F1 2015 Review - Part 1 (Rounds 1-7)

Mercedes headed into 2015 as defending champions, with Hamilton (now double world champion) and 2014 runner up Rosberg. Ricciardo, best of the rest in 2014, remained at Red Bull, whilst Vettel had moved to Ferrari to join Raikkonen. Alonso moved to McLaren to partner Button, and both Sauber and Manor fielded all-new lineups.

Winter testing showed that Mercedes were potentially even stronger than in 2014, with Ferrari and Williams fighting over 2nd and 3rd. It was hard to judge how well some would do due to limited 2015 car running, but it seemed that McLaren would be lucky to regularly score points.

Prior to Australia, McLaren replaced the recovering Alonso (who had a crash in the final test) with Magnussen, who was relegated to third driver role after a year as Button's team mate.

Once the teams had arrived in Australia, it was a mostly uneventful weekend: Qualifying saw Mercedes ahead of Vettel, with Massa close behind. However, Bottas injured his back during Q3, and therefore was unable to race. Manor turned up but didn't set any laps on Friday or Saturday, so they also failed to start. As for race day itself, Kvyat and Magnussen's cars both broke down before taking to the grid, meaning we only had 15 drivers actually on the grid.

Aside a crash at the first chicane (with Maldonado spun into the Turn 2 wall) it turned out to be a relatively processional race, and out of the 15 starters only 11 finished. Amazingly Button was one of them, but his McLaren wasn't fast enough to keep up with the points scoring 10. One of the highlights in this race was seeing Nasr, Sainz and Verstappen (until his car broke down) doing well and proving that rookies can progress quickly at the highest level. Nasr's Sauber stayed out of trouble to take 5th, the best result for a Brazilian on their debut, while Sainz finished 9th for Toro Rosso ahead of Perez.

From top 3 on the grid to podium in the race, we saw Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel finish where they started. Massa was 4th for Williams, however Raikkonen's car broke down mid-race. Ericsson was 8th for Sauber, having moved from the now defunct Caterham towards the end of 2014.

Ahead of the race in Malaysia, Alonso was declared fit and returned for McLaren - proving once again how safety has generally improved in the last 20 years. On race day, we would see Manor start for the first time in 2015 after travelling to Australia but not taking part.

Mercedes locked out the front row again, but an early spin for Ericsson in the race brought out the safety car. They both pitted and Vettel (along with a few others) didn't, so the race was on. Mercedes had pace on fresh tyres, but once Vettel pitted he was able to overtake Rosberg, with Hamilton pitting just ahead of Vettel later on. Mercedes kept pushing to catch the Ferrari, but it wasn't enough and the Italian team took their first win for nearly two years. Raikkonen was 4th in the second Ferrari despite a first-lap puncture, with the Williams pair of Bottas and Massa behind. Toro Rosso followed, Verstappen ahead of Sainz, and Red Bull completed the top 10 with Kvyat and Ricciardo.

Heading to China, Hamilton led with 43 points with Vettel on 40 and Rosberg on 33, as the trio had finished on the podium at the first two races.

It was a fairly average race by 2015 standards, although Rosberg had complained that Hamilton was holding him up. There were a few retirements, but Verstappen's Toro Rosso led to a Safety Car finish. China saw the Australia podium order repeated, with Hamilton ahead of Rosberg and Vettel. It wouldn't be the last time they stood together as a trio on a 2015 podium. Raikkonen finished 4th again, with the Williams pair of Massa and Bottas in 5th and 6th. The top 10 was completed by Grosjean, Nasr, Ricciardo and Ericsson.

Next was Bahrain. Vettel was on the front row ahead of Rosberg, but behind Hamilton who took his fourth pole of 2015. However, it would be Raikkonen who offered Ferrari's main challenge to Mercedes, as Vettel went wide at the final corner mid-race after holding his team mate and Rosberg at bay up to that point. That mistake left the German needing another pitstop to fix his front wing, so he finished 5th behind Bottas. Ricciardo's engine failed at the end, but he managed to finish 6th ahead of Grosjean, Sainz, Kvyat and Massa.

