life, but I just put £10 on Felipe Massa winning on Sunday.

Might sound like madness given what happened in Germany, but Felipe looked like a changed man in today's press conference. He had an air of defiance. Having obeyed his bosses on lap 49 last Sunday, he has since discussed the situation internally "with everyone" and has, it would appear, stated his intention not to yield again as long as he has a mathematical chance of winning the championship.

"All I can say is I'm very strong and looking forward to the victory," he said. "I will fight for the victory here, whatever the conditions. I will win. As long as I'm in the position to win, we must fight for the victory."

Countryman Rubens Barrichello, who found himself in Massa's shoes between 2000 and 2005 having to play bridesmaid to Michael Schumacher, telephoned the Ferrari driver earlier this week to commiserate and offer his advice. For Alonso to win because of team orders, he says, holds no honour. "If you win the world championship by one point because someone let you past, what's the point?"

Rubens left Ferrari because he grew tired of his 'number two' status. Massa says he refuses to agree to such constraints. "The time I say I'm the number two driver, I will not race anymore."

Massa thrives around the Hungaroring. In 2008 he drove one of the most impressive races of his life, stealing the lead from Lewis Hamilton at the start only for his engine to let him down in a plume of white smoke. A year on from his horrific accident (and the tyre marks Massa left are still clearly visible on the track) it would be fitting if the little Brazilian score maximum points here. Especially after the farce that was the German Grand Prix.

That's what I'm hoping, anyway. Now I have a vested interest.

Formula One arrives in Hungary still reeling from Ferrari's blatant and illegal use of team orders. We still await a date for the FIA's World Motorsport Council meeting, which could inflict further penalties on the Scuderia, on top of it's $100,000 fine.

Fernando Alonso's comments this week that the win in Germany six days ago was "a great feeling" adds further insult to fans who feel they were robbed of a real race. And no one feels more robbed than Felipe Massa. But at the end of the day it was his decision to yield when told his team mate was faster.

As Jenson Button echoed this week, when told your team mate is catching you most drivers out there would take that as a message to speed up. But that's not how it works at Ferrari, seemingly.

Massa must be feeling very emotional arriving in Budapest, not least because of recent events. Twelve months ago he nearly lost his life at the tight and twisty Hungaroring when a heavy spring fell off Rubens Barrichello's car and hit him in the face.

"My first meeting when I arrive at the circuit will be with all the marshals and medical staff who did such a very good job of carefully getting me out of the cockpit. I want to thank these people, with whom I now feel a special bond," says Felipe.

"I had to stay in hospital for a week after the accident and I got to know the staff, who all treated me so well and one unusual result of the whole unfortunate episode is that I know I now have a lot more fans in Hungary."

For the teams, its been a race just getting to the country. Back-to-back races demand the team starts packing up before the grand prix has finished. By 10pm after the German GP the trucks were headed for the Austrian border, and arrived in Hungary 14 hours later, using signed driver caps and cans of energy drink to expedite their passage across the border.

Ferrari were accused of cheating after the team asked Felipe Massa to allow Fernando Alonso past and lead a one-two victory in Germany.

Team orders have been outlawed in Formula One since 2002, when Ferrari stage-managed the result of that year's Austrian Grand Prix in Michael Schumacher's favour. It's a difficult thing to police, with many teams using codes to issue instructions. But there was little code used when Massa's engineer, Rob Smedley, told his man: "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understand this message?" After Massa yielded on lap 49, Smedley radioed "sorry".

Team boss Stefano Domenicalli denies this was an order, merely a "briefing on the situation."

It comes one year to the day that Massa nearly died on-track in Budapest. It would have been a wonderful reward. On the podium, Felipe looked like he needed a hug. When Alonso took the chequered flag he was quick to ask his team "how is Felipe?"

Ferrari needed this win after months of lackluster results. It was an impressive display, with Red Bull hardly getting a look in and the field lapped up to seventh place.
 
But rival teams are set to protest the result and the FIA are investigating. This could be a test of Jean Todt's presidency. In the post-race press conference there was no applause - a few boos and some tough questions aimed at Alonso. Massa stated that he had been struggling on the hard compound tyres, which allowed Alonso past. But he put his real message across when he said: "I'm professional, and today I showed how professional I am. Everybody saw today I can win races."

Alonso was 31 points ahead of Massa coming into this weekend, and is therefore Ferrari's main hope when it comes to the title. Therefore, Ferrari will argue it was a pragmatic decision. Leading up to the position change, Domenicalli was waving his arms around as he sat on the pitwall, while chief engineer Chris Dyer urged his boss to wait. Once Alonso went P1, the Ferrari brass sat in silence with their arms crossed.

"We have seen team mates crash into each other, losing 42 points. Today Ferrari has 42 points in the pocket," Alonso justified.

For Smedley, it was a difficult day. On the slow-down lap, the Yorkshireman shared some kind words: "Felipe Massa is back in business. Very magnanimous. You won't have any idea what that word means, but I'll explain it to you later..."
 

