Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel won a third consecutive world drivers’ title by three points in the Brazilian GP.

In an incident-packed, rain-affected race, Vettel fought back to finish sixth after dropping to last on lap one following a collision.

His rival Fernando Alonso of Ferrari finished second, meaning he needed Vettel to be lower than seventh.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton had led at lap 54 until he was hit by Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.

The German was trying to pass Hamilton for the lead with 27 laps to go but lost control on the slippery track and slid into the side of Hamilton’s car.

Hulkenberg, driving the race of his career up to that point, was given a drive-through penalty and finished fifth, behind Alonso’s team-mate Felipe Massa in third and Red Bull’s Mark Webber in fourth.

Vettel becomes the youngest driver in history to win three world titles – at six years younger than Ayrton Senna. He is only the third driver to win three in succession.

“It is difficult to imagine what goes through my head now even for myself,” Vettel said. “I am full of adrenaline and if you poke me now I wouldn’t feel it.

“It was an incredible race. When you get turned around at Turn Four for no reason and it becomes like heading the wrong way down the M25 it is not the most comfortable feeling.

“I was lucky no-one hit me but the car was damaged and we lost a lot of speed, especially when it dried up. Fortunately it started to rain again and I felt so much happier.

“A lot of people tried to play dirty tricks [during the season], but we did not get distracted by that and kept going, and all the guys gave a big push right to the end.”

A breathless and topsy-turvy race, with intermittent rain, created drama from the first lap.

Vettel made a bad start from fourth on the grid and at the fourth corner was first tagged from behind by Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen and then hit by Williams’s Bruno Senna.

The impact knocked Vettel into a spin, and damaged the rear bodywork of his car, and he was last as he crossed the line at the end of lap one.

Alonso finished the first lap fifth, but seconds later passed Massa and Webber as they went three abreast into Turn One to take third.

In those positions, Alonso would have been champion, but Vettel set about recovering lost ground and by lap eight was remarkably up to sixth place, while Alonso had slipped behind Hulkenberg after running wide at Turn One on lap five.

Through a series of twists and turns at the front, including varying degrees of rain and a safety-car intervention, Vettel was always in control of the championship.

With 20 laps to go, Alonso was fourth behind Hamilton, Hulkenberg and Button, and Vettel seventh.

As rain began to fall harder, Hulkenberg closed on Hamilton and the two collided. So Hamilton’s last race for McLaren ended in a retirement rather than a victory.

More pit stops were needed for the leaders to fit intermediate tyres as the rain intensified, after which Button led from Massa and Alonso, with Vettel seventh.

Massa let Alonso by into second on lap 62, and two laps later Michael Schumacher, driving the last race of his career, moved over for Vettel to rise into sixth place and make his grip on the title more secure.

In the closing laps, Vettel was repeatedly urged by his team to slow down, reminding him that his position was good enough to win the title.

And then in a final dramatic twist, Paul di Resta crashed his Force India coming up the straight on the penultimate lap and the race finished under the safety car, confirming Vettel as champion.

“I’m very proud of the team,” said Alonso. “We lost the championship before today, not in Brazil, this is a sport after all. When you do something with your heart and do it 100% you have to be proud of yourself and your team and we’ll try again next year.”

Race winner Button said: “I want to congratulate the whole team. This is the perfect way to end the season. We have had ups and downs and to end on a high bodes well for 2013.”

Ferrari sealed second in the constructors’ championship, holding off McLaren while Caterham overtook Marussia for the lucrative 10th place in constructors when Vitaly Petrov overtook Charles Pic, who is driving for Caterham next year, on lap 65.

(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20477032)

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Lewis Hamilton won the United States Grand Prix after a tight battle with Sebastian Vettel as Fernando Alonso kept the title fight alive.

Hamilton’s McLaren tracked Vettel’s Red Bull throughout the race and finally passed him with 14 laps to go.

Alonso’s third place means he is 13 points behind Vettel in the standings.

The title will now be settled in the final race of the season in Brazil next weekend, with 25 points available for victory.

For Alonso to win the drivers’ crown, he needs a victory in Brazil with Vettel finishing lower than fourth.

Second place for Alonso would mean he would only win the title in the event of Vettel not finishing in the top seven, while third spot for Alonso would require Vettel to finish lower than ninth.

