2009 champions Inter has been drawn with Russian giants CSKA Moscow, Lille and Trabzonspor. Inter should not have any problems in progressing to the knockout. CSKA Moscow and Lille could provide them a run for their money while new comers Trabzonspor could find the going in Europe’s elite a bit difficult.
Group B: Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor
Our prediction to go through to second round: Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow.

English champions and last year’s finalists Manchester United have been drawn with Benfica, Basel and Otelul Galati in Group C. A relatively easy group for Man United and they are expected to go through to the second round wthout any hicupps. Benfica and Basel will fight it out for the second spot,but Benfica is expected to previal in this encounter.
Group C: Manchester United, Benfica, Basel, Otelul Galati
Our prediction to go through: Manchester United, Benfica.

Real Madrid are drawn alongside Lyon, Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb in group D. Real Madrid again face Lyon and this is one encounter that should be entertaining. Real Madrid is still expected to go through. Lyon may face a tough battle against Ajax and Dinamo, but still should progress.
Group D: Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax Amsterdam, Dinamo Zagreb.
Our prediction to go through:Real Madrid, Lyon.

Group E has Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen and Genk fighting it out. The English giants are favourites to go through but the matches against Valencia should be interesting, especially in the wake of Juan Mata’s transfer from Valencia.
Bayern Leverkusen are no pushovers either. Bayern could progress through at the expense of Valencia but it sure is going to be close.Not a very easy group by any means for Chelsea.
Group E: Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Genk
Our prediction to go through: Chelsea, Bayern Leverkusen.

Group F has Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos and Borussia Dortmund. Arsenal may be hoping to bring in some reinforcements before the transfer window ends and that could help them to progress through to round 2,but it won’t be easy by any means as all the other three teams in the group are more than capable.Borussia Dormant and Marseille will fight it out for second place,but the German champions may just sneek through.
Group F: Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos, Borussia Dortmund
Our prediction for top two:Arsena, Borussia Dortmund.

UEFA cup winners Porto begin their campaign without Andre Vilas Boaz in the champions league alongside Shakhtar, Zenit St Petersburg and APOEL FC. Porto is expected to top the group with Zenit and Shakhtar to fight it out for second place.
Group G:FC Porto, Shakhtar, Zenit St Petersburg, APOEL FC
Our prediction: Porto, Zenit

And finally current champions Barcelona have AC Milan, BATE Borisov and Viktoria Plzen in company in Group H. Barcelona and AC Milan are expected to go through to round 2 rather easily.
Group H: Barcelona, AC Milan, BATE Borisov, Viktoria Plzen
Our prediction: Barcelona, AC Milan.

So that’s it. The draw is done and so is our predictions. Will Mancini’s Man City find it’s foothold alongside Europe’s elite? Are the days of Arsenal as a big club over? Or even interesting question, can anyone beat Barcelona? Let’s wait , rather we really don’t feel bold enough to predict a winner to the crown, but as any football enthusiast I can’t wait for the games to begin.

Here are the groups once again for you:
Group A
Bayern, Villarreal, Man City, Napoli
Group B
Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor
Group C
Manchester United, Benfica, Basel, Otelul Galati
Group D
Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax Amsterdam, Dinamo Zagreb
Group E
Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Genk
Group F
Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos, Borussia Dortmund
Group G
FC Porto, Shakhtar, Zenit St Petersburg, APOEL FC
Group H
Barcelona, AC Milan, BATE Borisov, Viktoria Plzen

Alonso was giving Webber a tough time, as he was close enough to make his DRS work. On lap 20, Alonso made his pass but was not able to close-up behind Vettel and the gap between them kept growing. During their second pit stop, Webber was able to jump Alonso owing to the neat work by the Red Bull mechanics. However, he lost the place back during the third pit stop as Webber pitted first and found his medium tyres not as fast. Webber then fell away quite dramatically, as his car developed a gearbox problem, and the team instructed him to short-shift the car. He was so far ahead of Hamilton, however, that his podium place was never in doubt.

Nico Rosberg finished a lonely seventh for Mercedes, ahead of a mighty scrap between Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari, who ran a great two-stop strategy, and on-form three-stopper Adrian Sutil, who was only 0.4s behind him in his Force India as they finished eighth and ninth, a lap down. Nick Heidfeld was the final point scorer in 10th, and Sergio Perez ran a one-stopper to finish 11th. Thus, the Spanish fans had something to cheer about, as Alonso and Alguersuari notched-up respectable finishes. Vettel’s sixth win out of eight means his championship lead is now more than three wins’ worth of points. And the third place for Webber meant he is now tied for second with Jenson Button. Next race is the British Grand Prix in Silverstone.

