Well... first race of the new season tomorrow. Anyone else see the new qualifying today? New rules (possibly for this race only?) those who aren't aware:



To say it was a farce today would be an understatement. Something that Bernie came up with to make the end of qualifying more exciting, and instead what we had was for the last three and a half minutes nobody out on the track and a view of the drivers getting out of their cars and getting weighed. Earlier on, we had drivers going out as they just didn't have enough time to try and improve their time before being knocked out - and this was something that would be even worse on tracks like Spa where you'd be talkng about drivers having to come out 4 minutes before their knockout time when they only have 90 seconds to save themselves. Was it worth trying something different? Possibly. But it already seems as though it could be quietly dropped before the next race.

Aas it is, Hamilton starts 1st, Rosberg 2nd, and Vettel 3rd. Lets hope the race itself is much more interesting.

Button was 5 seconds a lap faster this year in quali...
Hamilton was 2.5 seconds a lap faster

a bit was poor

Decent first race, Aloso's crash OMFG he was so lucky!!

Rosberg never troubled throughout the race really, although getting the tyres wrong on Vettel's car probably cost him the win.

Amazing debut from the Haas team, 6th is incredible

I was shocked how he just walked it off lol ,so lucky

Amazing to see how Alonso just walked away given the state of his car! Begs the question though as to how easy it would have been to get out with the halo thing for next year though.

Apparently they were almost ready to retire Rosberg for braking issue

If Hamilton didn't have that awful start he could have won it, but much closer from the ferraris

More news on the qualifying farce. At a meeting today the teams were given two options, neither of which is to revert to the old rules:

a) Stick to the rules used in Australia.

or b) Stick to the new elimination rules in Q1 & Q2 but then go back to the old rules in Q3.

It seems like this was a bolt out of the blue for the teams and thus nothing was agreed on. Apparently there could be more talks next week.

In other news, once Channel 4's deal for F1 - which was essentially taking over the remainder of the BBCs contract for partial live coverage - ends at the end of 2018, Sky have announced that they've agreed an exclusive deal to be the solve broadcaster of F1 coverage, ending terrestrial coverage.

bad news that about sky

Although I enjoy Sky's coverage of F1, I agree it is a shame Steve that those without Sky aren't going to see any live coverage any more. I think it's only been a matter of time though since they got involved in the sport that sooner or later they'd want to maximise their value by having the sole rights, and Bernie's now been persusaded that the increased fees outweighs the loss of fans through it not been shown regularly on free-to-air TV.

It was always going to go that way. The BBC had to make cost cuts so sacrificed 100% rights allowing Sky to start coverage. The BBC then had to make further cost cuts to sacrificed all F1 coverage on BBC TV - Channel 4 picked this up at what I assume to be a discounted rate for the remainder of the deal (I guess because ITV weren't interested) and not renegotiating a deal to go on further than 2018 shows Channel 4's attitude towards it in the long run.

Sky's coverage of F1 is fantastic. It's also not just a part of the regular Sky Sports pack - it's also part of the standard Sky subscription - so you can watch with a basic Sky subscription, and for £10 a month for HD, you get Sky Sports F1 HD.

The terrestrial broadcasters have always had time restraints amongst other things so when Sky came along, dedicated a complete channel to F1 and have live broadcasts from the start to well after the teams start to pack up is very good indeed.

Sky have said that they will create a FTA F1 channel showing highlights after the races, and broadcast the complete British grand prix weekend. Sure, no more terrestrial coverage, but quite a good alternative.

It's been formally confirmed now that they will be sticking to the new qualifying format in this weekends race in Bahrain. Apparently Jean Todt, the president of the FIA, had refused to have the option of the old qualifying format presented to the teams at the meeting last week as he decided he wasn't going to be dictated to by the teams. Vettel summed up the situation icely:

"Put it this way: You sell ice cream, and it's vanilla and everybody that comes to your shop is asking for chocolate ice cream. And the next day everyone comes expecting you to sell chocolate ice cream but you sell vanilla again. You do what your clients would like you to do. You are not really doing your job by doing the exact opposite."

