Hungarian Grand Prix: Who says you can't pass in Hungary?!

Clearly nobody told Romain Grosjean or Lewis Hamilton that you can't pass in Hungary, although it is fair to say that Lewis was a little more composed and legal with his passing, whilst Romain was quite a bit wilder. Lewis Hamilton secured the win single-handedly, with some sublime overtakes, namely on Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso. He knew he had to make up the places after his pit stop and simply did exactly what was required. It marked his first win in a Mercedes and that's impressive when you take in to account Hamilton's hopes and targets at the start of the season.

There were passes all over the circuit, but noticeably from Grosjean who kept doing so illegally. He passed Massa off the circuit and was given a drive-through penalty, however many will consider his incident with Button as much more cynical. He squeezed Jenson to the point that they made contact and an irate Button lost a lot of time and a couple of positions. The passing was intense through the first couple of laps, with cars touching and weaving desperately.

The whole race began with a bad start from Sebastian Vettel, immediately followed by fantastic defensive manoeuvres in to the first corner and, unbelievably, he managed to hold on to second place. He was later forced to defend against Romain Grosjean for a number of laps and again held his position. Whilst Hamilton's passing was a fantastic display of his skill and ability, Vettel's defending was a display of his. Both drivers are showing themselves to be the best out there.

It was a race that proved very difficult to follow, with pit stop strategies and tyre degradation making it a task for only team strategists to work out the true standings. Just when it seemed somebody had taken to the lead from seemingly nowhere, they would take to the pits and drop down the order again. Eventually the field panned out and it was obvious that Lewis Hamilton had raced a blinder. He had a comfortable end to the race, having done what he needed to earlier on. The biggest fight came from Vettel and Raikonnen, who diced for the second podium position right up to the chequered flag. The big story of the weekend is that Mercedes are clearly making progress and bringing the fight to Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus. They will hope that the summer break passes nice and quickly.

The Result:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:42:29.445
2.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus	+10.938
3.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	+12.459
4.	Mark Webber	Red Bull	+18.044
5.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+31.411
6.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	+52.295
7.	Jenson Button	McLaren	+53.819
8.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+56.447
9.	Sergio Perez	McLaren	+1 Lap
10.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	+1 Lap
11.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber	+1 Lap
12.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	+1 Lap
13.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	+1 Lap
14.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham	+2 Laps
15.	Charles Pic	Caterham	+2 Laps
16.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia	+3 Laps
17.	Max Chilton	Marussia	+3 Laps
Did not finish
18.	Paul di Resta	Force India	+4 Laps
19.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+6 Laps
20.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	+28 Laps
21.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber	+42 Laps
22.	Adrian Sutil	Force India	+51 Laps

Bahrain Qualifying: The Force of India!

Lewis Hamilton began the day with a five place grid penalty, after having to replace his gearbox as a result of a rear suspension failure. Lewis joined a number of drivers who found themselves looking at grid place penalties, which was destined to make Bahrain qualifying extremely confusing and quite frustrating.

The weekend in Bahrain was overshadowed, once again, by controversy. Bahrain and the Bahrain Grand Prix continue to be plagued by unrest, as citizens clash with the authorities and protests are held against the hosting of the event. Its a difficult situation in The Kingdom and opinions vary across the board. Rather innapropriately the FIA and FOM seem to be of the opinion that racing cars are as important as people's freedom and so the running of the Bahrain Grand Prix is always in the balance. The race organisers regularly make the wrong decision to go ahead with the race, amid the riots and protests, instead of shelving the stage until the problems in the area have been resolved.

In the first session of qualifying it was very much a two horse race, between Ferrari and Red Bull. Force India were once again in the mix and as the season progresses, their impressive form is becoming less and less of a surprise. There were very few surprises by the end of of Q1, but one or two surprises crept in during the second session. One of those surprises came in the shape of McLaren's difficulties, which were compounded by Jenson Button's apparent elation at only just making it in to the Q3 shootout. Perez in the second McLaren car wasn't so lucky as Jenson and qualified in twelfth, outside of the top ten. Force India continued to show good pace and both drivers made it in to the top ten shootout. Dare I say that Force India might be closer to contending the title than McLaren.