One title was settled in Austin, Texas, though – Red Bull have won the constructors’ championship.

“To be able to beat Red Bull and Sebastian is definitely a tough challenge but we managed to do it,” said Hamilton.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa held off McLaren’s Jenson Button to take fourth.

The Brazilian fought his way up from 11th place after Ferrari gave him a deliberate five-place penalty in order to help team-mate Alonso.

By starting the race from seventh on the grid, rather than eighth, Alonso would be on the cleaner side of circuit, where there is significantly more grip.

The Spaniard made good use of the strategy, making a superb start to climb into fourth place by the time the field had rounded the first corner.

Ahead of him, Red Bull’s Mark Webber had passed Hamilton to take second as Vettel converted pole into a lead.

The German, though, was unable to pull his usual gap on his pursuers and Hamilton chased him throughout the first stint.

Vettel eked out a three-second lead by the time of their only pit stops, but after that Hamilton closed in again.

The Briton spent several laps within a second of Vettel but not quite close enough to pass before taking advantage of the leader being held up by an HRT to pass him down the straight into Turn 12 on lap 42.

Vettel stayed within two seconds of the McLaren right until the end of the race, but was never close enough to attempt a pass.

“I wasn’t too happy to send a nice big invitation to Lewis when I had to go through [Narain] Karthikeyan [of HRT],” said Vettel.

“[Lewis] was right behind in the DRS zone. He took that opportunity, fair enough, down the straight and he passed me. I tried to defend but I knew he would have so much more speed. I was obviously not too happy.

“Lewis had one chance and he took it. After that I tried to stay with him but there wasn’t much between us.”

Hamilton said: “Traffic usually catches me [rather than my opponents] out so I was glad it worked slightly in my favour.”

Alonso was promoted to third place when Webber retired with an alternator failure on lap 17.

The Spaniard looked like he might face a challenge from Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen, but a slow pit stop meant the Finn rejoined just behind the Ferrari, which then pulled away.

“We know that our championship [hopes stay] alive maybe thanks to the first laps,” said Alonso.

“We are always qualifying around seventh or eighth and we finish the first lap in first three or four positions, and after that the race becomes easier.

“Today we knew there was a good chance [to] try to overtake people in the first corner. If we are in the leading group we can always keep the pace. Today was not possible to keep the pace with these two guys. This podium is like a victory for us.”

Raikkonen, much slower on the ‘hard’ tyres the leaders had to use in the second stint, dropped back and slipped behind Massa and McLaren’s Jenson Button to finish sixth ahead of team-mate Romain Grosjean.

Button drove a strong race to climb up from 12th on the grid, using a reverse strategy from the leaders.

He started on the ‘hard’ tyre and ran a long first stint, by the end of which he was up to third place.

His stop on lap 36 dropped him back behind Grosjean, but he managed to pass both Lotus cars before the end as Massa never let him get closer than five seconds.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished eighth, holding off Pastor Maldonado, who won a private battle with Williams team-mate Bruno Senna to take ninth ahead of the Brazilian.

(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20387974)

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Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel held on to his championship lead despite starting from the pit lane.

Raikkonen inherited the lead when Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren retired.

Vettel fought back up through the field, benefited from a safety car period that wiped out early errors, to finish third behind title rival Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

Alonso has narrowed Vettel’s lead to 10 points with two races to go.

In a thrilling, nail-biting, incident-packed race that belied the Yas Marina track’s reputation, Hamilton initially looked set to take a dominant win.

The McLaren driver led away from pole and, apart from a brief scare when he made a mistake while struggling to warm up his tyres in the early laps and had to fight off an attack from Raikkonen, appeared in control.

Hamilton was in the region of half a second a lap quicker than Raikkonen behind him when his car ground to a halt on lap 20 of 55. The problem was later found to be a fuel-pump failure, continuing a dismal run of reliability from McLaren in recent races.

That left Raikkonen in the lead, and he appeared in control, edging away from Alonso, who had passed Williams’s Pastor Maldonado to take second place on the lap Hamilton retired.

“I’m happy but nothing to jump around about,” said Raikkonen. “For sure we have a good party today and after a long night we will remember why we feel like that.

“I hope this can turn around the tables and give us many more wins if not this year then next year.”

Meanwhile, Vettel had been working his way through the field after starting from the pit lane following his disqualification from qualifying for not having enough fuel in his car to provide a sample.

