Photo: Sky Sports Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) came into the race weekend with momentum, having won two of the three previous races. But in order to take the top step on the podium again he was going to have to overcome recent history at Circuit de Catalunya, where the last 12 race winners have come from the front row of the field. Mercedes locked down positions 1 and 2 (Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton respectively), the second time the manufacturer has done so since its return in 2010. Vettel...

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Photo: Getty Images Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) took pole position, the second of his career and the first back-to-back Mercedes P1 starts since 1956, Lewis Hamilton having started from the front in China. Force India, meanwhile, acquitted itself very well by locking down Row 3 (Paul di Resta P5, Adrian Sutil P6), its best-ever qualifying effort. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and Ferrari teammates Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were sandwiched between in P2, 3, and 4 respectively. Massa was the sol...

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  Photo: AFP Lewis Hamilton won his first pole since moving to Mercedes during the off-season, joined on the front row by Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus). Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) qualified third and fourth respectively. Tire wear was a theme throughout practice and qualifying, with the soft option tires degrading in as quickly as 3 laps but being substantially faster when new. This wear rate saw both Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull, P9) and Jenson Button (McLaren, P8) go o...

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Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) won the season’s opening round in Australia, and starts seventh on the grid in Malaysia today for Race 2. Defending 3-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) won his second straight pole, followed by the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. In the run up the race both rain and rapid tire degradation featured prominently in conversation.   Most teams took to the track on intermediate tires, with rain on parts of the course and sunshine on o...

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Photo: SPEED TV The 2012 Formula 1 season started off with unprecedented parity, seven different drivers winning the first seven races. From Fernando Alonso’s (Ferrari) late June victory at the European Grand Prix, however, Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren reintroduced their stranglehold at the top, Kimi Raikkonen’s (Lotus) win in Abu Dhabi at the start of the month marking the only exception to their hegemony. Red Bull locked up the constructor’s championship last week at t...

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The front two rows of the starting grid for the inaugural US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas (also the first event at the track itself) consisted of Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Mark Webber (Red Bull), and Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) in positions 1-4 respectively. Webber jumped into P2 at the start, with Alonso moving into P4. Niko Hulkenberg (Force India) ran fifth during Lap 2. Hamilton and Webber battled for P2 throughout Lap 3 and 4, with Hamilton eventually secu...

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Photo: Mark Thompson - Getty Images Europe The race to the championship is well and truly on. Just when it was starting to look like Red Bull, and Sebastian Vettel in particular, was invincible, Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) took pole position in Abu Dhabi, with Mark Webber (Red Bull) lining up second on the grid and Vettel third. At the end of qualifying, however, Vettel was instructed by his engineers to turn his engine off on-track. What they clearly feared was confirmed during post-qualifying ...

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Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel are poised to pull away from the pack as the 2012 Formula 1 season nears its climax. The Grand Prix of India marks the third straight race in which Vettel and his teammate Mark Webber start 1-2 on the grid, with Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) holding down third. Vettel won the inaugural Indian Grand Prix last year, leading start-to-finish and setting fastest lap. To win again in 2012 would mark a fourth consecutive victory for the first time in the young German’s al...

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Red Bull again! Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel occupied the front row for the start of the Korean Grand Prix, in pole and P2 respectively, marking the second consecutive week Red Bull locked down the front row in qualifying. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) started third and fourth respectively. Vettel got Webber at the start, taking P1 before the first corner. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) took out Jenson Button (McLaren) during the first lap, with Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) al...

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Just when it looked like Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) was going to make a run at Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Red Bull had a return to 2011 form, with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber locking down the first two spots on the grid, unveiling a new double-DRS system in the process. It was Vettel’s fourth pole in four starts at Suzuka. As bad as this might be for Hamilton’s driver’s championship prospects, it’s even worse for McLaren constructor’s hopes, Red Bull entering the...

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