Mark Hughes: F1's Inside Line

As we head into the three-way title showdown, it's a good time to reflect on the quality of the seasons of the contenders, and the cases of each as the most worthy champion. Strictly in alphabetical order, here goes:

Alonso: given the breakdown in his relationship with McLaren - certainly from Hungary onwards - it's incredible that he has been able to extract performance from himself operating virtually alone.

To come back from his catastrophic contract negotiation ploy at Hungary, and deliver the sublime performances at Monza and Spa, was quite possibly the most impressive thing he has ever done. Furthermore, Spa was right in the middle of the espionage penalty fall-out when feelings in the team against him will have been at their strongest.

Forget the idea of him not showing a clear superiority over a 'rookie'. Don't think of Hamilton as that, but instead as one of the all-time great drivers given almost 6000 miles of testing before his first race - and in an organisation in which he was already well-established.

For Alonso to come in as an outsider and take the fight to someone that will in years ahead be looked upon as part of the same lineage as Senna, Schumacher and Alonso himself in that guy's home team, is a supreme achievement.

He was clearly quicker at Malaysia, Silverstone, Monza and Spa - and nip and tuck as quick at several of the remainder; all this while having to unlearn a driving style based on a rear-heavy Renault on Michelins against a guy with nothing to unlearn. He delivered two of the all-time great passing manoeuvres - those on Nick Heidfeld at Magny-Cours and on Felipe Massa at the Nurburgring to take victory.

That in France matched his now-legendary 2005 move around the outside of Schumacher at 130R in its frightening bravery. His individualistic personality has been ill-suited to the environment of McLaren and the circumstances within that team, but have no doubt: one of the all-time great drivers has just delivered a very great season indeed.

Hamilton: in his first season he has taken the fight to as great a team-mate as Alonso. Not only that, but he has outperformed him several times. Although not one of his four victories, Monaco gave the best demonstration of his searing pace. Had he not been baulked by Mark Webber on his final qualifying run, he was on course to have outqualified Alonso by 0.5 seconds despite a fuel load almost 0.3sec heavier!

Even the lap that was baulked from Casino all the way down to the corner before the tunnel was 0.2sec faster than Alonso's pole when weight- corrected! Visiting new tracks seemed not to faze him at all. Typically he'd be a couple of tenths adrift on the first day and then magically put it all together at the critical moment in qualifying. Three of his four victories to date have been on tracks that he had never seen before!

Racecraft and spatial awareness: these are qualities not emphasised enough in modern Formula 1. They don't count for anything like as much as they should do. But it's fantastic to witness them nonetheless.

The opening turn at Malaysia, the stunning pass on Raikkonen into Monza's first chicane (the season's biggest braking stop), with a deft throwing the car sideways to get rid of the last little bit of excess speed while still pointing it where he needed to be rather than running wide with brake lock.

At the start of that race Felipe Massa thought he'd already dealt with him off the grid and must have been perturbed to then find him on the other side a couple of seconds later and still getting past. There seems to be no beating him when he's in a wheel-to-wheel fight. It's just a pity that's such a small part of the game.

He's made mistakes of judgement, such as staying out on those inters way too long and not just coming in regardless. He also hit the wall during Monaco practice. But Alonso made four errors in Canada alone, and another into the first corner at Barcelona. Arguably at nine of the 16 races to date, he has outperformed Alonso, despite no prior F1 experience. But even forgetting the rookie status, his performance has been nothing short of sensational.

Raikkonen: he has suffered similarly to Alonso in having to adapt his driving style to very different tyres while alongside a team-mate not going through that learning process, and one who was already tightly ensconced within the team. He has also had the huge burden of filling the shoes of a giant. Yet his personality would barely have even registered these challenges - at once both his strength and his weakness, but more his strength.

He has come on increasingly strong as the season has unfolded, but the key to his turnaround came at Indianapolis when he made a breakthrough in finding a set-up that worked better for his style. Thereafter, Turkey apart, he has had the upper hand over his team-mate and by a steadily increasing margin. The end of his first stint in China, in the four laps between Hamilton's stop and his own, were devastating.

He reduced an 8.5sec deficit down to four seconds and there is every reason to believe that he would have beaten Lewis there in a straight fight even had McLaren pitted their man as soon as his tyre problem became apparent. His drive in Japan from the back in conditions of appalling visibility was quite awesome and his around-the-outside pass of David Coulthard for third left the Red Bull man deeply impressed. At Spa he was totally dominant.

He is the only man so far to have won five times and it is somehow in keeping with his below the radar persona that he should have crept into title contention almost unnoticed as all the attention was on the duelling McLaren guys.

Whoever wins, it will be a remarkable story.