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2010 Formula 1 Telefonica Grand Prix Of Europe

In Moto2 category, Marc Marquez took his second victory of his Moto2 debut season in the tricky conditions at Assen, ahead of Kenan Sofuoglu and Bradley Smith. The reigning 125cc Champion won the race, climbing 6 places, in a display of spectacular riding. Both Sofuoglu and Smith lead the field throughout the race, battling with Spanish star Márquez and Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing), who made it up to second position before crashing out with only 4 laps to go. Mike di Meglio (Tech 3) was also an early front runner until he crashed out as well.

And in the 125cc race, Maverick Viñales (Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing Team) won. The race didn’t go the distance, as it was red-flagged at the end of lap 15 because of the rain which had started to fall. As two thirds of the race distance had been covered, full points awarded as of positions at lap 14. Luis Salom was second and Sergio Gadea third.

The next race is the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello. This was where Rossi had suffered his crash last year. He would be eager to make ammends, as it seems like he is getting to grips with his Ducati. Stoner is now 28 points ahead of Lorenzo in the Championship while Dovizioso remains third, but is now only nine points behind the Spaniard.

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Tim TT Assen 2010

The qualfying on Saturday was staged on a dry circuit, but the race started in damp conditions with a bit of drizzling still going on. All 24 cars were on the full wet rubber, and the race started behind the safety car. The cars circulated for four laps before the pack was released. As is customary now, Vettel was on pole. The two Ferraris had lined up behind him, headed by Fernando Alonso, and Mark Webber was in P4 though he qualified without his KERS. At the race start, Vettel came under attack from Alonso but he hung-on to the lead and then started opening-up a gap. Further back Mark Webber was attacked more aggressively by Lewis Hamilton, who tipped the Red Bull into a spin at the first corner. The next few corners saw the most controversial moments in the race. Hamilton fell behind Michael Schumacher while avoiding Webber’s spinning car but was soon on his tail, trying to pass the Mercedes around the outside of the Casino hairpin. Schumacher edged him wide and Button seized the opportunity to move ahead of his team mate. Hamilton’s eventful race came to a sudden end on lap seven. He tried to capitalise on a mistake by Button at the chicane, but drew alongside his team mate into a narrowing gap between Button and the pit wall. Hamilton dealt the wall a solid whack, damaging his left-rear wheel. McLaren told Hamilton to park his damaged car, and while Button headed for the pits the safety car returned to the track. As usual, Hamilton’s critics were out in full-force claiming he needs to calm down or he’ll kill someone, but yours truly believes it was more of Button’s mistake in this case. Knowing Jenson Button and how fair he normally is, perhaps the visilbility was very poor and lets just put it down as a racing incident. Even the stewards had done the same.

After a few laps behind the safety car, Hamilton’s McLaren was moved out of the way and the racing resumed. At the restart Alonso began to slip back from Vettel, as he had during the first three laps of green flag running, with Felipe Massa lapping close behind his team mate. However, DRS was disabled at this stage as conditions were still wet. Few drivers took to intermediate tyres at this stage – Button, Alonso, Sutil. But, the rain returned with a vengeance and they all had to switch back to full wets. Meanwhile, Jenson was slapped with a drive-through penalty for going too quickly behind the safety car. He served it right-away, but began picking cars to get back the positions he had lost, with ease. With the heavy downpour, the race had to be suspended, and cars were left on the starting grid for a good two hours before racing could resume. Finally the clouds lifted and the race resumed – again behind the safety car. Cars were made to follow the safety car for 8 laps, and conditions had improved drastically during the time. Also, Lewis Hamilton was missing from the pack and so we had nobody demanding that the race be started, like he had done in Korea last year. Once racing restarted, some drivers started switching to the intermediate tyres and Jenson Button was one of the first drivers to do so. The Ferrari drivers pitted at the same time and Alonso had to queue behind his team mate. While Button tried to pass Alonso at turn three, the pair banged wheels sending Alonso spinning onto a kerb where his car became stuck. Button limped into the pits with a front-left puncture and we had the safety car out for the fourth time. The remaining drivers also switched to intermediate tyres and Vettel led once more as the race restarted. Michael Schumacher made a few moves stick and he passed Webber, Kobayashi and Massa. By now, drivers were swithching to dry rybber, and again Button did id much earlier than the others. His pace was whole seconds faster than Vettel’s, as he made his way up the order once again, having fallen to 22nd and last.

Button passed Webber for 3rd, as the Aussie made a mistake. The very next lap, he passed Schumacher and closed-up on Vettel. By this time, DRS was enabled, and Button used this to close further-up. It looked like Button would pounce in the DRS zone in the last lap, but the mistake from Vettel happened before that letting Button through to win this fantastic race. Vettel looked despondent after losing the lead he had held for almost the whole race. But he retains a healthy 60-point margin over Button, who is now second in the title race. Next race is the European Grand Prix in Valencia, and the FIA are set to ban engine mapping which help cars during their qualifying run on Saturday. There will be stricter parc fermé rules in place, and this might make the Red Bulls less competitive on Saturdays. We’ll wait and see.

