This might be a title fight like no other in F1 history, with at least seven contenders - perhaps even eight or nine.

And, in that context, Webber's impetuosity at the end of the Australian GP seven weeks ago may yet come back to haunt him.

His driving in Barcelona at the weekend was the best of his career. His boss, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner, called it "immaculate ... he was sensationally quick all weekend".

Webber's young teammate and world championship favourite, German Sebastian Vettel, admitted the Aussie had been "in his own league".

It was Webber's third GP win but his first this year - and the first this season from the pole position. "It was a special victory," he said. "The first one (in Germany last July, which set off that memorable cockpit carry-on) is good, but this one is right up there with it."

It has hoisted Webber from eighth in the drivers' championship after the first four rounds, and looking in danger of losing touch with the leaders, to fourth - behind reigning world champion Jenson Button, dual champion Fernando Alonso, and Vettel.

Fourth is where Webber ended last year's championship, and by rights he ought to finish higher this year because Red Bull's RB6 car is a phenomenal missile.

It has been on the pole at every race this season - with Vettel three times, Webber twice. Three times the pair have filled the front row of the grid.

On Sunday, Webber and his RB6 comfortably outpaced Lewis Hamilton's McLaren-Mercedes in the race, finished 24 seconds ahead of Alonso's Ferrari - and more than a minute in front of Michael Schumacher's Mercedes.

That's not to say Webber is now so much better than the seven-time world champion, whose fourth place in Spain was his best in a comeback after three years off.

Rather it was largely a measure of the difference between the RB6 - created by the genius Adrian Newey, with the best aerodynamics and perhaps some trickery in its suspension system not yet discovered by rivals - and the MGP W01 car of the team that last year won the constructors' championship as BrawnGP, subsequently taken over by Mercedes.

Despite some mechanical frailties that have mainly afflicted Vettel - costing him wins in Bahrain and Melbourne - Red Bull is now third in this year's constructors' championship with 113 points - six less than McLaren and three behind Ferrari.

On the drivers' table, Button leads with 70 points, Alonso has 67, Vettel 60 and Webber 53.

Nico Rosberg was overshadowed by teammate Schumacher for the first time in Spain and did not add to his 50 points, nor Hamilton his 49, robbed of second place - and the championship lead - in Barcelona by a late tyre blowout.

Felipe Massa is plodding in the other Ferrari, seemingly outpsyched already by Alonso, but remains level with Hamilton, five points ahead of Renault's Robert Kubica.

Despite his improvement in Spain, with a longer-wheelbase W01, Schumacher is only ninth on just 22 points.

The season is barely a quarter over, with 14 races to go - eight of the next nine in Europe, the first of them this weekend in Monaco.

In Barcelona, the race has been won from pole position for 10 years in a row now.

Qualifying is just as crucial in Monte Carlo - a narrow, twisty street circuit that is F1's showpiece, although it wouldn't get a permit as a racetrack if created today.

Even if a driver qualifies up front in the rich little principality he can blow the advantage in an instant simply by brushing the barriers that are never far away.

Webber has been on the podium in Monaco before, for the Williams team in 2005, and he won a Formula 3000 race at this GP in 2001, which was instrumental in his elevation to F1.

His form sheet now looks good - never lower than sixth on the grid this year, on the front row at the past four races, a first and a second place finish in his last three starts, and one of only three drivers to have scored points at every round this season, along with Button and Massa.

The scoring system changed this year, giving race winners 25 points instead of 10 and awarding points down to 10th place to provide encouragement and reward for the three new teams.

The big blemish on Webber's record this season is that he earned a mere two points from his home race for finishing only ninth in Melbourne.

With two laps to go at Albert Park he was sixth, tailing Alonso and Hamilton, who were battling rapidly deteriorating tyres.

There was every chance these two champions were going to tangle in the fight to the finish and gift Webber a place or two.

Fourth is now worth 12 points, fifth 10 points and sixth eight points.

F1 fans, and more so critics, often lament that there is not enough overtaking in GPs.

But drivers vying for the world championship need to accumulate good points hauls consistently.

Button was massively frustrated at not being able to overtake the slower Schumacher in Barcelona on Sunday, but the 10 points the Brit collected for fifth place kept him in the championship lead.

In Melbourne, Webber lost patience and at the notorious turn three, by the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre and which has seen so much other drama over the years, made an ill-judged lunge at Hamilton.

If it had come off it may have vaulted him in front of the McLaren and Alonso's Ferrari.

Instead Webber collided with Hamilton, found himself off the track (as shown in the picture, above), and struggled back to the pits to change his car's damaged nose for the final lap.

He wound up ninth instead of what would have been, at worst, a comfortable sixth.

The havoc he created relegated Hamilton to sixth and necessitated a humble apology from Webber.

The extra six points Webber should have collected that day would now have him just one point behind Vettel.

Had Hamilton and Alonso made their own mischief in those closing stages in Melbourne the Aussie may have eight or 10 points more now - and be ahead of Vettel, and third in the championship.

"I wasn't going to be happy with sixth place," Webber said that evening in Melbourne, hoping his home fans were impressed with his bravado.

Thanks to his Spanish success, Webber is right back in the championship hunt.

"It is still very early days," he said before leaving Barcelona for Monaco. "There are some very competitive cars - in particular Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren - and there are some pretty decent drivers.

"There is a long, long way to go. We need to see how the car performs at different venues.

"The cars are pretty sensitive to different tracks, so there is a lot of water to go under the bridge yet in terms of how this will shake out in the next five or six months."

Indeed there is - and a few extra points from the Land of Oz might yet be the difference between Webber becoming a world champion and not.