The German damaged his front wing in a collision with Williams’s Bruno Senna but that barely impeded his progress through the backmarkers.

However, the safety car was then deployed following a frightening crash in which Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes was launched over the back of Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT.

In the queue behind the safety car, Vettel misjudged the pace of Daniel Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso in front of him, had to take avoiding action and smashed into a trackside marker board.

The impact wrecked his front wing but actually worked to his advantage, as it forced the German into the pits for a new wing and he put on a new set of fresh tyres.

He made superb use of these in the next few laps, climbing through the field, making passes and benefiting from some lurid incidents between other drivers in front of him to climb up to seventh place by the time the leaders started to make their pit stops for fresh tyres.

Those stops promoted Vettel to second place behind Raikkonen and Lotus believed Red Bull might be trying to get to the end of the race without stopping again.

Instead, Vettel pitted again on lap 37 for another set of tyres, rejoining fourth about 15 seconds behind the lead group of Raikkonen, Alonso and McLaren’s Jenson Button.

Two laps later, an incident between Sauber’s Sergio Perez, Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Red Bull’s Mark Webber brought out the safety car again and wiped out Vettel’s deficit.

It set up a thrilling climax to the race.

The race was restarted with 13 laps to go and as Raikkonen quickly built a three-second lead, Vettel immediately started to pressure Button for third.

Button appeared to have the Red Bull under control but then Vettel made a final push and managed to pass Button for third around the outside into Turn 11 and then taking the inside into Turn 12 on lap 52.

“I had a messy start,” said Vettel. “Then behind the safety car I made a little bit of a big mistake with Daniel [Ricciardo] who was stopping behind the safety car on the straight and I was very surprised and I had to go to the right. After that I said I had to go full attack or nothing.

“The second safety car was helping, then a nice fight with Jenson. I was really struggling to pass but then I just squeezed my way past in Turn 11. A thrilling GP, very nice, up and down.”

Meanwhile, with seven laps to go Alonso’s Ferrari began to come alive and he started closing in on Raikkonen in the lead.

Alonso got the lead down to a second but Raikkonen just held on.

“I’m very happy,” said Alonso. “We were not super-competitive this weekend.

“We fought good in the first laps, good overtaking then strategy enabled us to fight for the victory. In the last laps Kimi was a bit slower so we attack, but second was the best possible result for us today. We keep fighting to the end.”

Maldonado took fifth ahead of Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, Senna, Force India’s Paul di Resta and Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo completed the top 10. (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20115603)

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Sebastian Vettel dominated the Indian Grand Prix to take a fourth win in a row and extend his championship lead over Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

The Red Bull driver is 13 points clear of the Spaniard, who was second ahead of Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber.

The Australian was holding off Alonso when he suffered a Kers power-boost problem and the Ferrari swept by.

Lewis Hamilton closed on Webber but had to settle for fourth ahead of McLaren team-mate Jenson Button.

Vettel is a strong favourite for the title, with Red Bull in imperious form and 75 points available in the remaining races.

The German equalled the legendary Ayrton Senna’s record of leading every lap of a race for three consecutive grands prix, set for McLaren in 1989. And Vettel won in India for the second straight year after dominating here in 2011.

“It has been an incredible two years for us here to get pole on Saturday and win the race on Sunday,” said Vettel. “It’s a very special grand prix, I really like the flow of this circuit. Sector one is a bit slow with long straights, but sector two and three is very nice.”

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa took sixth, closely followed throughout the race by Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen, who is now almost completely out of the title race, 67 points behind Vettel in third place overall.

Webber, in fourth place in the championship and 70 points adrift of Vettel, retains a mathematical chance but the championship battle is now effectively a fight between Vettel and Alonso.

On current form, it is hard to see how the Spaniard has any realistic chance of closing the gap and preventing Vettel and Red Bull making it three championships in a row.

“It’s not easy at the moment to fight the Red Bull but we will never give up,” Alonso said. “We lost points but this was more or less the plan this weekend; we were not fast enough to compete with them. We lost the minimum points and better races will come.”

Vettel has now led every single lap of the last three races, after a series of technical upgrades to the Red Bull moved it onto a separate level from any other car.

Here at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, to the south-east of Delhi, Vettel aggressively fended off a challenge from Webber off the start line and controlled the race from there.

