It has become crystal clear that the Red Bull’s of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel are streets ahead of the rest of the Formula One field when it comes to speed and, increasingly, reliability.

Webber success causing Red Bull friction?

Despite McLaren’s early improvement on a shaky start during which Jenson Button went top of the Drivers rankings Red Bull have stormed through the last three races with Webber leading the charge. He now sits at the top of the rankings, as do Red Bull in the Constructors Championship.

It is no real surprise the Red Bull have the best car on the track. That was clear from the start of the season. What is a surprise is that it is Webber, not Vettel, that has taken up the mantle of World Champion contender.

A while back, we wrote a post anticipating fireworks at McLaren as the current and former World Champions battled it for this year’s title. Cracks were beginning to show as McLaren number one (so many thought) Hamilton struggled to keep pace with Button in the same car. McLaren were gradually switching there focus to Button and Hamilton, understandably, was not happy.

The pair presented a united front in public but such is the driven nature (pun very much intended) of a racing driver that behind closed doors we have no doubt Hamilton was feeling frustrated while Button was feeling slightly smug.

However, with the growing dominance of Red Bull we now wonder if the expected fireworks may now explode in their garage. Vettel was undisputed number one at Red Bull when the season started. Full of promise and talent, Red Bull were fully focused on him to lead their challenge this year.

Webber, though, had other ideas and three pole positions in a row, including for this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix, and two wins in a row in Monaco and Spain has surely given Red Bull pause for thought.

Neither driver was particularly happy with the car in qualifying but nevertheless they sit one and three on the grid, with a confident sounding Hamilton splitting them and Button just behind Vettel. It makes for a fantastic race tomorrow, that’s for sure.

And as Jonathan Legard wrote in his BBC blog on Friday: “The in-house rivalry at Red Bull has become far more intense than many of us bargained for at the start of the season.”

Perhaps more intense than that at McLaren…at least unless or until McLaren retake the initiative in the championship race.