Formula-1 news

The first day of Abu Dhabi practice saw the four title contenders to the fore, as everybody worked on setting their cars up and getting the best out of Bridgestone’s medium and super-soft tyres for the last time. Hamilton was quickest in what he felt was a much improved McLaren, but Vettel insisted there is more to come from Red Bull. We take a team-by-team look at Friday at Yas Marina

Following its debut event at last month’s Italian Grand Prix in Milan, F1 Rocks

Sebastian Vettel turned the tables on McLaren at Monza on Friday afternoon by setting the fastest time so far of 1m 22.839s, but the Red Bull driver was only 0.076s faster than Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and 0.222s ahead of Felipe Massa in the second F10. Soon after Massa had gone fastest with 1m 23.061s he was deposed by Alonso with 1m 22.915s, before Vettel displaced both.

McLaren’s MP4-25 was tipped to be the fastest car around Monza, and it may yet prove so. However, as the British team experimented with F-duct versus non F-duct configurations on Friday afternoon, Hamilton and Button found themselves outpaced by arch rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. We take a team-by-team look at early progress in Italy

Many teams were cautious in reading too much into their performance, since the rain in the morning disrupted things so significantly and with more bad weather possible, they wanted to preserve their three sets of full wet Bridgestone tyres and four sets of intermediates. And as expected, for once Red Bull were not among the pacesetters. We take a team-by-team look at Friday progress at Spa

It was a rainy day for a birthday, but that is what you sometimes get in Belgium. A huge cake from his Red Bull team compensated at least partially for the monsoon-like conditions. Regardless, Mark Webber leads the championship and is in relaxed frame of mind going into this weekend’s Grand Prix. The RB6 may not have featured highly on the Friday timesheets, but Sunday’s a different matter and Webber would love to add a prestigious Spa win to his trophy cabinet – even if he admits he now has the championship’s long game in mind

Red Bull’s Friday pace around the Hungaroring looked ominous, even without an F-duct on the RB6 and regardless of tyre compound. Ferrari could have an answer, while McLaren admit they are a long way off an adequate response (and could come under threat from Renault on Saturday). We take a team-by-team look at early progress in Budapest

Test driver Fairuz Fauzy will be back in the Lotus cockpit at Hockenheim on Friday morning ahead of this weekend’s German Grand Prix. Fauzy, who had been scheduled to participate in Friday practice sessions at the forthcoming Hungarian, Singapore and Abu Dhabi events, has landed a German practice outing after mechanical issues cut short his run at Silverstone.

Everybody focused on learning the new sections of Silverstone’s very green Arena circuit on Friday, and doing the usual tyre comparisons. It didn’t help that the track temperature rose from 28 degrees Celsius to 43 by the afternoon, as the ambient temperature rose from 21 to 27. McLaren did not show quite the pace many had expected with their newly-upgraded MP4-25, though many rivals suspect the championship leaders are yet to play their hand. We take a team-by-team look at Friday progress

McLaren have decided to take their blown diffuser off the car for the remainder of the British Grand Prix weekend, after inconclusive results from the much-anticipated upgrade in Friday’s practice sessions…