Raikkonen had made good use of a longer stint, but it wasn't good enough to beat Hamilton, They finished ahead of Rosberg to leave Hamilton 27 points clear at the top of the standings. At this point, Mercedes led with 109 points, 52 ahead of Ferrari in 2nd.

Spain was next after the first four flyaway races, and Mercedes were expected to dominate. They didn't disappoint, although it was Rosberg who prevailed this time. His first pole of 2015 helped him to a comfortable win, ahead of Hamilton and Vettel. Bottas and Massa sandwiched Raikkonen, with the top 10 filled by Ricciardo, Grosjean, Sainz and Kvyat. Verstappen was just outside the points in 11th.

After winning the previous race and the last two races in Monaco, Rosberg aimed to put a 2014 Qualifying incident behind him and win again around the principality.

However, it was Hamilton who took pole. He led most of the race and was leading by about 20 seconds when a call to change tyres became his undoing. Mercedes thought he could make the stop and come out ahead of Rosberg, but it wasn't to be. Once the Safety Car returned to the pits, it was single file until the end for the podium. This meant Rosberg won ahead of Vettel and the pitstop-delayed Hamilton, who was only a few seconds of Ricciardo until Red Bull swapped their cars back round - Kvyat let him through on team instructions to see if the Australian could deprive Hamilton of the podium finish. Raikkonen was behind them in 6th, with Perez in 7th. Button scored McLaren's first points of 2015 in 8th, with Nasr 9th. Sainz started from the pitlane after not having his car weighed in Q1 even though he originally qualified 8th, but recovered to 10th in a solid drive for Toro Rosso. As for the other Toro Rosso, Verstappen was given penalty points and a Canada grid penalty for his crash with Grosjean.

At this stage, Mercedes appeared to be in full control of their destiny in the Constructors standings, while Hamilton was now just 10 points ahead of Rosberg. In turn, Vettel was a further 18 points back, so at this stage it seemed these three drivers would fight for the title.

Canada was next, and with three wins at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (2007, 2010 and 2012) Hamilton was keen to add a fourth after Rosberg's first ever run of consecutive F1 wins.

Qualifying upset the normal order, with both Massa and Vettel unable to progress beyond Q1. However, Button didn't even set a time and was forced to take grid penalties during the race for exceeding the 2015 allocation on some of his power unit components, but given the poor reliability of the Honda this wasn't a surprise, apart from this being only the 7th race of 19.

It was a quick and quiet race (even the wildlife agreed) and Hamilton duly won from pole ahead of Rosberg. Bottas beat Raikkonen, who spun mid-race, to the podium. Vettel recovered to 5th,

After an eventful 2014 race with a last lap crash, there was no repeat this year between Perez and the Massa, whose Williams finished 6th after starting 15th. Maldonado was 7th ahead of Hulkenberg, Kvyat and Grosjean. Perez was 11th for the 15th time in his F1 career, with this being the third time as Number 11 on the permanent car number system.

After a trip across the Atlantic, the next race was Austria - this will be in Part 2.

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October - November 2014 review: Mercedes and Hamilton are Champions, Bianchi reminds us how dangerous F1 can be

After once again proving that they can win on very contrasting circuits (Monza and Singapore), Mercedes went to Japan with a small chance of being constructors champions. Ferrari were keen to regain on Williams, and McLaren wanted to move ahead of Force India.

Caterham were struggling just to make it to Japan, after reports emerged that bailiffs had visited their headquarters in Leafield.

Before FP1, the biggest concern was how Typhoon Phanfone could affect the race weekend, as well as logistics for the Russian GP.

As it turned out, Free Practice was relatively normal, as was Qualifying - although this time Nico Rosberg beat Lewis Hamilton to pole.

Jean Eric Vergne (who missed FP1 so 17 year old Max Verstappen could drive his car) beat Daniil Kvyat (who takes Sebastian Vettel's place at Red Bull in 2015), and Marcus Ericsson was the quickest of the bottom four.

However, Pastor Maldonado used his sixth engine, and because he was in the bottom ten places of the grid (putting him to the back with his penalty), it meant the remainder of his penalty carried over to Russia, where he was also put to the back of the grid.

Turning to the race, it was wet throughout and red flagged twice: once due to the weather and again later on for what turned out to be worse than we first thought.