After a measured first 20 laps, during which he extended his lead over Webber to five seconds, the world champion suddenly cut loose with a series of laps 0.7 seconds faster than anyone else.

At this time, Alonso was beginning to close on Webber and threaten the Australian’s second place.

The Spaniard moved up from fifth on the grid to third by lap four after some impressive racing between himself, Hamilton and Button on the opening lap.

They went three abreast into Turn Four on the opening lap, after Alonso had taken advantage of the duelling McLarens to close on them.

Hamilton and Button tried to go into Turn Four either side of the Ferrari and while Button hung on to third place, Alonso managed to stay ahead of Hamilton.

The Ferrari then passed Button on the fourth lap. Webber inched clear of Alonso to move second by lap 16 before the Ferrari driver began to come back at him.

Alonso made his sole pit stop on lap 29, a lap before Webber and was right on the Red Bull’s tail when it emerged from its stop.

Webber began to suffer Kers problems from about lap 20 but he held Alonso off for the next 25 laps. But then he lost time behind two backmarkers and that put Alonso on to his tail. With no Kers, Webber was unable to defend and the Ferrari swept by into second place, grabbing an extra three points that could be crucial at the end of the season.

Vettel then appeared to hit some trouble, with the underside of his car – the area called the ‘tea tray’ under the drivers legs – starting to spark as it dragged on the ground.

Alonso was urged by his team to put pressure on him, but Vettel was able to stay in control until the end.

Webber was then left to fend off an attack from Hamilton, which he managed to do.

The final points positions were taken by Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg in eighth place, just holding off the Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

Williams’s Bruno Senna, fighting to save his drive, was 10th.

(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20115603)

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Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel took a dominant victory in the Korean Grand Prix to take the world championship lead from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Vettel’s victory was his third in a row and it makes him the first driver to win four races this season. Team-mate Mark Webber was second ahead of Alonso.

Vettel has a six-point lead over the Spaniard with four races to go.

Lewis Hamilton’s title hopes are effectively over after his McLaren struggled to 10th.

Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen took fifth, stretching his lead over Hamilton in third place in the championship, but Vettel has a 48-point lead over Raikkonen and a further 14 over Hamilton with only 100 points still available in the remaining races in India, Abu Dhabi, USA and Brazil.

Vettel’s second crushing victory within a week – along with Webber’s comfortable second place – confirms the impression that Red Bull have made a significant step forward with their car and that the German is on course for a third consecutive title.

“Fantastic. I’m very happy,” said Vettel. “I tried hard to push, Mark was always on my toes. We had two brilliant pit stops.

“The only mistake I had was I locked up the front right on the way in. Fortunately I had a good lead and I could control the gaps. We were a little bit worried about the tyres because there has been a lot of locking.

“The guys have been flat out, not much break between Japan and here we have done another step on the car, and hopefully we can carry that through to the next races.”

Ferrari were comfortably clear of the rest, with Massa taking fourth place close behind Alonso in the Brazilian’s most competitive performance of the season. He is expected to be confirmed at the team for 2013 in the forthcoming days.

“We have to be happy with the performance today,” said Alonso. “We were third and fourth just behind Red Bull who at the moment are difficult to beat.

“We overtook McLaren in the constructors’ championship, which we didn’t expect. So we are moving in the right direction. We just need a little step to compete with Red Bull and it’s going to be a beautiful last four races.”

But they could do nothing about the Red Bulls ahead as Vettel, from second position on the grid behind Webber, moved into the lead on the run down to the first corner and never looked back, only briefly losing the lead during the first pit stops.

Red Bull became increasingly anxious about the wear of Vettel’s right-front tyre in the closing laps and warned him to back off in certain corners.

But he managed it well – as did Webber in a similar situation behind him – and Alonso had to settle for third.

After their second and final stops, Massa closed up on Alonso, but was told by his race engineer Rob Smedley that he was “a little bit too close to Fernando” and to back off a little.

It became clear later on that Alonso had been conserving his tyres for a late assault – in vain – on the Red Bulls.

Raikkonen followed the Ferraris home in fifth place, ahead of the impressive Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India and the second Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

It was a sobering afternoon for Hamilton, who ran fourth behind Alonso in the early laps after the Ferrari passed him on the main straight on the first lap.

