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Kimi Raikkonen can add a second title to his tally in 2012. That is the claim of the 2007 world champion’s countryman Mika Salo, who now commentates on Finnish television MTV3.

In the fourth race of Raikkonen’s return to F1 from rallying, the 32-year-old last weekend challenged Sebastian Vettel for victory in Bahrain, finishing second for Lotus.  Read more... (327 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Bernie Ecclestone has revealed he was not happy Bahrain organisers used the acronym ‘F1′ in its political slogan for last weekend’s race.

The F1 chief executive was highly supportive of the island Kingdom’s intensely controversial return to the sport’s calendar, insisting Bahrain will retain its grand prix “forever”. But when asked about the banners around the Sakhir circuit and the island Kingdom that read ‘UniF1ed’, 81-year-old Ecclestone admitted to the Mirror: “We never put it there.  Read more... (252 words, estimated 1:00 mins reading time)

Fernando Alonso has backed his beleaguered teammate Felipe Massa. Massa is fighting to save his Ferrari seat, but his team boss Stefano Domenicali insists the Brazilian also “needs to improve” for the sake of his very “future in Formula One”.  Read more... (155 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

Jean Alesi would like to see the pressure eased on the shoulders of France’s new F1 hope.

Until Sunday, Alesi was the last French driver to have stood on a Formula One podium, after taking his Sauber to third at Spa in 1998. Romain Grosjean therefore ended a 14-year podium drought for France, tasting top-three spoils in just his eleventh race in F1.  Read more... (268 words, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

All this year’s title contenders know after four ‘flyaway’ races in 2012 is that they do not know what will happen in Spain next month.

“The only certainty is uncertainty,” read the German headline at Netzeitung.

With F1 generally regarded in the wider world as a sport with predictable results, this is an entirely new situation.  Read more... (433 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

With the F1 world now returned from Bahrain, the sport is assessing the fallout of one of the most controversial grands prix in history.

The drivers were conspicuously quiet over the saga in the island Kingdom, but – with no contract tying him down – former Force India driver Adrian Sutil admitted he was glad he was not there.  Read more... (591 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

Lewis Hamilton is rethinking McLaren’s scheduled approach to the rare and crucial in-season test at Mugello next week.  Read more... (190 words, estimated 46 secs reading time)

Amid Ferrari’s performance crisis with the struggling F2012 car, the Italian team has emerged from the opening ‘flyaway’ races with a solid head of steam.

He might be just fifth, but Fernando Alonso is a mere 10 points off the lead of the drivers’ world championship, after a see-sawing pecking order emerged from the overseas races in Australia, Malaysia, China and Bahrain.  Read more... (355 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

With Red Bull the latest to hold a trophy aloft this year, yet another potential 2012 champion has emerged.

In theory, back to back world champion Sebastian Vettel, the Bahrain grand prix winner, was always a contender for a third drivers’ crown this year. But his RB8 was not a race winner until Sunday, after McLaren, Mercedes and even Ferrari had tasted the first victory spoils so far this season.  Read more... (308 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

Tyres. The political dramas aside, that word utterly dominated the Bahrain grand prix weekend.

Afterwards, Michael Schumacher admitted he was “unhappy” with the situation. “Sometimes we are driving only 60, 70 per cent through the corners,” he is quoted by Bild newspaper.  Read more... (309 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)