On the world feed, we had seen Sutil's crash and a recovery vehicle arrive on the scene, but what we failed to spot was Jules Bianchi's Marussia, which had made contact with the recovery vehicle. Sadly we would never see Jules race again, as he later died after a nine month battle with

It was the beginning of the end for the Marussia team in its 2014 form - they went into administration along with Caterham after the Russian GP. Caterham made it to Abu Dhabi with crowdfunding, but Marussia would not return until 2015 as Manor.

As the race did not restart, Mercedes took another 1-2 with Red Bull in third and fourth - this was not enough to clinch the constructors title, but meant it would be straightforward to wrap up in Russia.

A fairly processional inaugural Russian GP saw Mercedes crowned constructors champions, and now only Daniel Ricciardo could stop Mercedes taking the driver's title - however eight more points for Hamilton would give us a Mercedes show down, even with double points in Abu Dhabi.

Heading into the US GP, the biggest story (other than Jules) was the Marussia and Caterham absence, leaving just nine teams for this race and the next in Brazil.

Rosberg duly took pole again for the US GP, but Hamilton turned it around in the race to win a fifth consecutive race. Ricciardo completed the podium for Red Bull, which was now almost guaranteed the Constructors runner up spot. Vettel recovered from the pitlane to 6th, with only Sutil and the Force India pair out.

Brazil saw Rosberg continue his pole run (clinching the pole position trophy), but this time Hamilton couldn't do anything about him in the race - the Brit even made a crucial mistake mid-race at Turn 4 whilst pushing to catch his team mate.

A fairly undramatic race saw a late retirement for Grosjean and a split strategy from Ferrari - with Alonso just ahead of the two-stopping Raikkonen. Massa completed the podium in his home GP, with Button in 4th.

With only the double points finale in Abu Dhabi left, Hamilton was now 17 points ahead of Rosberg. The next close battle was between Vettel, Alonso and Bottas for 4th place.

Rosberg was on pole again in the UAE - his 11th of 2014 - with Hamilton 2nd, followed by the Williams pair. Red Bull were due to start on the third row, but both were excluded due to front wing infringments.

In terms of the title battle, the race turned out to be a damp squib, with Rosberg losing out to Hamilton by Turn 1 and subsequently an ERS failure finishing his title challenge. As Nico was out of the picture, Lewis comfortably won the title but won the race by just 2.5 seconds from Felipe Massa's Williams.

McLaren fended off Force India for 5th in the standings, but with double points it could've been a lot closer. Perez was 10th in the standings (ahead of Magnussen and Raikkonen thanks to double points) and Massa jumped Button for 7th.

Heading into 2015, driver changes were as follows:

Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz replace Jean Eric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat. The Russian replaces Ferrari-bound Sebastian Vettel, who replaces Fernando Alonso. In turn, the Spaniard replaces Kevin Magnussen. Also, Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr replace Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez, and Marussia (as Manor) eventually announced Will Stevens (who made his debut in Abu Dhabi) and Roberto Merhi.

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Singapore GP Review and Japanese GP Preview: Rules, Retirements and Rewards

Heading into the Singapore GP weekend, the main question was whether Mercedes could continue their dominance, or if other teams could challenge them on the much slower and tighter Marina Bay Street Circuit.

After Free Practice, Red Bull and Ferrari appeared to be a lot closer than in the previous race at Monza, and Toro Rosso looked relatively strong - especially with Jean Eric Vergne, who doesn't even have a contract for 2015.

In Qualifying, after the usual suspicions that Mercedes were sandbagging, they duly took the front row, but the gap between Hamilton (pole) and Rosberg (2nd) was just 0.007s, the smallest margin for a long time.

Behind them, we saw Red Bull, Ferrari and Williams (who appear to have improved their slow circuit setup) take the next six places, ahead of the McLaren and Toro Rosso drivers (Magnussen and Kvyat made the top 10, their team mates did not).

Force India were below par in Qualifying, with Singapore not suiting their car in the same way as low downforce circuits, whereas Lotus were struggling as usual (but not in the same way as they were last time out).

Marussia and Caterham completed the grid, more than half a second off the other teams.