But he began to struggle for grip with high tyre usage caused by a broken rear anti-roll bar – at about lap 18, McLaren said – and was forced to make a third pit stop. He was the only driver in the field who had to do so.

That dropped him to 10th, behind the Toro Rossos of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Ricciardo was passed by Vergne in the closing laps, with Hamilton right behind them.

But Hamilton’s attempts to pass were hindered by his running wide at Turn 13 and picking up some of the artificial grass, which trailed from his car in the last three laps.

That badly affected his car’s rear downforce and he dropped back from the Toro Rossos, only just holding off the Sauber of Sergio Perez for 10th on the final lap.

Hamilton’s team-mate Jenson Button retired after being hit by Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi on the first lap. (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/19939422)

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Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel took a dominant victory in the Japanese Grand Prix to put himself in a strong position to win the world title.

Championship leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari retired on the first lap and had to watch as Vettel cut his lead to four points.

Alonso suffered a puncture when he was hit from behind by Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa took second ahead of Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi.

“I knew behind me there was a crash and I saw a Ferrari was out but wasn’t sure which,” said Vettel. “Halfway through I was looking to see the others and I saw their [Ferrari] car still racing Felipe, I didn’t know what happened to Fernando.

“The atmosphere has been unbelievable all weekend. There has been so much support, the stands have been full and that really makes our job feel very special.

“When you’re dreaming at night, you dream one day about racing a car like that. The balance was so good and that’s why there was a gap to behind.”

It was Massa’s first podium of the year and may well have secured his future at Ferrari, while Kobayashi held off a late charge from McLaren’s Jenson Button to take a maiden career podium.

“I was clever on the first corner to manage to avoid the accident and the pace was really good,” said Massa.

“I was quicker than Jenson [Button], then I was able to pass him and then Kamui [Kobayashi] so for sure it was a better race than what I expected.

“Unfortunately Fernando isn’t here on the podium fighting for the championship but hopefully we can keep on pushing.”

The second McLaren of Lewis Hamilton was fifth, ahead of Raikkonen, who was forced to fend off Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Williams’s Pastor Maldonado in the closing laps.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber fought up from the back of the field after being hit from behind at the first corner to take ninth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who held off Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes in the last few laps.

For Vettel, it was one of the most comfortable victories of the year. He converted pole position into a lead at the first corner and streaked away into a race of his own.

It was the first time a driver has taken back-to-back victories this season, and Vettel’s third win in four years in Japan. The 25-year-old now looks a strong bet to win his third consecutive world title.

The Red Bull is a faster car than the Ferrari, in which Alonso has been fighting a rear-guard battle for some time.

Alonso said of his retirement: “Kimi touched me a little bit in the rear and I had a puncture. It is a little sad but we need to concentrate and think about [the next race in Korea] next week.

“We need to keep working well and not making mistakes. Nothing we can do. Thanks to this consistency we are leading the championship. The others make mistakes, we need to avoid this.”

Raikkonen is in third place in the championship, 33 points behind Vettel and five points ahead of Hamilton.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who finished ninth, is effectively out of contention, 60 points behind Alonso with a maximum of only 125 still available.

The turning point of the race and perhaps the entire championship came on the run to the first corner.

Raikkonen ran slightly off the road and as he rejoined his front wing touched Alonso’s left rear tyre, which punctured and tipped the Spaniard into a spin as he turned into the first corner.

Meanwhile, Lotus’s Romain Grosjean put Webber into a spin, and in a separate incident Williams’s Bruno Senna hit Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes.

Rosberg was forced to retire, but Webber, Grosjean and Senna were all able to rejoin at the back of the field after pit stops, with Webber driving a quietly determined race to get back up into the points in ninth place.

Grosjean was given a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for what was his seventh first-lap incident in his 14 races this season. The Frenchman was banned from the Italian Grand Prix after causing a first-corner pile-up in Belgium last month.

The safety car was sent out while the debris was cleared away, with Massa up into fourth place behind Vettel, Kobayashi and Button.

Massa passed both his rivals by making his first pit stop later than they did, partly thanks to being able to start the race on new tyres while those who made it into the top 10 in qualifying had to start on the tyres that they had used to set their grid time.

The Ferrari initially made inroads into Vettel’s lead, but a couple of fastest laps from the Red Bull driver made it clear there was plenty of pace in reserve.

