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As the five red lights went off at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Australia yesterday afternoon, the high-revving, high-octane sport of Formula One entered a new era. Lining up on the grid were probably some of the appalling (and vulgar) cars the highest class of motorsports has ever witnessed. 22 turbocharged 1.6-litre hybrid racers set off, but only 15 saw the dance of the chequered flags. Felipe Massa's debut in his beautiful, Martini-liveried Williams ended short due to Kamui Kobayashi's clumsy accident in his Caterham with the former in the first lap. In addition, the season opener saw both Lotus cars, the second Caterham, Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull lost to various technical issues - including total loss of power for the quadruple champion. Ferrari and Torro Rosso were the only works team and Renault-powered team, respectively, to complete the Grand Prix without major hiccups. Mercedes' display of strength was only tainted by pole sitter Lewis Hamilton's retirement on lap three due to a misfiring engine - and it was the sole Mercedes powered car that was lost to a technical issue. Despite the drawbacks, the German national anthem was heard in all its glory once again during the podium ceremony - but for the first time since June 2013, it was compatriot Nico Rosberg (who also coincidentally won the British GP last June) who took the honours. Rosberg denied Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren's rookie, Kevin Magnussen, a place on the top spot of the podium in a style of domination akin to Vettel. Rosberg steered clear of Australian Ricciardo by 24.5 seconds while Danish driver, Magnussen, marked an impressive debut on his maiden F1 outing by not only finishing third but also ahead of his teammate - former world champion Jenson Button - who rose up the grid from starting at tenth. The Ferrari 'dream' team of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen had a decent race - although nothing memorable after finishing fifth and eighth respectively. Post race, the season opener became a nightmare for the defending quadruple champions after second-place finish Ricciardo was disqualified from the race. The decision came about after his car was considered to be in breach of fuel flow regulations. According to a FIA sensor which was fitted to the car, the Red Bull exceeded the maximum allowed fuel flow of 100kg/hr, and after over five hours of negotiations - the stewards eventually ruled the car was run illegally. According to the ruling body, the car was not only in breach of the fuel flow regulation but apparently the team was found not to be compliant with technical regulations throughout the event. Naturally, Red Bull has made clear its intentions to appeal the decision.

30 years after his father claimed victory, Nico Rosberg took the highest step of the podium at the Monaco Grand Prix - fighting off stiff competition from title defender Sebastian Vettel. Rosberg - a resident of Monaco - managed to fend off Vettel till the end while Webber completed the podium despite sustained pressure from Hamilton. A pit stop strategy worked well for the Red Bull team to leap ahead of Hamilton, during the first safety car period - trigged by Massa at lap 30 who managed to replicate a crash similar to Saturday

Like Jeremy Renner's character from the Academy Award winning film - The Hurt Locker - the Red Bull and Mercedes AMG racing teams were clouded in tension as their drivers were getting increasingly frustrated by team orders and driver rivalry. More than skill or strategy - frustrations between team mates and radio messages spilled out the plot of the Malaysian Grand Prix from the end of the middle stint. In the Mercedes AMG camp, Nico Rosberg missed a podium appearance by obeying instructions to not challenge his team mate and personal friend - Hamilton - from Team Principle Ross Brawn. The eventful and tense Malaysian Grand Prix could have ended in disaster for the Austrian-U.K. racing team. Defending champion Vettel ignored team orders - which post-race claimed he was unaware of, and 'stole' a rightful win away from Webber by racing him unexpectedly. At that stint of the race Webber was 'coasting' his car to the end of the race and wasn't prepared for an attack by his team mate. Vettel's radio message from his team could not have been sharper or clearer to the millions of motorsport enthusiasts the world over as he crossed the finishing line, "Great job Sebastian, it looked like you wanted it more. But still there'll be some explaining to do." The green room and podium were showing a multitude of emotions as all three winners felt glum, gloomy, anger, frustration, disappointment and remorse. Despite all the tension, the race staged its fair share of incidents - starting with Alonso whose race ended at the end of the first lap, after his mildly damaged front wing broke off completely and sent him skidding into a gravel trap. Force India retired both their cars after a pit stop error involving a wheel nut. Button retired as well while his team mate Perez contributed two points to the team by bringing home his McLaren in ninth. Nostalgia hit third place winner Hamilton during a pit stop as he 'accidentally' pulled in at his former team - McLaren's - pit box. The McLaren crew were all set to receive Button before Hamilton came in on lap seven. Fortunately Hamilton completed his pit-stop in the right garage and resumed his fight for the lead. Last week's race winner Raikkonen and the Lotus team in general seemed to lack pace despite finishing a respectable seventh behind his team mate. Massa on the other hand finished a credible fifth in the sole prancing horse after a weak start and a surprisingly unimpressive middle stint. At the end of the race Vettel leads the drivers' championship at 40 points while Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber trail the German at 31 and 26 points respectively. On the constructors championships, Red Bull is leading at 66 points while Lotus and Ferrari are currently tied at 40 points as the F1 circus heads to China in three weeks.