There's a lot of speculation this weekend as to whether we'll be going to Korea in October.

Charlie Whiting visited the circuit on July 15, and there's another inspection planned for August. The expected date of completion keeps getting put back. According to the FIA, Whiting was "fully satisfied" with the circuit's build and safety standards, and that the governing body is confident it will be finished in time.

However, the track appears to be a long way behind where Abu Dhabi was this time last year. According to Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary, who visited the circuit after Silverstone, Abu Dhabi had 11,000 workers toiling 24hrs a day. Korea has just 600.

The roads to the track are far from finished, and it's been confirmed a lot of the infrastructure (hotels, shops, marina etc) won't be completed till 2011.

But the most worrying bit is the track itself. Look closely at the grey stuff Charlie and co are standing on here:



That's not tarmac, that's gravel. And it gets worse - other than the grid, the rest of the track is just mud, with outlines where the circuit should be.

Now, I'm no architect or builder so I have no idea how quickly they can get all this finished. There's 12 weeks left to run.

Put it this way, though, I'm not booking my travel yet.

Now to the latest rumour... If Korea doesn't happen, we're going back to Magny Cours.

Yes, you read that right. It doesn't mean it will happen. In fact, it's very unlikely. Magny Cours in October? Bernie hates the place anyway. But I would love to see it happen, not least because I already found an ace chateau there in 2008. Get in quick and book your rooms before the locals hear the rumours... or not.

Christian Horner dispelled any suggestion that Red Bull is favouring one driver over the other at a Casio event this afternoon.

There was one question we wanted the answer to. Which driver got his new RBR-branded watch first? "They were given their watches at the same time," deadpaned Horner. "We also have plenty of spares and they're all of the same specification, so I can't see there being any issues with watches this weekend."

The event was hosted by BBC double act David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan. EJ stumbled onto the stage not making a lot of sense, and then skipped a page in the script which confused everyone on the stage - not least Casio's global marketing bod who didn't seem to speak much english and spoke off an autocue even more incomprehensibly than the Irishman.

DC struggled to introduce the politely smiling man, complaining he had a hard time getting his tongue around Japanese names. "But I had a Japanese girlfriend once, and didn't have any trouble getting my tongue around her."

At Silverstone I gave you a multiple choice quiz to find just what bonkers pearls of wisdom Britain's greatest ever commentator had blurted out. Match them up here:

1.    a
2.    d
3.    d
4.    b
5.    b
6.    b
7.    c
8.    c
9.    d
10.    b

With six German drivers in the field, including the returning hero Michael Schumacher and championship contender Sebastian Vettel, the klaxon-wielding fans at Hockenheim are likely to be deafening.

Schumacher's season seems to have flat-lined, while team mate and countryman Nico Rosberg took his third podium of the season at Silverstone. Michael has won at this 'Ring four times, and a starling six times up the road at the Nurburgring. On current form, though, it's Vettel that's going to be the flag bearer.

Vettel is bruised after the British Grand Prix, when a puncture took him out of contention, and Mark Webber's angry comments about being the No.2 have cast Vettel, rightly or wrongly, as the recipient of preferential treatment from Red Bull Racing.

Schumacher remains the only German to win the Formula One World Championship, but Vettel, who was nicknamed "Baby Schumi" when he made his GP debut aged 19, is out to change that this year.

Hockenheim was a spectacularly fast and dangerous circuit until it was neutered in 2002. The long forest straights have gone, and with it the atmosphere that made the track what it was. But that doesn't mean to say the new track doesn't provide excitement. No, I predict that Sunday is going to be a belter.

The hairpin provides overtaking opportunities galore, as cars downshift from seventh to second, and shave off 240km/h. Judging one's braking is critical, as is power application at the apex so as to achieve maximum get-away traction.

I had first-hand experience of this this week, when I was given exclusive access to Red Bull's state-of-the-art simulator. In 15 laps, I spun seven times at this corner - not easy!

Another element that will spice things up grandly come the race are the tyres. Bridgestone are experimenting with a greater disparity of compounds. With drivers forced to use both hard and soft compound rubber, we're likely to see a two-stop race with the softs lasting between 10 and 15 laps of the 67 lap distance.

Just as Canada saw severe degradation, and  a thoroughly exciting race, Germany should serve up a thrilling battle from lights to flag.

Some readers might remember that in Turkey us journos got to compete in the FX Pro Currency Race in the Virgin motorhome, where one lucky git who knew more about the value of Yen versus the Dollar than me managed to walk home with an oversized comedy cheque. Well, now you can play it too.



Your performance is dictated by the value of whatever you're (pretend) buying, in live time. Click here and if you come out on top you could win prizes to some prestigious sporting events. Currently the leader is a chap called RSchumacher, which sounds unlikely.

Speaking a Ralf, here's a message from our friend Sniff Petrol.