First practice at the Sakhir circuit was completed in super hot conditions, so teams weren’t gathering particularly relevant data for the rest of the weekend. Mercedes were running longer and heavier, so finished middle of the timesheets, whilst it was Ferrari on top. Sebastian Vettel went fastest, but Kimi Räikkönen broke down due to mechanical troubles. Stoffel Vandoorne also stopped out on track in his McLaren, whilst Felipe Massa had something of a spin but finished in the top five anyway.

In the second session, Ferrari continued their performance – they finished fastest with Sebastian Vettel again, but they also had a breakdown with Vettel stopping just short of the pit entrance. The mechanics had to dash down the pitlane to recover the car. Räikkönen was fourth, with one Mercedes and one Red Bull splitting the two Ferraris.

Meanwhile, it was also a repetitive situation for Vandoorne, who stopped on track. Carlos Sainz also stopped, his Toro Rosso failing to complete the full session.

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It didn’t take long for McLaren to find a ready and willing substitute for Fernando Alonso, after revealing this week that the Spaniard would be missing the Monaco Grand Prix in favour of racing a McLaren car in the Indy 500. The team are bringing back Jenson Button, who retired at the end of the 2016 season as a full time F1 racer, to become the reserve driver this year and focus on other interests.

Button has been training hard to take part in Iron Man competitions, but will return to racing on four wheels in May. The British driver said: “I’m thrilled to be making a one-off return to F1 racing, and I couldn’t think of a better place to make that return than my adopted home of Monaco… It’ll be nice to say hi to all my old F1 mates too, and hopefully to give the fans something to cheer about.”

Racing Director, Éric Boullier, adds: “Jenson is a superb driver and he won’t have lost any of his competitive edge over the past few months. After all, he’s missed only a handful of races since Abu Dhabi last year, and he’s as fit as a fiddle. Also, he’s always been good at Monaco.”

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McLaren announced today that they would be racing a car, powered by Honda, in the Indy 500 event set to take place in May. The team’s car will be run by Andretti Autosport, and will be driven by the one and only Fernando Alonso. The timing of the Indy 500 means Alonso will miss out on the Monaco Grand Prix which takes place on the same weekend, May 28th.

Alonso says: “I’ve never raced an IndyCar car before, and neither have I ever driven on a super-speedway, but I’m confident that I’ll get to grips with it fast… I’ll be flying to Indianapolis from Barcelona, practising from May 15th onwards, hopefully clocking up a large number of miles every day, and I know how good the Andretti Autosport guys are. I’ll be proud to race with them.”

Of course, McLaren have spun it as good news, returning to the Indy 500 for the first time in almost 4 decades, but it’s impossible not to see this as them giving Alonso something to enjoy this year, considering the state of their 2017 car.

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It was a wet start to the race, with almost all the drivers opting for intermediate tyres. Lance Stroll went off into the gravel immediately, causing a virtual safety car, meaning many quickly took the option to change to slicks. Antonio Giovinazzi followed up with a huge crash into the main straight pit wall. He was fine but the real safety car was called.

When the action got going, Lewis Hamilton led comfortably from the front and was untroubled to pick up another win in China. Sebastian Vettel battled past his teammate to take second place, whilst Red Bull were having their own inter-team battle. Max Verstappen swept past about nine cars on the first lap, and clawed his way up into third place for the final few laps. Daniel Ricciardo caught him up and hunted him to the line but had to settle for fourth.

Meanwhile, both McLaren drivers retired from the race with mechanical trouble, as did Daniil Kvyat who pulled his Toro Rosso off track. Hamilton and Vettel now sit on equal points in the championship as the battle really looks on between Mercedes and Ferrari.

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As is often the way with qualifying, all the action seemed to happen in the first and last sessions. Max Verstappen suffered a power unit problem on his Red Bull that meant his fastest lap was only good enough for 19th on the grid. Meanwhile, Antonio Giovinazzi, perhaps suffering from the lack of preparation time, spun on his final flying lap and crashed into the barriers. He was unharmed but he did crash at exactly the wrong time for several drivers around him. Romain Grosjean had suffered a puncture on his first run and had it all to do on the second, but ended up 17th on the grid.

Meanwhile, into the top ten shoot out and it was Lewis Hamilton setting the pace, he was the first to cross the line once the chequered flag had dropped and he posted the benchmark time. Kimi Räikkönen settled for fourth, whilst Bottas couldn’t beat his teammate’s time either. Vettel slotted into second place, almost two tenths off the polesitter’s pace. Incredibly, Bottas missed out on second by just 0.001 seconds.