Lewis Hamilton claimed victory at the China Formula 1 Grand Prix held on the 17th of April 2011. It was quite a feat as just before the race the McLaren mechanics were hard at work repairing Hamilton's car which suffered a fuel leak. It was a major victory of sorts as this is the 3rd race of the 2011 season and finally someone has ended Sebastian Vettel's run of victories. He came in second nonetheless ahead of Red Bull's other driver, Mark Webber who himself drove a fabulous race. He started from 18th on the grid and made it to 3rd on the second last lap of the race. Now for those that thought F1 lacked overtaking, this one had a lot of it. But before we talk about overtaking, let's talk about the start of the race. The grid's top 10 were Vettel, Button, Hamiton, Rosberg, Alonso, Massa, Alguersuari DiResta, Buemi, and Petrov. As stated Lewis Hamilton managed to get onto the start line 35seconds before the pitlane was deemed closed. What we were told in the commentary was that he actually started with some body parts still not fitted onto his car. At the start, there was no major accidents. No bits of carbon or wings or tires here and there. It was pretty decent with pole position holder Vettel botching up his start a little and allowing Jenson Button pass as well as a very aggressive Lewis Hamilton. Vettel was third at the end of the first lap with Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP and the two Ferraris of Alonso and Massa following closely. Michael Schumacher must have been on form at the start as he went from fourteenth to ninth. Mark Webber who started at 18th actually opted to start with the harder Pirelli tires. By lap 9 he was even overtaken by the Sauber of Sergio Perez and at lap 10 he pitted to go with the softer choice that all the front liners used at the start. However, his move must have actually paid off as he could then choose the softer compound throughout the race. A 3rd placing from a start at 18th due to the choice of tires. Actually tires made a whole lot of different at the China GP. Those that did 3 stops were better than those that did 2 stops. On Lap 30 Hamilton passed Alonso (who was on a 2 stop strategy) on Turn 14 of the circuit and later stated that he had never never overtaken anyone there before unless it was a backmarker. The softer Pirellis were to choice instead of the harder Prime tire. Surprising, but it caused a lot of upset, especiallyy with the Ferraris. In simple terms, the lighter 3 stopping cars actually did far better lap times and even by their third stop, the driver up front could be so far ahead of a 2 stopper like Alonso. However, Fernando Alonso also added that their 2 stop strategy wasn't totally Ferrari's undoing but the Ferrari's aren't up to par as yet. But say what you want as Vettel was on a 2 stop strategy and he basically suffered. Actually more incidents happened at the China GP. It had all the drivers on their toes with a whole lot of overtaking involved. Lewis Hamilton took 1st place ahead of the two Red Bulls. Jenson Button had to be content with 4th after being out driven at the last moment by a flying Mark Webber. Mercedes GP did well with Nico Rosberg into taking 5th. Felipe Massa of Ferrari in 6th with Fernando Alonso in 7th. Michael Schumacher in 8th and Lotus Renault's Petrov was around 30 seconds behind in ninth. A dry race with overtaking. It must have been down to the Pirelli tires. It looks like the moral of the story is that you actually need tires that aren't so consistent (or can I say, crappy tires) to have added excitement in F1. The next race is on 8th of May at Istanbul Park, Istanbul, Turkey. Race Results 01. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:36:58.226 02. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull +5.198 03. Mark Webber Red Bull +7.555 04. Jenson Button McLaren +10.000 05. Nico Rosberg Mercedes Grand Prix +13.448 06. Felipe Massa Ferrari +15.840 07. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +30.622 08. Michael Schumacher Mercedes Grand Prix +31.026 09. Vitaly Petrov Renault +57.404 10. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber +1:03.273 11. Paul di Resta Force India +1:08.757 12. Nick Heidfeld Renault +1:12.739 13. Rubens Barrichello Williams +1:30.189 14. Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso +1:30.671 15. Adrian Sutil Force India +1 Lap 16. Heikki Kovalainen Team Lotus +1 Lap 17. Sergio Perez Sauber +1 Lap 18. Pastor Maldonado Williams +1 Lap 19. Jarno Trulli Team Lotus +1 Lap 20. Jerome d' Ambrosio Virgin Racing +2 Laps 21. Timo Glock Virgin Racing +2 Laps 22. Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT F1 Team +2 Laps 23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT F1 Team +2 Laps DNF 24. Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso +47 Laps photo source:planetf1

The 6th of April 2011 marked the day where Team Mercedes GP Petronas held its 'Meet the Fans' session in conjunction with the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix. The session, held at the Suria KLCC shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur was a packed and quite successful event with both drivers, 7 time world champion Michael Schumacher and his racing partner, Nico Rosberg spent some time answering a short Q &A as well as signing autographs at the concourse area of the shopping mall. The Mercedes Petronas GP promotional booth basically took up the whole concourse area with the team souvenirs, Petronas products and the piece de resistance, the official South East Asian public showing of the new Mercedes Benz CLS63 AMG 4 door coupe. Speaking of the CLS 63 I have to say that viewing the car in person is so much better than viewing the car in the official photographs. It looks so much better in the metal and that slightly more blunt nose actually works. If I looked at the official photographs I had the opinion that the earlier CLS had a sportier outlook but I have now changed my mind. The new and improved CLS 63 looks stunning. It has a myriad of lines that look very cohesive, must more than the earlier CLS55/63 and shows subtle aggression. I loved the little touches, especially that 'show off' badging on the front flanks