Slightly more exciting this evening in Q3, but even less exciting in Q1 & Q2 than in Australia. Upshot is Hamilton starts 1st, Rosberg 2nd and Vettel 3rd again. Hamilton needs to start better than he has recently if he's to compete.

wish i was watching it but gotta work today so i didnt bother buying tickets

Bits of action here and there, but otherwise a fairly dull race - shame Vettel packed in on the warm up lap, as it might have spiced things up a bit. Hamilton simply has to try and pull away better, it cost him again and if he doesn't improve on this soon Rosberg is just going to sail into the distance in the championship.

I've got to be honest, I've not watched any of the F1 this season so far. In previous years I would, but my mind is telling me there are plenty of other things I could be doing on a Sunday than watching fairly dull races

Record and scan is the way ahead then if it's dull you can nip through and stop and rewind when you see a good overtake or crazy off.

Bernie and Jean Todt have apparently now caved in to the teams on the qualifying format and have agreed that they should go back to the old system "in the interests of the championship", subject to approval by the FIA - so it may or not be changed in time for next weekends race. Their original proposal after Bahrain was a different system wherby each drivers two fastest laps would be aggregated rather than just going off one lap to give their time, but the teams jointly said it was too complicated and said enough was enough, causing the F1 management to back down.

Chinsese race this weekend. Bits of news: FIA have approved the change back to last years qualifying system, Alonso should be back racing again, and more bad news for Hamilton with a five place grid drop for changing his gearbox.

Rosberg on pole, with Ricciardo 2nd, Raikkonen 3rd and Vettel 4th. Hamilton with it all to do starting last after he wasn't able to set any time in Q1 due to techinical issues he had. Anyone else see Hulkenbergs front wheel deciding it wanted to go quicker down the track than the rest of the car?

At the front, Rosberg ran away with it by some distance without even having to try, but other than that it was a really good race I thought, so much action going on and lots of overtaking. Loved the ding dong between Vettel and Kvyat in the green room after the race!

Yeh an intresting race if you ignored the winner, shame Hamiltons wing went under the car or we may have seen moor from him..... The pre podium back room kick off was brilliant !!!

I need to get myself up to speed with this. I've been way too busy so far this year but I shall aim to try and get involved.

Russia this weekend. Hamilton fastest by a big margin 0.65 seconds from Vettel, with Rosberg third fastest. Vettel also facing a five place grid drop after changing his gearbox.

Rosberg starts in 1st today, with Bottas 2nd and Raikkonnen 3rd quickest. Hamilton dropped out of Q3 after his engine went kaput the same as in China. Vettel finished 2nd, but drops down with his grid penalty, and was a huggggge 0.7 seconds adrift of Rosberg. With that kind of pace, barring technical problems today, probably only a question of who finishes 2nd in the race (and indeed the championship!).

Rosberg did win it comfortably in the end, but a great drive from Hamilton to get it up to 2nd. When he started cutting into Rosbergs lead I assumed it was just because of trafic, but once they'd both worked their way through and his lead had gone from 12 to 7 seconds in the matter of a few laps, I thought we could be in for an interesting end to the race, and was a shame Hamilton had bad luck once again with the water presuure issue, and had to just nurse the car home. Nice to see both McLarens make it into the points also. Best moment of the race was Vettels reaction to the crash with Kyvat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZlKH8QlfBs

Blistering pace from Hamiliton to be in pole today. Rosberg 2nd, and Ricciardo third - he seemed somewhat delighted on the radio at having finished ahead of young Max.

Then they take each other out on first corner but great win by Verstappen for Red Bull really wanna see battles fair battles with the mercs

Yes, could see that coming again for a while, though agreed with Martin Brundle that Rosberg was more at fault than Hamilton. Great win for Verstappen though, surely a future world champion.

Oh dear Max.

Quite disappointed by the red bull pitstop, when it came down to the wire they couldn't get it together!

Yer, was good for Hamilton that it's brought him back into the championship a little, but felt a bit sorry for Riciardo that it went all to cock in that pit stop that ultimately cost himn the win. Finally a bit of luck for Hamiliton I guess though.