Behind Massa, Kobayashi held off a determined challenge from Button, who was battling with a gearbox that was intermittently slipping into neutral in the first three laps after each of his two pit stops before righting itself.

Button closed on Kobayashi before their final pit stops, but lost out by making his earlier than the Japanese.

The McLaren closed in again in the final 10 laps but Kobayashi was able to hold him off.

“Thank you very much everyone. This is my first podium, and in Japan. Fantastic, unbelievable,” said Kobayashi after the race.

(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/19860941)

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Lewis Hamilton put aside doubts about his McLaren future to romp from pole position to victory in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Race Results

1st    Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull-Renault - 25 pts
2nd   Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus-Renault - 18 pts
3rd    Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Renault - 15 pts
4th    Mark Webber - Red Bull-Renault - 12 pts
5th    Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 10 pts
6th    Paul Di Resta - Force India-Mercedes - 8 pts
7th    Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 6 pts
8th    Lewis Hamilton - McLaren-Mercedes - 4 pts
9th    Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 2 pts
10th  Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 1 pt

World champion Sebastian Vettel took his first victory of 2012 in a close battle with Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver built an early lead from pole but was caught by the Finn, who started 11th, after half distance.

Vettel then pulled away after the final pit stops, despite Raikkonen’s attempts to close him down.

Lotus’s Romain Grosjean was third, with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton finishing eighth and Jenson Button retiring.

Force India’s Paul di Resta, doing a two-stop strategy in contrast to the three employed by the rest of the main contenders, drove an excellent, studied race to take sixth place.

The Scot was running fifth going into the final 10 laps but was helpless to defend from Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, who was on fresher tyres in the closing laps.

Di Resta seemed poised to lose a further place to Button, but the Briton’s McLaren suffered a puncture with three laps to go and dropped out of the points, before retiring on the penultimate lap with a broken exhaust.

The Scot also just managed to hold off a challenge from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in the closing laps.

Rosberg was investigated for possible dangerous driving in defending from both Hamilton and Alonso earlier in the race, but was cleared of any wrongdoing by the stewards.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa produced his strongest race of the season to take ninth, ahead of Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher, who battled up from 22nd on the grid.

The result means Vettel takes the championship lead, after starting the race in fifth place, while Hamilton has slipped down to second, ahead of Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber – who finished fourth in Bahrain – Button and Alonso.

Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit is notorious for producing uninteresting races, but this was an exception, with a tense battle for the lead and several wheel-to-wheel scraps down the field.

Vettel stormed into the lead from pole, building a five-second lead after eight laps in the sort of performance that won him 11 races on his way to the title last year.

“It was an incredible race,” said the German. “We had a very good start, which was crucial. I was able to pull away from the pack which turned out to be a good advantage because we always had to go on used tyres.

“Kimi was quick, and so was Romain. It was a difficult race. Once he was close, I thought he would have more than one shot, but in the end I was able to pull out of a gap.”

Raikkonen was judging his rise from 11th place on the grid to perfection, his low qualifying position a tactical ploy to ensure he had more sets of new tyres to use in a race that all teams expected to be dominated by tyre management in the high temperatures.

After 10 laps, Raikkonen was up to third place behind Vettel and Grosjean and he continued to close on the leading pair after they had all made their first pit stops.

He passed Grosjean on lap 24, and then began to close on Vettel, who he caught by lap 33.

But the Finn could not pass the Red Bull and after they stopped together for the final time on lap 39, Vettel eased away and Raikkonen could not hold him.

“It’s always easy to say if afterwards, but in the end we were not fast enough,” he said. “I had one chance to pass Sebastian but I chose the wrong side. I didn’t get another chance. We gave ourselves a chance, but we didn’t do it.”

The race provided a fascinating spectacle throughout, but it did little to distract from the main focus of the weekend – the wisdom or otherwise of deciding to hold the race in Bahrain in the midst of ongoing civil unrest. (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/)

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The gap between the Malaysian Grand Prix last month and the next race in China is longer than normal at three weeks, and the Formula 1 teams will be using that time to do everything they can to improve their competitiveness.

The teams sent their cars straight from Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai – although Lotus did bring a chassis back to the UK for repairs and some other tests.

Most will be bringing new parts to the race in Shanghai, which is 13-15 April, but those developments will mostly be products of a programme that started during pre-season testing.

