Those of you that saw the Monaco Grand Prix today would have seen Michael Schumacher’s gutsy move to overtake Fernando Alonso on the final corner of the final lap to take P6. That in itself would be fine under normal racing conditions, however Schumacher did this after the safety car had dived in.

The stewards (one of those being his old sparring partner, Damon Hill) deemed this to break the rules, despite the race being under normal conditions after the safety car had gone in, last lap or not… Schumacher received a 20 second penalty, leaving him in P12, but did he deserve it?

The 24-year-old Swiss Romain Grosjean is hoping for a return to F1 in 2011, and hinting that Renault is his best hope.

Grosjean replaced Nelson Piquet Jr at the French team in 2009 and unfortunately his time in Formula 1 is more remembered for crashes and spins – he drove just 7 races in F1 before being dumped by Renault at the end of the 2009 season. Grosjean explained:

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. With all the problems around the team, it wasn’t easy; they wanted to make a clean sweep of the past. I want to come back in 2011. I’m not losing hope. When I see Fernando Alonso’s results with Ferrari this year, I think I deserve a place on the grid; my pace was far from being ridiculous – I was never more than two or three tenths off him in qualifying.”

Grosjean added that he is still in contact with Eric Bouiller, the new Renault team boss:

“I’m still in contact with Eric Boullier. We like and respect each other professionally and, once in Europe, I will walk around the paddock to establish other contacts and see if this could unlock something.”

So the Malaysian Grand Prix didn’t end up a water fest as pretty much everyone predicted. In fact, not a single drop of rain fell during the race. Many also predicted the biggest headline out of the race would be the weather, how awful it was, and how the race time needs to be changed again etc etc.

But that didn’t happen – so the second surprise to pop out was the Red Bull 1-2 finish. Yes, I said finish. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have both been plagued recently by dodgy cars, causing Vettel in particular to lose two Grand Prix from commanding positions.

Mark Webber has fared better, however he’s had his share of gremlins too in the car, however luckily during practice sessions.

Despite all that, Vettel pipped Webber to the first corner in Sepang after lights out, and the rest they say, was a parade… (well at least for them it was). Neither Vettel nor Webber moved from P1 and P2 respectively throughout the race, and were never bothered at all by the competition.

Vettel’s now infamous “Number 1″ finger pumps told the whole story at the end of the race – he was clearly relieved to have made it (a) to the finish, and (b) in P1 – probably in that order. However, have they just got lucky this time, or have the Red Bull team figured out their issues with reliability? If it’s the latter, we can say goodbye to the championship race – it’ll all be about the Red Bulls.

That said, they were let off a bit this time over. Both Ferraris and McLarens were starting from pretty much the back of the pack, and had some 10+ cars to go through before getting close to the podiums. Lewis Hamilton predictably steamed through the pack, making up a large number of places, with team mate Jenson Button going backwards, forwards, backwards.

The Ferrari boys also rued their decision on Saturday, which ultimately screwed their race on Sunday. Fernando Alonso’s engine blowout on the penultimate lap was the signing off of a terrible weekend for the team, who were hoping to be back up there. The BBC even reported that it almost looked like Alonso forced the blowout after a frustrating race.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg needs a mention. Other than the rolling headline that never disappears that he finished ahead of his team mate (you know, Schumacher), he actually finished P3, grabbing the first Mercedes GP podium this year.

What this has done is setup an interesting top 3 in the drivers championship. A top 3 which actually holds 5 drivers:

1. Felipe Massa (39)
2. Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Vettel (37)
3. Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg (35)

That’s pretty tight, and hold’s the top 4 teams. It’s anyones game right now, but could we call it this early? Let’s have a vote:

Current F1 World Champion Jenson Button won the Australian Grand Prix today, his second race for team McLaren. Button won the action packed Grand Prix after making an early split decision around moving to dry tyres, the first driver to do so, and lived to tell that tale with the greatest of outcomes.

Many wrote off his chances as he came out of the pits, after Button skidded into the gravel trap on turn 3, but that soon disappeared as the track came to him and he made his way through the pack.

Many had complained about the dull opening race in Bahrain 2 weeks ago, and Australia did not disappoint. From lights out the action was there, light rain and a slippery track with Fernando Alonso cutting up Button on turn 1, causing his Ferrari to bump into Michael Schumacher, and then spin 180 degrees. Both drivers ended up at the back of the pack.