Well the rain certianly spiced the race up a bit

Anyone else see Ricciardo's celebration on the podium today?

I,didn't really concentrate on the post race bits on the hilighs, guess I will go back to my deleted programs and take a look

Here you go Dave:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9gEVoqabFg

Didn't watch the race but great to see Hamilton 19 points in front
Evens it up a bit as hamiltons engines have been so crap

The mad fool!! Cheers Chris for the link

Season resumes at Spa this weekend.

YEH!!!

Hamilton likely to take a 20 place grid drop this weekend due to the engine issues he had early in the season catching up on him:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/37172485

20 is a fair old penalty !!

Not compared to the artificial 55 place penalty it was in the end!

rolling starts the future me thinks

Wasn't a bad race all in all. Rosberg, as expected, had a comfortable victory, but 3rd was a great effort from Hamiliton in what was always going to be a damage limitation exercise and he's now got his penalties out the way in one go.

On another note, I like young Verstappen, but agree with Raikkonnen that sooner or later he's going to cause a big crash. You're allowed to make one change of direction to defend your position, but you can't just swerve back and forwards from one side to the other like he did today.

was a good race good to see Hamilton up to 3rd from the back of the grid also to see Alonso up in points too for Maclaren shame Rosberg had to win but at least Hamilton still in lead in championship

Italy this weekend, and good news that the Italian GPs short term future is secure for another three years at least.

Hamilton takes pole, and Rosberg starts second. In other news... Jenson Button will semi-retire after the end of this season, becomming McLarens reserve driver for the next two years.

shame hamilton had such a bad start but still leads championship just, lets hope for a better next few races

Yep a shocking start for Hamilton this time out, but still just ahead as you say ...... It's a shame Buttons time at McLaren is fizzling out rather than him having a car he can fight for wins in

Yes I don't know what happened at the start there. It seemed to get away easy enough for about a second and then suddenly seemed to crawl away while five cars flew past. It was a pity as it would have been a much more interesting race if they'd been battling, whereas once you knew Ferraris pit stop strategy was compared to the Mercs, you knew that first and second were pretty much decided.

Malaysia this weekend... let's see if Hamilton can convert the dominance he's shown so far over the first two days into a win to pit his championship race back on track.

Overall was a decent race today, but I think the championship is over now, and I think Hamilton realised his hopes had just literally gone up in smoke. Unless Rosberg has reliability issues or crashes out at some point, then realistically he now has to win all of the last five races and given that another engine has just blew up and he's likely to be starting at the back of the grid in one race then it's pretty much game over. A shame as Hamilton had been so dominant all weekend and was looking like he was cruising to victory today.

Some fun on the podium today, with not just Ricciardo doing a shoey again, but him also in turn handing one to Christain Horner, Verstappen and then Rosberg who looked like he was reluctantly doing so and wanted to be sick. Webber then came out to do the interviews and said he wasn't having any of this and chucked Ricciardos shoe over the balcony.

An early start tomoorow morning in Japan - Rosberg starts 1st, Hamilton 2nd and Raikonnen 3rd.

Pretty decent race on Sunday I thought.

Hamilton starts on pole, and Rosberg in second shortly. Much better conditions than last year!

Well was quite an exciting race for the first half and then kinda fizzled out after Verstappens car went pop, and the free pit stop for both Mercs meant they were pretty much nailed on for a one-two from then on. As it is, Rosberg's done all that he needs to do so far to get his title.

Mexico GP starts soon. Yesterday quailifying looked like we could have an interesting mixup at the top of the grid then Rosberg pulling a rabbit out the hat to get 2nd out of nowhere after being off the pace all weekend.

Well that was a right old tantrum from Vettle at the end got him to 3rd from 5th then demoted after ..... ops!

Was surprised that he didn't get further punished for his rant at Charlie Whiting. He needs anger management lessons in the winter methinks as he's outbursts have just been getting worse and worse as the seasons gone on culminating in his bleep ridden efforts on Sunday.

