The final Far East event of the season offers Lewis Hamilton a chance to wrap up the 2008 championship, and Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica the chance to get themselves back in with a shout for the final round. Which is more likely? Who really knows, certainly not us.

I want to get away, I want to fly away, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the great Lenny Kravitz once opined. And Formula One agrees with him, as we "get away" to three "fly away" races for the glorious climax of the 2008 season. Do you see? We begin the odyessy in Japan, home of sushi, dubious sexual practices, and the Fuji Speedway.

F1 heads off to the Far East for the foreseeable future, as the championship battle threatens to reach an almost-nailbiting conclusion. First off, the teams will christen the new Singapore Grand Prix track, and they'll do it all with the lights on, the dirty lot.

There's no time to pause for the F1 teams, as we lurch into the second half of the final back-to-back pair of European races. Historic Monza once again plays host to the Italian Grand Prix, a circuit which should give plenty of opportunity for more chicane-cutting fun.

There's no time to pause for thought as F1 2008 reaches fever pitch, or at least as close as this year is ever going to get to fever pitch. Back-to-back events over the next two weekends will go a long way to sorting out the championship pecking order once and for all, beginning this very weekend in the thrilling country of Belgium, for F1's annual, and often wet, tour around the Ardennes forest.

After an almost unbearable three week break in which F1's rabid fanbase has been able to get on with their lives for a bit, the season kicks on through the pain barrier and into the denouement of the 2008 season. And what better way to get back into the swing of things than with a potentially cataclysmic romp around a brand new sanitised street circuit?