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Formula 1 Grand Prix Du Canada 2010

Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) mastered the rain at the Andalusian circuit to take his fourth victory in the Moto2  series. Joining him on the rostrum were Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) and Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project). Lüthi took the early control in the race and was on course for his first win in Moto2, until the Italian rider passed him for the lead and pulled a large advantage. His winning margin was 7.850s. Building on the second place the Speed Master rider achieved in Losail, Iannone takes the lead of the 2011 World Championship after scoring 25 points for the win. The race started in damp conditions and then more rain fell throughout the race leading to a slippery and difficult circuit.

Nicolas Terol led the way to score another 25 points, in the 125 cc category. Jonas Folger (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) and Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) were the other podium clinchers. It looked set to be a Bankia Aspar one two until Héctor Faubel (Bankia Aspar) after battling with his team mate through out the race, fell on the last lap in his 150th Grand Prix start and eventually finished 11th. Terol claimed his 11th successive podium with this victory and his seventh win of his 125cc career. It was a happy day for two British riders with Danny Kent (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) and Taylor Mackenzie (Phonica Racing) crossing the line in fourth and fifth. But, Mahindra Racing’s Danny Webb was taken off on a stretcher after a fast crash whilst fighting for the points.

But for the single mistake, this might have been the doctor’s first win on the Ducati. Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) was one place away from the rostrum, taking fourth position. Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar Team) was sixth, Karel Abraham (Cardion ab Motoracing) seventh, and Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) eighth. Spanish Moto2 World Champion Toni Elías (LCR Honda) brought his bike home in ninth place with the final place in the top ten going to Rizla Suzuki’s John Hopkins. Lorenzo’s victory propels him to the top of the MotoGP Championship standings with a tally of 45 points, nine points clear of Pedrosa in second. Stoner would feel like he should have been leading the table now, as he was set for another top finish. He, and everybody else, would have a chance to set things right when the racing returns after the Easter break.

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Gran Premio bwin de España 2010

Hamilton was briefly under threat of not starting the race as the team discovered a problem with his engine before he left the pits to go to the grid. He made it out just on time, with only a few seconds to spare. Button got off to a good start, and shot-off into the lead. Hamilton also jumped the Red Bull and got behind his team-mate, while Vettel was left defending from Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes. During the first pit stop, Button committed a big blunder which would in the end cost him a good number of points, as he parked in the Red Bull pit box first, before their mechanics waved him out. While Mercedes and McLaren committed to a three-stop strategy, Ferrari and Vettel would only make one more stop. The final round of pit stops set up an exciting showdown to the chequered flag with Vettel and Massa nursing their hard tyres and Hamilton closing in. Having worked his way up into P2, Hamilton and Vettel battled for two laps before he made a move stick.

This was by far, the best race of the season so far. Hamilton’s win moves him up to second in the championship. Vettel’s winning streak may be over, but he still enjoys a 21-point lead in the drivers’ standings – almost a race win in front. We have a little breather, before the next round in Turkey. The new rules, and the new tyres has spiced-up the racing, and we have McLaren competing with Red Bull. Mercedes have also upped their performance, and looked like the third fastest team, unsurping Renault. But, there is still work for Ferrari, who have had none of their drivers finishing in the podium yet. Last year in Turkey, Red Bulls were too far ahead through it’s spectacular turn 8, but this time tyres could also play a part through there. It’s gonna be great fun!

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2010 Chinese Grand Prix

The leading drivers stuck with the soft tyres for the first round of pit stops but Hamilton switched to hards for his third stint. There was speculation that Hamilton was trying to run the race distance on it, and might be able to take the fight to Vettel as a result. However, his pace dropped off during the stint and McLaren brought him in for his third stop on lap 37 – with 19 still to go. Once he was out after switching tyres, Alonso caught him and the old sparring partners were involved in a dog fight after quite a while. Alonso’s DRS was not functioning – Hamilton’s tyres were a mess – and the two were racing aggressively. He was all over the McLaren for a good two laps, and Hamilton weaved left and right trying to defend his place. Eventually, Alonso pushed just over the limit, and clipped the McLaren’s right rear tyre as he got the tow. The impact smashed Alonso’s front wing and sent him into the pits for a fourth stop. Hamilton’s car appeared undamaged but he was still struggling with his tyres, and needed a fourth stop.