Yep he got off lightly and does need to calm down his outbursts it's not good for the image of the sport

Brazil this weekend and a familiar situation so far - Hamilton doing everything he can do (1st on the grid), and Rosberg doing all he needs to do (starting 2nd).

what a race once it got going after red flags Verstappen is a mad one but how he drove last few laps in that weather was amazing glad Hamilton won and doing what he needs but Rosberg is doing as he needs too

Good mixed up race, rain always adds fun !!! Was Looking for a nice wipeout move on Rosberg by someone

It was a great race all round, even if it seemed to go on forever!! Superb driving from Hamilton and Verstappen, just a shame that Red Bulls odd decision to pit him for intermediates cost him second. Not sure I agree with some commentators views that he would have won the race if he'd stayed out - Hamilton was pulling away from him when he pitted, but Verstappen in turn was leaving Rosberg behind. In any case, it's all still set up for a final race shootout and youi never know what might happen.

Final race showdown in Abu Dhabi tomorrow. As in the last few races, Hamilton once again doing everything he can by getting on pole, but Rosberg crucially got 2nd on the grid. A pity that Verstappen is so far down the grid in 6th - short of an engine failure for Rosberg, the best chance for Hamilton I thought was for young Max to be putting pressure on Rosberg.

another 10 laps would have made for good TV today !

Amazing debut from the Haas team, 6th is incredible.

http://www.hireseoagency.com/

didn't see that coming Rosberg has jacked it in with immediate effect.

It was getting tight at the end there! Like Toto, I can understand it both ways. Yes I understand that you have to work together as a team, but at the same time he was fighting for a championship and felt he had to do whatever he had to do to try and win. Yes, it would have perhaps have been more classy to have sailed off into the distance, which I felt he had the pace to do and set a marker for next season, not just by winning but with the margin (much as Rosberg did at the tail ejnd of last year!). At the same time, the very best drivers all do whatever it takes to try and win - think back to Prost, Senna, Schumacher. I had a wry smile when Vettel implied that he hadn't overtaken because he felt that Hamilton was wrong to ignore team orders. How many time when he was winning with Red Bull did he ignore instructions to help Mark Webber out, and just ignored them to concentrate on himself?

Looking back on the season as a whole, I think Rosberg is a worthy champion, even if he did have his fair share of luck throughout. Toto Wolff said that he felt that the Malaysia engine blow up cost Hamilton, and in simplistic terms it did - mathematically an extra net 28 points turnaround would have won him the title. But it's difficult to know whether Rosberg would have been going as much safety first in those last four races as he did, or if Hamilton would have ben as relaxed knowing he'd nothing to lose. Where I think Hamilton truely lost the championship was the race after Malaysia in Japan, where it was still entirely within his own hand at that time. He got involves in a needless off track row with the media, which distracted him, and ultimately cost him the race and put the championship battle in Rosberg's hands from then on.

Overall, it has been a decent season, with action right to the end.

It was a bit of a shock when I saw the news Steve, total bolt out the blue. Having said that, the more I think about it, the more sense it kind of makes. He's a family man now, and he talked in his interview abiout how his famnily had made sacrifices this year. We all know how upset he was when Hamilton won the title so early on in 2015, and he probably feels he's nothing left to prove now. Also, with up and coming drivers like Verstappen and Ricciardo, Hmailton back on form towards the end of the season, the rule changes maybe meaning that Mercedes won't have it all their own way next year, it's maybe time to go out on a high. He would be getting well paid to carry on, but you can only have so much money!

Be interesting to see who Mercedes hire. Most of the best drivers are already firmly tied, so Wehrlein might get an early promotion, meaning Hamilton would be firmly a number one for the first time since Kovaleinen partnered him at McLaren in 2008-09.

Toto Wolff has confirmed that Mercedes won't be taking any action against Hamilton, and in fact they think in hindsight they made the wrong decision to make the messages over the radio that they did:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38265635

A sensible decision overall that should darw a line under the matter.

They have to be allowed to race and when such a big things at stake and you winning is not enough it's inevitable if you can see a sniff of opitunity your going to try, at the end of the day they both wanted that championship