All was calm going into Sunday, but in an interview with Sky Sports F1, Lewis admitted that "if his car doesn't finish tomorrow, he's still in the mix; if mine doesn't, I'm not" - clearly he felt it was time Nico could afford a DNF.

However, going to the grid, Nico had various problems with his steering wheel so had it changed at least once. It didn't help, so he couldn't get away for the warm up lap - during which Kobayashi pulled off (counting as a DNS or did not start result) - meaning that Rosberg had to start from the pits (if at all) rather than 2nd.

Once the race was under way, Hamilton pulled away pretty comfortably, with Vettel and Alonso both jumping Ricciardo. Jenson gained a few places, but McLaren nearly had a two car collision - they were lucky to get away with only the loss of positions to Williams.

Most runners were roughly status quo until a few changes around the pitstops, except Rosberg who was still nursing problems until his retirement on lap 14.

Then on lap 30 Sutil squeezed Perez against the barrier going into Turn 8 - this left some debris on track and the Safety Car was deployed (as it had been in the first six Singapore GPs) for a good seven laps - including time for lapped cars to overtake, including Perez. The unlapping period would be significant later on for both the Mexican and Force India.

After the Safety Car had returned to the pits, we had an interesting situation where Hamilton still had to change to the Soft tyres, whereas the three drivers behind him (Vettel, Ricciardo and Alonso) had all done their compulsory stints on both sets of tyres. This meant the Brit had to pull out a substantial gap to ensure he would lead or come out close to Vettel when he eventually pitted.

This was when the Mercedes really got going, pulling away a good 3-4 seconds per lap initially - this eventually went down to about a second a lap before the change to soft tyres. When Lewis came out, he was with Ricciardo and a couple of seconds behind Vettel, who would go on to lead a lap for the first time in 2014. Shortly after, Jenson Button pulled over with a car problem and became the fifth retirement, promoting Kimi to 7th.

One lap later, Lewis was on the back of Sebastian and forced his way past with DRS before Turn 7. He never looked back and duly won the race to take the title lead by 3 points.

However, it was all going on behind Massa in 5th as team mate Bottas could no longer manage his tyres, and a pumped Vergne was desperate to overturn another 5 second penalty. He forced his way past, as did everyone else down to Magnussen. Perez followed Vergne through soon after for 7th. Raikkonen, Hulkenberg and Magnussen completed the points ahead of Bottas.

Maldonado had his best race in 12th, ahead of Grosjean, Kvyat, Ericsson, Bianchi and Chilton.

The Singapore GP result leaves only six drivers in contention for the title, they are Hamilton, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Alonso, Vettel and Bottas. It also gives Mercedes a small chance of becoming Constructors champions in Japan, and puts Force India on their best ever points total ahead of McLaren.

Ferrari closed on Williams, and Toro Rosso made good progress with another eight points.

Looking ahead to Japan, depending on certain results we could be down to just three drivers in contention (Hamilton, Rosberg and Ricciardo), and Red Bull could strengthen their 2nd place over Williams and Ferrari.

Neither Mercedes driver has won at Suzuka, but then again neither driver had won in Malaysia, Bahrain or Spain and Hamilton won all three (Austria has been excluded as F1 hadn't raced there since 2003).

Jenson Button will be desperate to impress after his 2011 win, and Kamui Kobayashi would love to do something special in his home race after his 2012 podium with Sauber.

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Italian GP Review and Singapore GP Preview: Speed, Saves and Sanity

In the Italian GP, the biggest questions were whether the Mercedes pair would crash into each other again, and how the new asphalt run off at Parabolica would affect proceedings.

The former was relatively easy to answer as they never came within half a second of each other during the whole weekend, and the latter wasn't as bad as it could've been due to everyone having at least two wheels on track for pretty much the whole weekend - but at least it was there to collect any GP2 or GP3 madness that preceeded.

In practice, Mercedes topped the times in every session, but both drivers lost a good hour of time with reliability problems. Williams and McLaren also impressed, and duly took the second and third rows in Qualifying behind the dominant Mercedes pair. Fernando Alonso and the Red Bull pair followed, with Sergio Perez completing the top 10.