Shortly after the Alonso incident, Kamui Kobayashi lost his front wing under the front of his car causing him to smash into Sebastian Buemi and Nico Hulkenberg. All three drivers were out of the race, causing an immediate safety car.

Once action resumed Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica looked like the drivers on the move. Hamilton (starting from 11th) was already up 4 or 5 places by the safety car, and soon made mincemeat of his team mate.

However, Button came out on top, making a critical decision on tyres at exactly the right time, taking full advantage. Subsequently everyone followed suit including race leader Sebastian Vettel. Button’s quick thinking got him back up rankings upto P2 by the time all the pit stops had completed.

Shortly after the picture changed for the Red Bull’s with race leader Vettel retiring after what seemed to be a left front break pad failure. This gave Button pole position, and he kept that until the chequered flag.

Around 40 laps in many teams decided to come in for some fresh dry tyres as the rears were going off, however race leader Button, the two Ferrari’s and Kubica allotted to stay out on what they had. At this point this again seemed like the wrong decision, with Hamilton and Mark Webber, now on fresh tyres, quickly catching them up.

With 10 laps to go both Hamilton and Webber were up behind the two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Alonso in P3 and P4 respectively, however Hamilton was really struggling to get past. Hamilton began to rue the decision made by his McLaren team to bring him in for fresh tyres, coming onto the radio demanding who had made the decision.

Shortly after, with 3 laps to go Hamilton had his opportunity to overtake Alonso, however the Ferrari driver quickly shut the McLaren driver down. Unfortunately for Hamilton, a speedy Webber was close behind and misjudged the breaking distance, piling into the McLaren at speed. This forced both cars into the gravel trap, with Webber losing his front wing.

This mistake by Webber was the final insult to a torrid race for the Australian. After starting in P2, Webber struggled throughout the race seemingly taking 1 step forward, but 2 steps back. This ultimately led to Webber finishing a measly 9th spot, only bringing home 2 points for Red Bull who up until lights out appeared to be on for a 1-2 finish for the team.

Australia was all about the McLaren boys though, with Button’s quick thinking, and Hamilton’s heroic battle to push through – the excitement of the race revolved around these two. Hamilton made some spectacular overtaking moves, taking Nico Rosberg in the seemingly unusual turn 12. It could have likely been a McLaren 1-2 after the Red Bull’s faded, however the second pit stop after all did ruin Hamilton’s chances.

An exciting race after the disappointment of Bahrain – however we have the weather to thank for a lot of that. It clearly caused the strategies of the teams to change everywhere, and added that extra piece of unexpected action to the race.

It’s still too early to tell whether the new no-refuelling rules have ruined the excitement of F1 for the immediate future, let’s get a few more races under our belt to make a decision on that.

With the first Grand Prix of 2010 under our belts in Bahrain there’s been a lot of chatter about how exciting (or not) it all ended up being. With such a strong grid, 4 ex-champions, the return of Michael Schumacher, 3 new teams, and teams like Ferrari and McLaren coming good again, expectation were admittedly through the roof.

Unfortunately, Bahrain did not live up to the hype that we were all waiting for. A quick round up on Twitter had an overwhelming murmur of “DULL” from our followers, but let’s open that up a bit.

What do you think?

Both Ferrari’s of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will have new engines ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Felipe Massa, who qualified 2nd, has had his engine he used up to qualifying yesterday replaced as a completely precautionary step, as it is showing abnormal parameters. Similar abnormalities showed up in 3rd place qualifier Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari Type 56 engine, meaning it has also been replaced.

Neither driver will be penalised for these changes: you only get a penalty if you change engines twice in a weekend or exceed the 8 engines-per-season limit. Also in accordance with the rules, the replaced engines can be used in future practice sessions.

7 times World Champion Michael Schumacher is still feeling the heat after a moderate qualifying position in Bahrain. Expectations are high, with the Mercedes driver admitting that he’s just not there yet. Schumacher told reporters after qualifying:

“I just need to get the rhythm, although slowly and progressively it has improved, but it’s challenging and that’s a good thing.

It’s just having the rhythm and having this fine-tuning and getting the car to your liking. Just make perfect use of what you have available.”

