The scent of a world title is now strong in Mark Webber's nose.

Suddenly, of the five Formula One drivers in the chase, the Aussie is four points clear.

The beauty of Webber's fourth win of the season - twice as many as each of his four rivals - was twofold.

Not only did he succeed where yet again his Red Bull Racing teammate Sebastian Vettel failed, after the young German dominated qualifying and streaked away at the start, but McLaren's Lewis Hamilton didn't finish and Webber overhauled his championship lead in one fell swoop.

It had been looking to us that it was going to take many races for Webber to close that gap, if at all.

He admits his victory at the Hungaroring in Budapest - the sixth of his career, at his 150th start, and on the 100th GP anniversary for Red Bull Racing - was "a bit of a gift".

He has 161 points, Hamilton 157, Vettel 151, Hamilton's teammate Jenson Button 147 and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso 141.

But, while Webber can now sniff the ultimate success, with seven races to go after the four-week northern summer break, it most probably won't be until the finale in Abu Dhabi on November 14 that he - or whoever is crowned - gets to taste it.

In the meantime, as he relaxes in southern France, Webber already has a delectable taste on his tongue - the sensation of lapping Michael Schumacher.

When Webber made his F1 debut at Melbourne's Albert Park in March 2002 he knew that as much as he had to focus on the track ahead of him he also had to keep a keen eye on his rear view mirrors because in no time the red Ferrari of Schumacher would be looming large in them, lapping his humble Minardi.

It was important for a rookie's credibility that he not be caught unawares by a rapidly approaching Schumacher, then on the way to the fifth of his record seven world titles.

Now, two thirds of the way through a comeback season with Mercedes-Benz's new factory team, at 41 and after a three-year layoff, Schumacher is a shadow of his former self. And it is Webber lapping him.

"Boy that felt good," Webber told his crew over the radio as he did it in Budapest.

Later he said: "He did it a lot when I was in the middle of the field. A driver like him, you know that you need to get everything right. To lap someone of Michael's quality is a good day out. It is not rubbing anyone's nose in it. It is just a unique thing to happen."

However, the only thing Schumacher does now to the standard he once set is to start races well. Other than that he looks mediocre against the new generation.

The German's track manners have often been crude, but he stooped to a new low in Hungary.

As Rubens Barrichello - who for six years was his sidekick at Ferrari, often moving aside, under instructions, to ensure another victory for Schumacher - was overtaking him on the pit straight on Sunday he squeezed the Brazilian's Williams car against the concrete safety wall.

Not into it, but within a whisker of it - at 300kmh.

Barrichello has been not only a fine and sporting competitor for almost two decades, but he has maintained an honesty that 300 GPs (at his next start in Belgium) in the murky world of F1 has not compromised.

His loyalty to Schumacher at Ferrari probably cost him a world title and, as well as he knows the German's strengths and more so weaknesses, he was astounded by his Budapest antics.

"I like a fair fight, but that wasn't fair," Barrichello said.

"If Michael wants to go to heaven - in the event that he is going to heaven - then I don't really care, but I don't want to go before him.

"He kept on coming even though I was already alongside.

"I was lucky that the wall finished. I was millimetres from the wall.

"I am very glad and very lucky that we are here to talk.

"He's always going to feel he's right ... he didn't change. He's still the same guy."

As a penalty, Schumacher will be relegated 10 places on the Belgian grid from his qualifying position.

He has now apologised to Barrichello, but it took him a day - and huge public outcry - to do that decent thing.

Niki Lauda, the Austrian triple world champion who knows best the dangers of GP racing (he was given the last rites after his famous, fiery German GP crash in 1976), says Schumacher's track behaviour was "completely unacceptable".

And Keke Rosberg, Finland's 1982 world champion and father of Nico, the Mercedes teammate now consistently whipping Schumacher on results, branded the man who should be the role model for F1 drivers "a cheap cheat".

As Schumacher becomes a more widely reviled figure, Webber's star ascends.

He has always been much more highly regarded within the F1 paddock than by the sport's broader following - and especially the Australian public.

But now his title tilt is for real, even if European bookmakers still favour Vettel ahead of him, with Hamilton and Alonso not far behind.

Webber remains the underdog, the classic Aussie battler fighting above his weight on the world stage.

Yet he's getting the score on the board.

The next two circuits in the championship - Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and Monza in Italy - may suit the more powerful Mercedes-engined McLarens or the Ferraris.

But the aerodynamics of the Red Bull RB6 car are so superior that over the haul that then takes in three Asian races - in Singapore, Japan and a new Korean GP - and a trip to Brazil before Abu Dhabi that Webber might just be the right man in the right car at precisely the right time.

As he turned off his mobile phone and headed for a few days of R&R before the remaining rounds he had his feet on the ground though.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," he said.

He'll just be taking it one race at a time.