Autoblog UK

Heroes

Lewis Hamilton: He wasn't quite able to match the searing qualifying pace of Red Bull, but come Sunday's race he was unbeatable. Webber's poor started allowed him to bolt into the lead at lights-out, and after surviving a hair-raising moment with the tyre wall at Rivage he went on to take a comfortable win. The 25 points put him 3 clear in the title fight and 35 ahead of team-mate Button.

Mark Webber: He may not have won, but he is now a convincing 28 points ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel, putting him in prime position to start calling the shots. He was luck to escape with second after dropping to sixth from pole at the start, but quickly got passed Massa, jumped to third when Vettel and Button collided and claimed second when Kubica botched his pitstop. With seemingly the quicker car for much of the forthcoming races, he is joint favourite for the title with Hamilton.

Reigning world champion Jenson Button is aiming to get back in the title hunt at next weekend's Italian Grand Prix in Monza, after having to retire prematurely from the recent Belgian Grand Prix. He lies 35 points behind team-mate Hamilton in the championship with six rounds remaining and recognises the need to do well in Monza next Sunday.

"Obviously, my non-finish in Spa wasn't ideal for my championship aspirations, so I head to Monza next weekend determined to put myself back in the hunt for the title," said Button. "We still have some work to do to make sure the package we bring to Italy is perfectly suited to the track, but I'm confident that our engineers have made some good steps forward with their understanding of our car, so we should be in good shape."

Volvo launched the saloon version of its 3-Series/ A4 competitor several months ago, but it's now the turn of the big hitter – the estate version. The manufacturer expects the V60 to outsell the S60 by some margin, largely because load-luggers are still seen by the buying public as Volvo's raison d'etre.

Don't expect to hear the word estate mentioned in the dealerships much though. In an attempt to move beyond its brand appeal beyond the traditional middle-aged, middle class customer base, Volvo has dubbed the V60 a sports wagon rather than an estate car.

Our long-term Mondeo estate arrived recently – and just kept arriving. My partner enquired if the back was in the same postcode as the front as it was so far away. Man it's big: it is actually longer than models like the Ford Galaxy and Range Rover Sport, and is half a size bigger than the VW Passat.

OK, so it's big, but is it clever? We took it on our summer holiday to the Italian Alps to find out.

The Formula One world will mark the 40th anniversary of the sport's first and only posthumous world champion on Sunday afternoon, the 28-year-old having lost his fight for life following a crash just before qualifying for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The German had such a lead in the championship at the time of the accident that he went on to claim the title that year, having missed the final four rounds.

Jackie Stewart, Rindt's chief challenger for the title at the time, remembers the day vividly. "It was very traumatic. Helen (Stewart) went to the hospital with Nina (Rindt) and that's never a nice thing for a wife to do, to look after another wife," he recalled to the Red Bulletin. "After the accident I'd been to Jochen and come back to Nina, who had totally disappeared with Helen. When I went out later to qualify I was in tears.

Four thousand Korean F1 fans turned out at the Korean International Circuit in South Jeolla on Saturday to watch Hispania Racing's Karun Chandhok complete the first laps on the new circuit in a 2009 Red Bull. Amid continuing uncertaintny in the paddock over the running of October's Grand Prix there, Chandhok successfully completed his run on the newly-laid asphalt.

The event was called "Circuit Run 2010" and involved Karun taking the race-winning RB5 for a run on the 5.621km track, while demonstration laps were also completed by a Formula BMW single-seater and Korean touring cars. Chandhok made some positive comments about the track after his demonstration.

KIA is to recall certain Soul and Sorento models because of a fire risk.

A problem that manifested itself in the US has found a number of cars with 'mood lighting' are a potential hazard.

We've shown you sneak peeks of Top Gear's US incarnation before, but this is the first extended trailer of the show's forthcoming output on the History Channel.

It doesn't look too bad either. The new team have certainly got the filter-heavy cinematography and ultra-slick editing down to a tee, and the Yankee presenters even make a fair fist of some Top Gear-type dialogue ("it's like being aroused at gunpoint' etc etc).

A rural police force has added a new member to its fleet of pursuit vehicles - a five ton tractor.

With a top speed of around 25mph, the John Deere 6630 is not going to be of much use on the road, but if any baddies decide to flee across the Lincolnshire fields the blue-lighted behemoth is likely to come into its own.

As many as 5 million of the UK's drivers suffer from poor eyesight that impairs their ability to drive, but are doing nothing about it.

Almost a quarter of drivers that don't wear glasses admit they cannot see properly, and a further seven percent that should wear glasses choose not to while behind the wheel.