VETTEL OUT TO PROTECT CASTROL DRIVER RANKINGS ADVANTAGE
GERMAN F1 ACE PROTECTS SLENDER LEAD WITH TWO ROUNDS TO GO



3rd November 2010: Sebastian Vettel will attempt to protect his status as the number one driver in the Castrol Driver Rankings at the Brazilian Grand Prix. With only two races to go it is critical, now more than ever, that he holds his nerve if he wants to finish in first place.
The German has held the top spot for a record-breaking 32 weeks, but is coming under increasing pressure from his Red Bull Formula 1 team-mate Mark Webber (2nd), championship leader Fernando Alonso (4th) and World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb (3rd).
All three of Vettel?s rivals have a realistic hope of ending the year as the Castrol Driver Rankings number one, making it a four-way scrap over the remaining three events that they will be involved in; the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix as well as Rally GB.
With no Formula 1 or World Rally Championship action and the IndyCar season having drawn to a close, the NASCAR Sprint Cup was the main source of interest for the Castrol Driver Rankings last weekend.
Jimmie Johnson?s seventh place at Talladega dropped him to an all-time low eighth spot behind F1 World Champion Jenson Button (7th). Johnson?s hopes of ending the year as the top NASCAR driver now rest on him being able to beat Kevin Harvick (10th), Denny Hamlin (11th) and Kyle Busch (12th), all of whom closed in on his score with their finishes at the Alabama oval.
The biggest mover in the Castrol Rankings top 100 was polesitter Juan Pablo Montoya (32nd), who made up six spots after one of his strongest oval races to date that resulted in a third-placed finish. Equalling Montoya?s six-place jump was Bruno Spengler (48th), who finished third in the DTM race at Adria and re-took the series lead from Paul di Resta (46th). Double champion Timo Scheider won the race from 15th on the grid in his Audi and reversed a recent downward trend to haul himself up three spots to 62nd ? only one place behind F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg.
The biggest loser in the top 100 was World Touring Car champion Gabriele Tarquini (79th), who threw away a victory at Okayama last weekend by driving off a wet track and into the tyre barriers, in doing so he lost his chance of retaining his world title and dropped eight places.
A DNF for Britain?s Andy Priaulx (83rd) lost him six spots while Yvan Muller (75th) increased his championship lead and is now the highest-ranked WTCC driver. The Frenchman?s Chevrolet team-mate Rob Huff (80th) and BMW?s Augusto Farfus (89th) won a race each and moved up three and one places respectively. Colin Turkington, who finished second in race two, gained 135 places moving up to 446th.
About the Castrol Rankings: Castrol has used its heritage in analysis, technology and innovation to deliver record breaking performances in sport on land, sea and in the air for more than 100 years. In partnership with leading motorsport website autosport.com, Castrol has applied the same expertise and passion it uses in the development of its oils to create the Castrol Rankings ? using expert analysis and highly advanced technology to measure and rank the performance in every single race of over 2000 drivers, across 47 major motorsport series every year.
Hot on the heels of the launch of the Castrol Rankings for football, the Castrol Rankings for motorsport is a rolling system that takes into account a driver?s performances over the past 12 months ? to produce a dynamic and authoritative comparison of the world?s best drivers. Whether it?s F1, NASCAR, World Rally or IndyCar, motorsport fans and pundits around the globe can now compare their favourite drivers against each other on a weekly basis, and find the definitive answer to the question ?Who is the best driver in the world??
To see the full Castrol Rankings and register for weekly updates, please go to: www.castroldriverrankings.com