Daniil Kvyat became the first person to use a sixth engine this year, and as a result dropped from 11th to 21st. Kimi Raikkonen and Jean Eric Vergne followed, and another below par session for Nico Hulkenberg saw him in 13th. Sauber and Lotus struggled again, languishing in 14th-17th positions - the latter failing to make it past Q1. The usual four completed the grid with the returning Kobayashi beating the Marussias and Marcus Ericsson (who ended up 22nd) started from the pitlane after an FP3 infringement.

In the race, Lewis Hamilton had a slow getaway, leaving Nico Rosberg to capitalise with an early lead over the fast starting Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Massa. Valtteri Bottas was affected by Hamilton and therefore lost out even more.

Max Chilton was an early retirement on lap 6 with a bounce over the kerbs and a crash at the Variante della Roggia (second chicane), and Fernando Alonso ended his finishing record with an engine problem mid race - leaving Ferrari with a genuine chance of not scoring points at home!

Having already gone down the escape road at the Variante del Rettifilo (first chicane) once, Nico Rosberg went there again, however this time he could not keep the charging Lewis Hamilton behind. They powered on to a seventh 1-2 finish of 2014, the first since Austria, and Massa held on to third ahead of Bottas, who had recovered from midfield. It was Felipe's first podium since the Spanish GP last year, and in front of the tifosi, after driving for Ferrari for eight years and being part of the Ferrari network for even longer prior to 2014.

Ricciardo passed Vettel for 5th, and Perez finished 7th after a five second penalty for Magnussen, who finished just ahead of him on the road but ended up 10th. Jenson Button was just behind Perez, and Kimi held off Kvyat after the latter suffered a late brake failure at the first chicane - the 20 year old just managed to keep the STR9 out of the barriers and finished 11th. Hulkenberg and Vergne followed, with the remaining runners (Lotus, Sauber and Marussia) all lapped.

This leaves Nico Rosberg with a 22 point lead over Lewis Hamilton, and Mercedes with a 182 point lead over Red Bull.

Turning our attention to Singapore, FIA have decided to clamp down on team radio messages from the teams from now on - will the radio silence help drivers concentrate over the two hour night race?

We will find out in due course - next week's race is at 8pm local time (1pm UK, the same as most European races).

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Belgian GP Review and Italian GP Preview: Tricks, Trips and Triples

As with most races so far this year, the Belgian GP gave us more questions than answers.

After a fairly typical wet qualifying, barring a below par session for Hulkenberg, a car problem for Gutierrez and André Lotterer replacing Kobayashi, almost everyone was roughly where they should’ve been based on 2014 form. The big stories in Q3 were the two second margin Mercedes had over their rivals and Vettel beating Alonso for third.

In the race, Mercedes initially scampered away and two drivers had an early exit: Pastor Maldonado and André Lotterer. Jules Bianchi was caught up in a first lap incident and had to limp back with a puncture. All was calm, but then came lap 2 - Rosberg wanted to pass Hamilton at Les Combes, but the latter was having none of it. The result was two damaged cars (one beyond full repair) and more embarrassment after the Hungarian GP team radio call to let Nico pass Lewis.

This was another significant blow to Hamilton’s title chances, as he had a damaged floor and a puncture to deal with for almost the entire 7km Spa Francorchamps lap.

However, with another Mercedes self-destruction came Ricciardo’s chance, and having passed Vettel (who went wide at Pouhon) on lap 6, he took the initiative once Rosberg had pitted for tyres and a new front wing assembly.

Despite being flat out thereafter, the damage had already been done and Nico had to settle for second to Ricciardo, who won for the third time in 2014, after a final stint on the soft tyres. Kimi’s resurgence continued with an early pitstop giving him track position over Rosberg and Bottas until the closing stages.

Behind them was Vettel, Magnussen (who was later demoted to 12th), Button, Alonso, Perez, Kvyat and Hulkenberg. Jean-Eric Vergne, who will be replaced by 16 year old Max Verstappen in 2015, just missed out in 11th.

This result left Mercedes comfortably on top of both championships, but Rosberg returns to his post-Austria lead of 29 points with just seven races remaining. However there are technically eight races (points wise) as Abu Dhabi has double points, which could work either way if it turns out to be the deciding race.