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There was exceptionally limited running during Free Practice Friday in Shanghai, with drivers being unable to prepare properly for the rest of the Chinese Grand Prix Weekend. FP1 endured a 40 minute red flag period due to misty conditions that grounded the medical helicopter, and the session was brought to a premature end after Nico Hülkenberg beached his Renault in the gravel. No driver managed to get more than eight laps of running in, there were only 14 official times on the board, and although Max Verstappen was fastest, he said he would much rather have had more running than the top spot.

Romain Grosjean tweeted his hope that there would be more laps in FP2, but the fog moved in once again and kept the medical helicopter on the ground. Race Control kept an eye on the radar hoping that a break in conditions would allow the session to get started, but that glimpse of blue skies never happened. Instead, FP2 was officially cancelled, meaning there were just 124 laps recorded for Friday practice.

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The future of the Malaysian Grand Prix has been in doubt following action taken by the local government to cut costs. It was anticipated the contract would end after the 2018 event but that has been brought forward so that this year’s running will be the last. At the time, Malaysia’s tourism minister said: “From the longer term perspective, it’s probably the correct decision because it’s more expensive and no longer that attractive.”

Fan numbers had been dwindling, and the track was starting to look less attractive compared to the glitzy Singapore and Abu Dhabi events. Nevertheless, it’s the end of an era as Malaysia has featured on the Formula One calendar for almost two decades. F1’s new commercial chief Sean Bratches has said that despite the loss, there will be a bumper 21 race calendar in 2018, which will now include the return of the French and German races.

He added: “It’s always sad to say goodbye to a member of the F1 family. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Sepang International Circuit for their hospitality and professionalism over the years, and their ongoing commitment to motorsport.”

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Wehrlein is still getting back up to speed after his Race of Champions accident in December last year, and is set to sit out the second round of the 2017 season, after missing out in Australia a fortnight ago. The German driver said: “For me, the most important thing is that I can train intensively to ensure a 100% performance from my side as soon as possible. Hopefully this can be in Bahrain but if not, then we will take the time it needs until Russia to make sure I am completely ready.”

Although Wehrlein considers his neck injury to be healed, it’s thought that the lack of training and therefore strength he has in the neck would be an issue in the new style heavier and harder to manage F1 cars. That means it will be Antonio Giovinazzi back in the car for his second race weekend, after super subbing for Sauber in Melbourne. The Ferrari junior driver performed well during his first weekend, finishing 12th, with team boss Monisha Kaltenborn calling it a “very impressive performance. He showed his potential as well as what the car is capable of.”

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The race in Albert Park was perhaps not as chaotic as we might have imagined, but it delivered a fascinating start to the season with Sebastian Vettel returning to the top step of the podium for the first time in over a year. Ferrari navigated their one-stop strategy well, timing it right to jump Lewis Hamilton for the lead midway through the race. Lewis came in for some late pressure from his teammate Valtteri Bottas, but held him off for a double Mercedes podium.

Further back, Romain Grosjean was the first retirement, kicking off Haas’s double DNF. Marcus Ericsson and Kevin Magnussen both succumbed to damage picked up during a first lap incident between the pair – which, incidentally, was the only action the stewards looked into, and even then decided not to issue any sanctions. Jolyon Palmer, Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, and Fernando Alonso all also failed to see the chequered flag.

Meanwhile, Esteban Ocon finished in the top ten to pick up his first points in Formula One, whilst Antonio Giovinazzi put in a solid, if unspectacular debut, to finish 12th.

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Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the first race of the 2017 season, which may not have been too much of a surprise, but it was a shock to see Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo end his session in the wall. The Australian got into the top ten but failed to set a time in Q3, instead mangling his car in front of the home crowd.

Meanwhile, Williams did an incredible job to patch up Lance Stroll’s car following an FP3 crash, but he was still down in 19th place, only ahead of Jolyon Palmer who himself was struggling following his Friday practice crash. Sauber’s Antonio Giovinazzi kept his nose clean in his first F1 qualifying, but was also out in Q1.

Both Toro Rosso drivers made it up into the top ten, whilst Romain Grosjean finished sixth to secure the best grid spot so far for Haas. Out front, Hamilton topped Sebastian Vettel for pole, with Valtteri Bottas missing out on a front row grid slot by just three hundredths of a second.

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