Many of the drivers left it till the final moments of Q3 to put in their fast laps. A few of them bailed out of their fast laps right at the end and it was Nico Rosberg who blew everyone away, showing that Mercedes definitely have the pace to challenge the Ferraris and the Red Bulls. Force India didn't quite live up to the expectations of hopeful neutrals, only achieving seventh and eighth. Unfortunately, this is where the confusion ensues, as the plethora of grid penalties means that the lineup will actually be very different to what we saw at the end of the session. For me, the most important thing is being able to gauge the pace of the teams. Force India look strong again, Mercedes look very strong and Ferrari and Red Bull are predictably competitive.

Malaysian GP Race: Bittersweet victory

After all of the action of the Malaysian Grand Prix, controversy won the day again, with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber ending in an uncomfortable conflict. Numerous altercations have occurred between the two Red Bull drivers, but this one will be remembered as one of the more palatable, since both understood what had happened and appeared instantly prepared to work towards remedying the situation.

Returning to the start of the Grand Prix, the big incident through the first couple of corners involved last year's major title contender, Fernando Alonso, who found himself struggling to hold on to second place with a damaged front wing. As he drove through turn two he got a little too close to the rear end of Vettel's Red Bull and made contact. It was hanging on and throwing up sparks for a full lap, during which Mark Webber swapped positions with the Ferrari driver time and time again. It seemed inevitable that Fernando would pit at the end of the lap, to have the nose replaced, but he drove on and at the end of the start/finish straight the wing came away and lodged under the front of the car, leaving Alonso a spectator, as the car hurtled in to the gravel. Fortunately, the car slowed down before making contact with the barrier, but I would argue that it was a dangerous decision by Ferrari, when regulation states that if there is damage that can cause an accident then the car must be pitted.

With Alonso out of the running it became a straight battle between Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, which would continue to the end of the Grand Prix. Lotus didn't figure too heavily in the front fight and neither did McLaren, Jenson Button suffering in one of his pitstops, with a wheel that wasn't properly attached to his car. Pit stops were a big feature of this race, with Force India having a nightmare, culminating in Di Resta and Sutil having to retire. Toro Rosso and Caterham had an incident, when Vergne was released straight in to Charles Pic, causing damage to both cars. A similar incident occurred between Raikonnen and Hulkenberg, with the drivers avoiding contact, however it was a feud which continued for many laps after. Need I say much about Lewis Hamilton, driving through his old team's pit box...

As the Malaysian Grand Prix approached its conclusion. The Red Bull drivers found themselves in first and second, whilst the Mercedes drivers were in third and fourth. There was quite a distance between the two teams but not much distance between team mates and it was this circumstance that led to the controversy. Understandably, the teams radioed instructions to their respective drivers that they wanted them to hold position, protect their tyres and (in Hamilton's case) preserve fuel. Rosberg, who felt that he was faster, communicated his frustrations to the team, but obeyed the orders. Vettel took matters in to his own hands and decided to fight Mark Webber, his team mate and the worthy winner, who had turned his engine down (under team orders) to ensure he made it to the end of the grand prix. What ensued was a risky and heated battle, resulting in Vettel snatching the lead and driving to an undeserved victory.

The post race formalities were awkward and uncomfortable, with Vettel admitting his wrong doing and stating that he wished he hadn't won, Webber regretfully pointing out that the team needed to be strong and work together, and Lewis Hamilton explaining how it wasn't the usual good feeling on the podium. This race was exciting, but we are all becoming accustomed to watching respectful and fair racing, and for that reason the final result left a very bitter taste. Fortunately it seems that the drivers are fully aware of that fact and we can expect this sort of thing not to happen again for a very long time.

Malaysian GP Qualifying: Everybody loves the sunshine

The qualifying in Malaysia started in predictably sunny and dry conditions, allowing the teams to set up the cars in a more optimum way to what they had to for qualifying in Australia. However, it wouldn't prove to be that way throughout the session.

Q1 was dry and, despite this, still managed to throw up a couple of surprises. Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel both left it very late to secure their places in the second session of qualifying. They looked to be massively off the pace, whilst once again the Force India cars were looking extremely competitive, as were the Lotus cars. Sutil is really relishing the new found pace and performance in his Force India and is likely to be a cause for concern to the front runners again on Sunday. It'll only be a matter of time before Sutil is considered one of them, instead of just in amongst them...

