News roundup and results analysis

Justin:

Apologies to all....4...(?) readers for the rather dull title of this post.

I haven't blogged since Malaysia, which is a lifetime for me. My co-blogger has unofficially reduced his role from fellow founder of "I Was Having a Blog" and full-time blogger to making only special guest blogs when he really feels he needs to dump one out. Kimi would be proud, not answering to the calls of the fans or his team, listening only to what he wants to do and when. Or something.

I'm just going to pick out bits randomly from China and Bahrain.

China saw a massively dominant Fernando Alonso win which vaulted him right into the title fight. There were plenty of overtakes in an action packed race. Ferrari have a very fast car this year, and what's more is it's pace in qualifying which usually sees both drivers in the top 3/4 on the grid.

Unfortunately then in Bahrain Ferrari had plenty of issues, even though they qualified well and looked to be on for podiums in the race. Alonso had DRS problems which dropped him down the field, for a fight back to 8th. Massa had two punctures! Talk about bad luck.

Someone that cannot buy luck right now is Mark Webber. The wheels literally came off his campaign in China, nearly battering into Vettel in the process.

We saw hard and fast wheel to wheel racing with the Mclarens in Bahrain. People seemed to complain that Button complained too much about Perez's style of going racing.

To be fair to JB, if my teammate rammed me and nearly punctured my tyre whilst sending carbon fibre flying and then banging wheels with me at 200mph in another incident, I'd be annoyed too.

It was awesome to watch though wasn't it? :-).

Nico Rosberg bagged a very impressive pole in Bahrain then proceeded to travel backwards quickly during the race.

Lewis seems to be hanging on in third in the title race, 27 points behind Vettel, at the moment. To me though, in race trim, the Mercedes is just not as quick as Ferrari, red Bull or indeed Lotus.

Kimi has taken three podiums from four races thus far - consistency is key once again this year.

Alonso and Ferrari are quicker this year, but of a potential 4 podiums in the first 4 races, cock ups have seen many lost points - they should have told him not to use DRS again when he pitted at the very least.

He is now 4th, 30 points adrift of Vettel after the first 4 races.

It's a gap that cannot get any bigger and why a podium in Spain in two weeks is very much the order of the day.

Murray Walker has been presenting his fave moments from F1 though history for the BBC this year.

The last one was Villeneuve vs Arnoux in France in 1979. They'd be hauled before the stewards and banned for this type of racing these days, but boy did it look bloody awesome!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/22032240