For this year’s Italian GP, we should see higher top speeds than 2013, but probably not record breaking speeds.

Coming into this race, pace would suggest Mercedes and Williams are the teams to beat, but Red Bull or even Toro Rosso could surprise us all yet again - especially if it rains as it did in 2008. Lotus and Caterham are likely to struggle again, as could Sauber who are still yet to score this year.

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Gold beats Silver to Germany win as Vettel and Lotus fill the podium, Mercedes overcome Hungary heat, Mr Blonde / Goldfinger thrashes the field in Belgium

After the tyre problems at Silverstone, Pirelli gave the teams a different specification of tyre for the German GP only, with a view to 2012 construction and 2013 performance from Hungary onwards.

Whether the tyres could hold on or not was the big question on everyone's mind, along with the relative performance changes for each team.

From practice it seemed that Mercedes could have trouble coping with the heatwave at the Nurburgring, but McLaren appeared to have moved forward and Force India had dropped back.

Sure enough, Lewis Hamilton took pole, but with Nico Rosberg failing to make it past Q2 Mercedes left themselves exposed to a Red Bull dominance.

In the early laps it was all fairly normal (apart from Lewis slipping back and Felipe Massa retiring after a Turn 1 spin) until Mark Webber's pitstop, where a loose wheel hit a cameraman. Stricter regulations were put in place after the incident for the Hungarian GP.

After that, Lotus eventually emerged as Vettel's main challengers, until a "bag some points" moment for Kimi (to stop him falling back like China 2012) left Sebastian clear for his first home win after five attempts with Red Bull. This left the podium the same as Bahrain (2012 and 2013), with Alonso pipping Hamilton to fourth.

Lower down, McLaren had taken their biggest haul of points for quite some time (having ended a 60 odd race points streak with two non-points races), Force India failed to score and Sauber scored a point with Nico Hulkenberg in 10th. Williams failed to score again and Caterham beat Marussia.

Heading to Hungary, Mercedes had seen their German GP win challenge fade very early on, so with the Hungaroring being traditionally difficult to overtake on they needed to get their title challenge back on track with the new tyres.

Qualifying gave Lewis Hamilton his third pole in a row (Mercedes had taken all the dry pole positions and Red Bull the wet ones up to this point), with Vettel and Grosjean just behind.

In the race, the hard work paid off for Mercedes as Lewis held on for his fourth Hungarian GP win - with Kimi and Sebastian completing the podium. A somewhat unfortunate but messy race for Grosjean left him 6th, and Williams finally got a point with Maldonado in 10th (only after a late drop out courtesy of Nico Rosberg's engine).

Going into the Summer break, Vettel had a 38 point lead over Kimi, 39 over Alonso, 48 over Lewis and 67 over Webber - so it appears the top four are the ones fighting for the title.

Some of the big talking points that would dominate the Summer break included Webber's Red Bull seat (who would replace him for 2014) and the 2014 Calendar - which even now hasn't been provisionally confirmed!

However, on F1's return, at Spa Francorchamps, both topics were still rumbling on - but with Shell's involvement as the Belgian GP's title sponsor Greenpeace decided to campaign against their drilling in the Arctic (something Greenpeace think Shell is doing, but I don't know either way).

This wasn't the most amusing story of the weekend - it was in fact Vettel's dyed hair (nicknames given include Mr Blonde) - but it remained to be seen if he could swing the momentum back his way.

Practice suggested Red Bull could dominate the race with both cars, but remember it was only Practice!

But when it came to Qualifying, Spa's microclimate offered a chance for Caterham and Marussia - which they both took - VDG was 3rd, BIA 11th and CHI 16th in Q1 with only the weighbridge preventing Pic from joining them in Q2. After a relatively dry Q2, Q3 started cloudy but quickly turned wet. PDR set the pace, until the track dried very late on. Hamilton was last in the queue, and duly took his fourth consecutive pole position.

His lead over Vettel didn't last long, with the German's car better suited to Sectors 1 and 3 - leaving the compromised Mercedes vulnerable to a Kemmel Straight pass, from which Sebastian never looked back.