The Red Bull drivers made it through to Q2, Sebastian Vettel by the skin of his teeth, and as Q2 got underway it became clear that something was worrying all of the teams. It was revealed that the reason all of the cars were out on track at the same time, and desperately trying to get a decent lap in, was that rain was on its way. It was inevitable that it would catch somebody out and that somebody was Paul Di Resta, who found himself pirouetting through the KLIA Curve. He didn't fair any better after that and ended up qualifying fifteenth. He and the team will have to work on an interesting strategy for the race.

Sebastian Vettel cut it close again, in Q2, and was lucky not to be a victim of the same fate as Di Resta. He was just outside the elimination zone and joined the other ten cars as they went out for the final session of qualifying, on intermediate tyres. As the cars completed lap after lap, the times got quicker and quicker on a drying track. Unbelievably, and probably to all of his rivals' dismay, Vettel managed to bag pole position. The two Ferrari's are hot on his heels again and it will just be a case of whether Seb can keep them behind him this time.

Surprise in Oz!

The Australian Grand Prix didn't provide much excitement and didn't really get the blood flowing. There was literally no contact between any of the cars, and the only incident was Pastor Maldonado spinning off in to the gravel on the first corner. There were a few retirements, however they were all due to technical issues and created little to no drama. It wasn't a boring race though and certainly threw up a few surprises.

One thing that wasn't a surprise however, was Mark Webber's terrible start, just like many of the races in 2012. He will have to do a lot to convince us that he hasn't started this season the way he means to go on. Driving exactly the same car as Vettel, he struggled for pace and appeared to be unable to undo the damage he did by being so sluggish off the line. Vettel didn't fair too well either. Despite starting from pole position and keeping the lead through the first few laps, he was unable to replicate the dominance from the front that we have grown so accustomed to in Formula One.

The Pirelli tyres, which it had been said were more durable and less prone to 'falling off the cliff' as last year, appeared to be a lot worse. They were lasting five or six laps before drivers were falling victim to their rivals without being able to put up much of a fight at all. Hamilton made a great effort at resisting a pass from Alonso in one of these situations, locking up both of his front tyres and holding the position. Frustratingly, the defense was never going to stick because Alonso popped his Ferrari on to Lewis' inside for the next corner and shot past easily. As the race went on, it grew more frustrating and more disappointing.

The surprises came in the shape of the Lotus cars and the Force India cars, whose pace was beyond what any of us expected. Sutil had a very competitive race and was in the front running pack for most the race, something that the race officials often failed to realise as misplaced blue flags waved time and time again, when Sutil was racing a Lotus or a McLaren. Raikonnen ran a sublime race and was a very worthy winner. It's nice to see the outspoken but lovable finn back at the top and arguably where he belongs. It wasn't a predictable result but it was a predictable path that led to it, in respect of tyre degradation and other teams' consistent pace through the grand prix. It has to get more exciting in Malaysia!

Waiting with bated breath...

We've seen out another one. Another winter of discontent. Whilst the teams slog away creating, testing and redesigning their machines, we wait in the wings, ready to savour the gladiatorial battle that commences in Australia. The annual break is a difficult time for the fans, twiddling our thumbs and counting down the days, the hours, the minutes.

But, the time is almost upon us again. The engines are revving up, the flags are being unfurled and we're ready. We're ready to climb in to our dressing gowns and hunker down in to the individually moulded spaces in our sofas. Race control are communicating with us from the other room, asking if we want a tea or a coffee, a bacon or sausage sandwich. The remote has launch control switched on and the TV is turned up so we can push to pass.

Lewis Hamilton will hear more than just his race engineer in his earphones, as thousands of English fans bark their own orders, guidance and criticism at their television sets. Thousands of us will tell Martin Brundle, and the rest of our living rooms, exactly what we think of his verdict on driver of the day and whether Fernando Alonso should have attempted this pass or that move. Many of us will concede that on a second look, we did indeed exaggerate a little, the incident wasn't quite as bad as we first thought, and we may just have been wrong.

One thing is for certain. The passion will spill over again, from both sides of the camera, from drivers, teams and fans alike. Sleepy heads will stumble out of bed in the early hours, barbecues will be arranged around race weekends, and shopping trips will be rushed, just to be home for the Saturday qualifying session. The green flag will drop, the lights will go out and we'll all be in it together, wrapped up in our own little world, for those two glorious hours.

It's time to go racing.