Hot or not?

While the battle between Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber for the Castrol Rankings top spot has been hogging the headlines, there are plenty of movers and shakers each week.

Every Monday, 'Hot or Not' takes a closer look at some of the drivers climbing up - and sliding down - the Castrol Rankings, with the odd surprising result.

This week's batch includes a super-quick pole, an impressive Swede and a Spaniard who definitely should not be spending the season on his sofa.

UP THIS WEEK

Robert Kubica (14)

Poland's racing superstar (pictured) has had a quite brilliant season with Renault and has catapulted himself up from 35th at the start of the year. His fifth place at the European Grand Prix gained him another three spots. He'll need to start winning though if he is to climb much higher by the end of 2010 though.

Kamui Kobayashi (75)

Sauber played a strategy blinder in leaving Kobayashi out on his original set of hard tyres for most of the safety car-interrupted European Grand Prix, and he then responded to softs late on with great pace, some superb passes and a well-deserved seventh place - from 18th on the grid too! A 17-place gain was exactly what the doctor ordered..

Marcus Ericsson (127)

Kenny Brack's protege has not been a regular front-runner in GP2 this year, but the Super Nova driver proved he has what it takes to run at the sharp end at Valencia as he resisted Giedo van der Garde to take his first series win. Victory - and a seventh place in the opening race - moved him up 20 places.

Carlos Iaconelli (264)

Beating a man of Romain Grosjean's quality in a sub-F1 category takes some doing. Brazilian Iaconelli did just that though in the second AutoGP race at Spa-Francorchamps after the Frenchman had dominated the earlier encounter. Iaconelli earned himself a 100-place gain and must be pleased that he ditched F2 this season for the Coloni-run series.

Andreas Mikkelsen (728)

The Norwegian has had a quiet time of it since being heralded as rallying's 'next big thing' a couple of years ago. His fifth place in a Ford Fiesta S2000 came after a measured drive from a man low on asphalt experience, but it was enough to accelerate his Castrol Rankings position by 229 places, making him the biggest climber in the top 1000 this week.

DOWN THIS WEEK

Jeff Gordon (17)

The NASCAR Sprint Cup driver's fourth spot at New Hampshire (pictured) was decent enough, but was worse than the second place he score in the corresponding race last year, dropping him two spots to 17th, behind his Hendrick Chevrolet team-mate Mark Martin and Nico Rosberg.

Jarno Trulli (58)

A 2010 Lotus is not as quick as a 2009 Toyota, as Jarno has been finding out this season. Even so, his last place - four laps down - at the European Grand Prix was worse than he's used to. First lap damage and a gearbox problem all dropped him 13 places to 58th and lost him his status as Italy's top driver to Gabriele Tarquini for the first time all year.

Kris Meeke (120)

The British driver's Intercontinental Rally Challenge title defence is not going well. The Belgium-based Ypres Rally was more proof as his Kronos-run Peugeot ended up in a crumpled ball courtesy of a roll on the final morning. Until then, he'd been running second. After it, a 30 place drop was heading his way.

Alberto Valerio (233)

Hands up if you predicted the Brazilian would dominate Silverstone's GP2 feature race last year. Nope, nor did we. With those results being discarded from his Castrol Rankings score, a ninth place and a first-lap retirement from the Valencia GP2 races represented a return to form and dropped the Coloni driver 52 places.

Adrian Valles (449)

This year has been a really frustrating one for the Spaniard, who has been unable to defend the Superleague Formula title he won for Liverpool last year due to a lack of budget. He could only watch on TV as his old car again failed to win and his own Castrol Rankings position fell by 124 places (a year ago he was 112th).