McLaren managed to get both cars in the points, but a non-finish for Kimi meant Lotus couldn't do the same. Ricciardo took the final point in 10th from 19th on the grid, but a clash for Maldonado with Di Resta sent the Brit out at Bus Stop and gave the Venezuelan a Stop and Go penalty.

Caterham's Giedo van der Garde had an impressive weekend, holding off the Marussias from start to finish.

With Alonso and Hamilton completing the podium, Vettel now has a 46 point lead with 8 races left - arguably his to lose now! But can Ferrari, Mercedes or Lotus fight back? The tifosi will be keen to see their team win but anyone looking for a tight title fight will want anyone but Vettel to do well.

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2013 British GP: Testing Times for (Pirelli) Tyres

After the tragic events both in and out of Formula 1 (the deaths of Mark Robinson and several drivers since the Canadian GP finished), the teams set up at Silverstone (although Force India are just across the road so it wasn't exactly difficult for them!).

On Thursday it was announced that after months of speculation, Mark Webber would be leaving F1 at the end of 2013 to drive for Porsche in their 2014 World Endurance team. It was later confirmed that Kimi Raikkonen, Jean Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo will all be considered for the Red Bull drive in 2014.

During Friday Practice the weather was again a limiting factor in the amount of laps completed, which meant the 80,000 or so spectators probably felt a bit short changed by the rain. But during the F1 show it did at least give a classic Silverstone setting for a live proposal in the  from a pair of F1 fans!

Moving on to Saturday Practice, over the three sessions Mercedes and Red Bull had set the pace, but Ferrari and Lotus had yet to shine. As for McLaren they still looked to have problems, especially when Sergio Perez suffered the first puncture of the weekend, but Force India and Toro Rosso had both impressed so far. However Williams were not replicating any of Valtteri's Canadian GP qualifying pace.

Then came Qualifying. The usual suspects, being a Williams, Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber, Caterham and Marussia, all fell in Q1. This time it was Pastor Maldonado who made it to Q2, where he joined both McLarens, Massa, Vergne and Hulkenberg in failing to reach Q3.

In the final part of Qualifying it was the usual four at the front (Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel and Webber) but both Paul Di Resta and Daniel Ricciardo shone ahead of Sutil, Grosjean, Raikkonen and Alonso. However it transpired that Di Resta's car was underweight, and he was excluded from Qualifying which meant he had to start from P22.

Finally, Race Day was upon us with the home crowd hoping Lewis Hamilton could convert pole to win, something he hadn't done since announcing his move to Mercedes.

It was all going well for most people, notably apart from Webber (who had a slow start, damaged his wing and ended up in P14 at the end of Lap 1) and Button, who also dropped back on a circuit where his record is relatively poor despite it being his home race. That was at least until Lap 8!

Hamilton had led away from pole with Vettel and Rosberg following within a few seconds, but a rear left puncture coming out of Turn 4 ruined his chances of a home podium. The new order was Vettel, Rosberg and Sutil, who had made good ground and passed Ricciardo in the opening phase. Just two laps later, Felipe Massa had the same puncture and his race was also severely compromised. A few laps later, it was Vergne's turn to have a blowout on Hangar Straight, right in front of the Lotuses of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.

These three incidents brought out the first Safety Car of the afternoon, and once the race had resumed Vettel scampered off into the distance. Or so it seemed... After a relatively quiet (tyre wise) middle stint (where a number of drivers had somehow got back round to the pits despite tyre damage), Sebastian's car slowed and ground to a halt on the start finish straight, triggering a second Safety Car. This gave Nico Rosberg a "free" pitstop but also helped the likes of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso, who would later see a close call with Perez, who had another tyre problem, this time on Hangar Straight.

Luckily it was only those four and that Alonso chose the right side of Sergio to overtake and not the left, otherwise it might not have ended well, but a very clear message from all the drivers that the tyres need to be made safer.

The sheer multitude of incidents somewhat overshadowed Nico Rosberg's victory, and left many British fans with a "what if" for Lewis Hamilton that will never be answered.

As the teams head to Germany they will be looking to avoid a repeat of these tyre failures, and will be given a chance to do tyre testing (apart from Mercedes) at the Young Driver Test.

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