Grapevine: Vettel hangs on to top of Rankings

The German, who started the race from pole position, recovered to seventh in his Red Bull after an opening lap puncture dropped him to the back of the field.

That allowed him to keep the top spot for a 16th straight week, albeit by a significantly reduced margin from Lewis Hamilton, who is now right on his tail after finishing second.

Mark Webber, who won at Silverstone, dropped a place to third, behind Sebastien Loeb. This is because the World Rally Champion dominated Rally Bulgaria in his Citroen and boosted his Castrol Rankings score by a huge amount.

Jenson Button's fighting fourth place at the British Grand Prix moved him up two spots to sixth - ahead of Dario Franchitti and Mikko Hirvonen. The latter had a dismal time on Rally Bulgaria, finishing fifth.

Felipe Massa (62) was the big loser in the top 100, the Ferrari driver's dismal Silverstone weekend dropping him 10 spots while Robert Kubica (16) lost two places.

There were also gains for Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg (14) and Michael Schumacher (93), the latter making up 15 places to lie inside the top 100 for the first time.

GP2 wins for Sergio Perez (84) Pastor Maldonado (98) lifted them 11 and 13 places respectively while ex-F1 man Romain Grosjean (67) continued his great season with an Auto GP win at Magny-Cours, lifting him 10 spots.

Victory for the Highcroft HPD in the American Le Mans Series at Miller Motorsports Park gained driver David Brabham (75) another 10 spots while his co-driver Simon Pagenaud held firm at 41st.

To view the full Castrol Rankings, go to www.castroldriverrankings.com