Developments take time – and teams need to plan what they want and when.

Three weeks is not long enough to make major new parts for an F1 car – although it is just about sufficient time to build a small development.

In the gap between the two races, it will have been possible to make simple bits if they were considered necessary – perhaps a front-wing flap or endplate, or a part of a sidepod around the exhaust exits, or something like that.

But a major structural part such as a front wing takes a bit longer – more like four weeks. So most developments that appear in China will have been in the pipeline since before the first race of the season in Australia. (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/)

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Mike Raybone
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Race Results

1st    Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 25 pts
2nd   Sergio Perez - Sauber - 18 pts
3rd    Lewis Hamilton - McLaren-Mercedes - 15 pts
4th    Mark Webber - Red Bull-Renault - 12 pts
5th    Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus-Renault - 10 pts
6th    Bruno Senna - Williams-Renault - 8 pts
7th    Paul Di Resta - Force India-Mercedes - 6 pts
8th    Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso-Ferrari - 4 pts
9th    Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes - 2 pts
10th  Michael Schumacher - Mercedes GP - 1 pt

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso held off Sauber’s Sergio Perez to take a sensational victory in a thrilling, rain-hit Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Ferrari is uncompetitive in the dry, but Alonso built a lead when the race resumed on a wet track after an early stoppage following heavy rain.

Perez caught him in the closing stages but ran wide and settled for second.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton took third ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen.

Alonso built a seven-second lead after the race resumed following a stoppage after just six laps caused by a torrential downpour.

But, as the track dried, Perez closed the Spaniard’s lead to virtually nothing.

Alonso gained some respite when he switched to dry-weather slick tyres a lap before Perez, which took his lead back up to seven seconds.

After fitting the ‘hard’ tyres while Alonso chose the ‘medium’, Perez closed the gap to nothing in 10 laps and was on Alonso’s tail at the start of lap 50, with seven to go.

But no sooner had Perez caught the Ferrari than he made a mistake.

He got on to the kerb at Turn 14 and ran wide, and suddenly Alonso’s lead was back up to five seconds.

Although Perez closed in again, Alonso now had enough of a cushion to take a 28th career victory – behind only Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell in the all-time list.

Alonso, who is now leading the world championship by five points from Hamilton, said the victory was “a big surprise”.

“We were not competitive in Australia or here,” he added. “Our goal was to score as many points as possible and we did the job.

“It is an unbelievable result, a great job from the team. We maximised the potential in our hands, keeping calm in some strange conditions at the beginning with inters and the switching to dry tyres.

“The team deserve this win. It’s a tough time for us at the moment, but this is a Sunday we will remember.”

Perez said he felt he had missed an opportunity to win.

“I was catching Fernando towards the end of the race,” he said.

“I knew I had to get him soon because in all the high-speed corners I was losing my front tyres running behind him.

“Then I ran wide in the quick left-hander. I touched the kerb and I went onto the dirty side of the track. It was completely wet and I lost the win.”

It was a remarkable result considering Ferrari’s struggles with their car – and it was matched by Perez’s performance.

The race started on a damp track after a shower of rain, with most drivers on the ‘intermediate’ tyres with relatively light treads.

But heavy rain started on lap two, and Perez immediately dived into the pits to fit full wet tyres.

It worked to the Mexican’s favour. As the leading drivers pitted for wet tyres on laps four and five, he moved up the field and was lying third behind the two McLarens of Hamilton and Button when the race was stopped on lap six – when Alonso was fifth behind Webber.

But the decisive part of the race came after the re-start, as Alonso emerged in second place after all the drivers had stopped to fit intermediate tyres and immediately passed Perez for the lead on lap 16.

He pulled away in relentless fashion, the fastest car on the track for several laps, building what turned out to be a decisive lead of 7.7 seconds on lap 30, before Perez began to come back at him.

Alonso’s experience told in the end, but both men celebrated one of the most remarkable and unexpected results in recent F1 history.

Third-placed Lewis Hamilton said: “I think we can be satisfied. First of all congratulations to Fernando and Sergio, they both drove fantastically well and it was very difficult to catch them.

“I can’t really complain, I was on the podium for the second race in a row.” (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/)

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Mike Raybone
Chartered Marketer and emarketing specialist

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