Is this turning out to be the best Formula One season in years? I think it might be. The two top teams are swapping poles and one-two finishes with regularity, there are simmering rivalries within each and yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal was a cracker.

It was McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton starting on pole, breaking Red Bull’s hold on qualifying for the first time in quite a while. Mark Webber started second with team mate Sebastian Vettel in third and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in fourth. Hamilton’s team mate and reigning world champion Jenson Button started fifth on the grid.

What followed was an incident packed race with all the top five in qualifying having the possibility of winning. As it turned out pit stop strategy and traffic allowed Hamilton and Button to clinch a much needed one-two finish for McLaren with Alonso separating the English team from the two Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber respectively.

The win, his second in as many races, puts Hamilton on top of the Drivers Championship, just three points ahead of Button and displacing Mark Webber, while McLaren go top of the Constructors Championship.

After a couple of months of Red Bull dominance, McLaren have dragged themselves – and their drivers – back into serious contention and it looks like it will be nip and tuck for the rest of the season. Red Bull still have the best car, but it seems McLaren have the better brains at the moment.

There was no repeat of the in-team racing that saw Webber and Vettel ruin each others chances in the last Grand Prix and while Button chased down Hamilton’s lead in the last few laps in Canada there wasn’t really any danger of the two going head to head for the lead. Those rivalries remain, however, and it won’t take much for flare up.

Further back in the field frustrated seven time world champion Michael Schumacher was having a nightmare, Not used to being overtaken by upstarts such as Buemi and Liuzzi, he boiled over in an incident with Massa towards the end of the race, seeming to turn into the Brazilian slightly, damaging his front wing. It was referred to the stewards but no further action will be taken.

You have to question Schumacher’s decision to return to the sport. He has nothing to prove and will only tarnish his reputation – especially if he allows his frustrations to get the better of him on the track. His legendary status may have spared him punishment this time round, I don’t know, but any other driver would surely have received some kind of penalty.

Where this year’s title will go is anyone’s guess now. It’s a four way battle between between the drivers of McLaren and Red Bull and it’s fantastic. Hamilton is the form driver right now, Button won’t give up and will grab any opportunity presented to him, Webber is having his best ever season and Vettel has talent oozing out of his pores.

Could go any way.