Schumacher has struggled all weekend trying to keep up with younger team mate Nico Rosberg – who on average was 4/10ths of a second up on him on nearly all hot laps. On Friday Schumacher admitted he was not happy with that at all, and Saturday expressed that he felt like an newbie all over again:

“I feel like I just started in Formula 1. In Valencia during the first lap I was a bit shocked, but then I was straight back into it and felt very comfortable and it was exactly as it was in 1991 in a way”

Fans of F1 certainly expected more – a P1 and nothing less no doubt. We do need to remember though that this guy hasn’t driven an F1 car for a few years – he might be the best driver to ever race in F1, but he’s human, and we all get a bit rusty if we don’t do something for a while.

We’re giving him 3 races before he starts really giving hell with the Mercedes, and playing up there with the top boys!

Bernie Ecclestone, the man who runs Formula One, has this weekend said in Bahrain that the newly planned Indian Grand Prix will not be replacing a race in the current F1 calendar – which will mean that in the 2011 season there will be a massive 20 races.

This is great news for the fans, either by shortening the off period, or squeezing in more action between March and November – both options are good for us!

Reported by Autosport, Ecclestone responded when asked about the possiblity of 20 races:

“Why, do you want more? It’s a round number and easy to remember.”

Whilst that’s not a full blown confirmation, Bernie normally doesn’t mince his words. He’s also believed to be looking into the possibility of returning to the U.S.A. for a GP there – if that was to happen will that give us 21 races, or replace an existing? We think the latter based on Bernie’s previous comment – we’ll see….

The first qualifying session of the Formula One 2010 season has finished, with Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel stealing the pole position from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. More surprising was the fact that Massa managed to pip Alonso to P2.

In the first session, nearly all of the new team’s drivers failed to make it through. Interestingly Karun Chandhok managed to get out on track after all, coming last – but getting some well needed laps under his belt before his first F1 GP on Sunday. Quickly following him were Trulli, Kovalainen, Di Grassi, Senna, Glock and Alguersuari.

The second session quickly followed with both Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the front runners. Both drivers scraped through in 9th and 10th position to make it through to Q3. The only major scalp to go during this session was Rubens Barrichello, who managed 11th.

The final session saw the top 10 drivers running on empty, desperate to get a quick lap, whilst saving the tyres that they now have to start the race with. Vettel was first out on track, with no one showing any clear sign they were going to catch him after that.

Michael Schumacher again struggled to keep up with his younger Mercedes team mate, Nico Rosberg – only making P7, 3 tenths down. This wasn’t new for Schumacher – who has struggled all weekend so far keeping up with Rosberg, and is yet to beat him. In race pace however, it could be a different story.

Jenson Button also struggled to keep up with his McLaren team mate, Lewis Hamilton. Button and Hamilton had been pretty similar in times and performance over previous sessions, but Button just couldn’t string it together for the final push, finishing P8.

Arguably, Rubens Barrichello looks to be in a very strong position in P11. Whilst not immediately obvious, Barrichello gets to pick his tyre compound, selecting the hard tyre, whilst everyone in front of him is on the soft. This means he’ll potentially last far longer out on track and may make up some significant track position.

That said, Vettel and the Ferrari’s are in world of their own, nearly half a second at least in front of the competition. Expect these guys to bring it home, barring any major race incidents. The question is, will they be in the same qualifying positions when the pass the chequered flag? Only tomorrow will tell.

See you on Twitter tomorrow at 1200 GMT for full race coverage.

Final Qualifying Standings

1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault

2.  Massa          Ferrari

3.  Alonso         Ferrari

4.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes

5.  Rosberg        Mercedes

6.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault

7.  Schumacher     Mercedes

8.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes

9.  Kubica         Renault

10.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes

11.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth

12.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes

13.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth

14.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari

15.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari

16.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari

17.  Petrov         Renault

18.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari

19.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth

20.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth

21.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth

22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth

23.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth

24.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth

An unfortunate start to F1 for newbie Karun Chandhok as his Hispania car fails to take part in any of the free practise sessions in Bahrain.

Chandhok suffered hydraulic issues during sessions 1 & 2 on Friday, however was confident of a return in the final session on Saturday morning. However, despite being sat in the car as the lights turned green for session 3, the Hispania team found another hydraulic issue which needed attention.

The team worked throughout the session attempting to fix the issue, with Chandhok being seen in the sidelines looking hopefully on, but it wasn’t to be.

Unfortunately, F1 rules state that any driver wishing to take part in qualifying and the race must take part in at least one of the three practise sessions. This means Chandhok faces another long wait until Australia before hopefully turning some wheels in an F1 car.

Update

Chandhok can now take part in qualifying after all