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All eyes are on Giancarlo Fisichella this weekend, an Italian driver in an Italian car on an Italian track. With Ferrari confirming that Fisichella will be finishing the season with the prancing horse is great news for the aging driver as he nears the end of his career after 226 Grand Prix starts. The Monza circuit is well suited to KERS equipped cars and Ferrari rarely performs badly at home.

In fact, the Ferrari team is looking like they may perform quite well this weekend after Kimi Raikkonen finished first in Belgium and Fisichella was able to take his Force India car to second. However, there is much debate over how Fisichella will perform with the first practice session to be his first drive in the F60.

This weekend will mark the sixtieth running of the Italian Grand Prix. The track at Monza is comprised mostly of long straights which are linked by chicanes and will be the perfect setting for those cars equipped with KERS. Around 75% of the track is spent at full throttle and any reliability issues could become a serious problem.

It is a serious possibility that the Renault team can get their cars up near the front as they are dusting of their KERS system for this weekend’s grand prix. Fernando Alonso was able to achieve a pole position in Hungary and even made a challenge for the podium in Belgium. Renault could be a serious contender for the Italian GP.

With Giancarlo Fisichella’s move to Ferrari, the championship battle has been moved out of the spotlight. The battle between Brawn GP and Red Bull is still there, but it is likely that it will be a feature on the middle order on Sunday.

Championship leader, Jenson Button will be enjoying the fact that it is unlikely that his championship rivals will take many points from him here at Monza. However, if he does not produce results himself, it is a possibility that he will have the championship lead taken from him in the coming weeks.

Even if Fisichella hadn’t moved to Ferrari, he would more than likely still be drawing all the attention. After taking pole position in his Force India car at Spa, and then finishing second, he will be expected to repeat this form.

Force India may have another chance to take a win at Monza as their car is well suited to the track. It has now been proven that with a low down-force set-up, the Force India car is dynamite and Monza requires lower down-force than that of Spa. The team has a great chance to be the fastest of the non-KERS cars in Italy.

Betfair has some great odds for this weekend’s grand prix and I would recommend Kimi Raikkonen for a first place finish, paying $6. Another sound bet would be for Giancarlo Fisichella to finish on the podium with odds of $4.80.

After a five month wait The Formula One season is set to begin all over again on Sunday with drivers today gearing up for their final qualifying sessions in Melbourne.

Two Seasons Of Intensely Close Competition

The last two seasons have produced the most thrilling conclusions in the history of the sport, and in both years it was Lewis Hamilton who was at the centre of the action.

In 2007 the young Brit went within one point of doing what is considered an impossible task – claim an F1 title in your rookie season. He was pipped at the post by his Finnish rival Kimi Raikkonen who was the epitome of Scandinavian composure, winning the last two races of the season to leapfrog the British rookie and claim the title by a single point.

2008 once again saw an incredibly close race, with the consistency of Hamilton’s performances seeing him needing just a top five finish in the final race to snare his maiden championship win.

Things could not have been more tense for the 23yr old, who rounded the final bend in sixth place but was able to capitalise on a poor choice of tyres by rival Timo Glock to clamber up into fifth position and claim the season title…by a single point.

Will 2009 Match The Epic Showdowns Of The Past Two Seasons

So expectations are obviously high for another close championship in 2009. This will be the final season under the current points scoring system where drivers are awarded points for finishing anywhere in the top 10. The new system will see the F1 title going to the driver with the most race wins, and the governing body had originally planned to run with the new format this year. It was met was such fierce opposition from drivers and teams that it has been pushed back until 2010, and will force a major rethink when it comes to strategy and teamwork.

But for now the title will in effect go to the most consistent driver, and Hamilton has shown that to be one of his strengths in his first two seasons at the top.

Performances in testing have been a little underwhelming for the Brit this year, but the good news is that so far none of his rivals have handed in any electrifying performances of their own.

In an interview yesterday Mark Webber commented on how level the competition seemed to be at this stage. “It is literally us, Toyota, Williams and BMW” Webber said. “We have all at certain times, done the business. And the Renault as well”.

Who will do the business this year?

In a bit of a surprise a resurgent Jenson Button has come back from obscurity to be installed as favourite to take the Australian Grand Prix at odds of 4/1. He is closely followed by Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen with last years champion well back in the betting at this stage.

Crooksy