After the tyre problems at Silverstone, Pirelli gave the teams a different specification of tyre for the German GP only, with a view to 2012 construction and 2013 performance from Hungary onwards.
Whether the tyres could hold on or not was the big question on everyone's mind, along with the relative performance changes for each team.
From practice it seemed that Mercedes could have trouble coping with the heatwave at the Nurburgring, but McLaren appeared to have moved forward and Force India had dropped back.
Sure enough, Lewis Hamilton took pole, but with Nico Rosberg failing to make it past Q2 Mercedes left themselves exposed to a Red Bull dominance.
In the early laps it was all fairly normal (apart from Lewis slipping back and Felipe Massa retiring after a Turn 1 spin) until Mark Webber's pitstop, where a loose wheel hit a cameraman. Stricter regulations were put in place after the incident for the Hungarian GP.
After that, Lotus eventually emerged as Vettel's main challengers, until a "bag some points" moment for Kimi (to stop him falling back like China 2012) left Sebastian clear for his first home win after five attempts with Red Bull. This left the podium the same as Bahrain (2012 and 2013), with Alonso pipping Hamilton to fourth.
Lower down, McLaren had taken their biggest haul of points for quite some time (having ended a 60 odd race points streak with two non-points races), Force India failed to score and Sauber scored a point with Nico Hulkenberg in 10th. Williams failed to score again and Caterham beat Marussia.
Heading to Hungary, Mercedes had seen their German GP win challenge fade very early on, so with the Hungaroring being traditionally difficult to overtake on they needed to get their title challenge back on track with the new tyres.
Qualifying gave Lewis Hamilton his third pole in a row (Mercedes had taken all the dry pole positions and Red Bull the wet ones up to this point), with Vettel and Grosjean just behind.
In the race, the hard work paid off for Mercedes as Lewis held on for his fourth Hungarian GP win - with Kimi and Sebastian completing the podium. A somewhat unfortunate but messy race for Grosjean left him 6th, and Williams finally got a point with Maldonado in 10th (only after a late drop out courtesy of Nico Rosberg's engine).
Going into the Summer break, Vettel had a 38 point lead over Kimi, 39 over Alonso, 48 over Lewis and 67 over Webber - so it appears the top four are the ones fighting for the title.
Some of the big talking points that would dominate the Summer break included Webber's Red Bull seat (who would replace him for 2014) and the 2014 Calendar - which even now hasn't been provisionally confirmed!
However, on F1's return, at Spa Francorchamps, both topics were still rumbling on - but with Shell's involvement as the Belgian GP's title sponsor Greenpeace decided to campaign against their drilling in the Arctic (something Greenpeace think Shell is doing, but I don't know either way).
This wasn't the most amusing story of the weekend - it was in fact Vettel's dyed hair (nicknames given include Mr Blonde) - but it remained to be seen if he could swing the momentum back his way.
Practice suggested Red Bull could dominate the race with both cars, but remember it was only Practice!
But when it came to Qualifying, Spa's microclimate offered a chance for Caterham and Marussia - which they both took - VDG was 3rd, BIA 11th and CHI 16th in Q1 with only the weighbridge preventing Pic from joining them in Q2. After a relatively dry Q2, Q3 started cloudy but quickly turned wet. PDR set the pace, until the track dried very late on. Hamilton was last in the queue, and duly took his fourth consecutive pole position.
His lead over Vettel didn't last long, with the German's car better suited to Sectors 1 and 3 - leaving the compromised Mercedes vulnerable to a Kemmel Straight pass, from which Sebastian never looked back.
McLaren managed to get both cars in the points, but a non-finish for Kimi meant Lotus couldn't do the same. Ricciardo took the final point in 10th from 19th on the grid, but a clash for Maldonado with Di Resta sent the Brit out at Bus Stop and gave the Venezuelan a Stop and Go penalty.
Caterham's Giedo van der Garde had an impressive weekend, holding off the Marussias from start to finish.
With Alonso and Hamilton completing the podium, Vettel now has a 46 point lead with 8 races left - arguably his to lose now! But can Ferrari, Mercedes or Lotus fight back? The tifosi will be keen to see their team win but anyone looking for a tight title fight will want anyone but Vettel to do well.
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