Heidfeld breezed past Hamilton, using DRS on lap 51. Button tried to give chase of Vettel, who had to switch off his KERS midway through the race. Webber had also made a fourth stop and with fresher tyres was able to pass Massa for fourth place. The recovering Alonso took seventh. In eighth place was the only driver to make two stops – Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber. His team mate Sergio Perez retired after hitting debris, which fell off another car. Michael Schumacher and Paul di Resta rounded off the points-scorers, the latter beating his team mate home by ten seconds. It has been a very strong start to di Resta’s career, after out-qualifying his team-mate at Australia.

After the race, there was penalties handed-out to both Alonso – for causing an avoidable accident – and Hamilton – for changing his line more than once. Both received 20 second time penalties which resulted in Hamilton dropping to 8th, and promoting Kamui to 7th place. Alonso’s finishing position of 6th was unaffected by the time-penalty. However, one feels that the penalties imposed were too strict, and Alonso was more at fault in this case. There was little sign of the widely-anticipated rain, aside from a brief shower around the first pit stops. The race was action-packed without it, but in the end the world champion prevailed once again. At Sepang’s long straights, the racing looked very artificial with all the DRS-based passes. Alonso and Hamilton showed for a few laps that the racing could be exciting enough without all these modern gizmos. Next race is the Chinese Grand Prix in the coming week. One gets the feeling that by the time the fly-away races are over, both Red Bull and Vettel might be too far out in front for anyone to compete. Maybe China would prove us wrong.

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2010 Malaysian Grand Prix

Team List:

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt.), Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramaniam Badrinath, Joginder Sharma, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhinav Mukund, Anirudha Srikkanth, Ganapathi Vignesh, K. Shri Vasudevdas, Shadab Jakati, V. Yomahesh, Albie Morkel, Michael Hussey, Dwayne Bravo, Doug Bollinger, Scott Styris, Tim Southee, Nuwan Kulasekara, Suraj Randiv, George Bailey, Faf du Plessis and Upul Tharanga.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE:

Daniel Vettori (capt.), Virat Kohli, Tillakaratne Dilshan, A.B. de Villiers, Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Dirk Nannes, Nuwan Pradeep, Saurabh Tiwary, Mohammad Kaif, Abhimanyu Mithun, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Rilee Rossouw, Johan van der Wath, Jonathan Vandiar, C.M. Gautam, S. Arvind, Mayank Agarwal, Arun Karthick, Asad Khan Pathan, Abrar Kazi, Ryan Ninan and Bhareth Narayanan.

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS:

Gautam Gambhir (capt.), Brad Haddin, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, James Pattinson, Shakib al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Laxmipathy Balaji, Manvinder Singh Bisla, Rajat Bhatia, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Sarabjit Ladda, Iqbal Abdulla, Yusuf Pathan, Pradeep Sangwan, Manoj Tiwary, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Jaidev Unadkat and Shami Ahmed.

PUNE WARRIORS:

Yuvraj Singh (capt.), Graeme Smith, Mohnish Mishra, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Kamran Khan, Harshad Khadiwale, Mithun Manhas, Murali Kartik, Callum Ferguson, Tim Paine, Nathan McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Mitchell Marsh, Wayne Parnell, Jerome Taylor, Alfonso Thomas, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Harpreet Singh, Sachin Rana, Rahul Sharma, Ganesh Gaikwad, Imtiyaz Ahmed and Eklavya Dwivedi.

DECCAN CHARGERS:

Kumar Sangakkara (capt.), Cameron White, J-P. Duminy, Juan ‘Rusty’ Theron, Michael Lumb, Akash Bhandari, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Arjun Yadav, Ashish Reddy, Bharat Chipli, Chris Lynn, Dale Steyn, Dan Christian, Ravi Teja, Harmeet Singh, Ishan Malhotra, Ishank Jaggi, Ishant Sharma, Jaydev Shah, Kedar Devdhar, Manpreet Singh Gony, Pragyan Ojha, Shikhar Dhawan and Sunny Sohal.

MUMBAI INDIANS:

Sachin Tendulkar (capt.), Rohit Sharma, Aditya Tare, Ambati Rayudu, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rajagopal Satish, Andrew Symonds, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel, Ali Murtaza, Pawan Suyal, Suryakumar Yadav, Tirumalasetti Suman, Yuzvendra Chahal, David Jacobs, Aiden Blizzard, Dilhara Fernando, Abu Nechim and Sarul Kanwar.

KOCHI TUSKERS:

Mahela Jayawardene (capt.), V.V.S. Laxman, S. Sreesanth, Brad Hodge, Ravindra Jadeja, Michael Klinger, Brendon McCullum, Parthiv Patel, Thisara Perea, Owais Shah, R.P. Singh, Steven Smith, Muttiah Muralitharan, Steve O’Keefe, Vinay Kumar, Ramesh Powar, T.M. Srivastava, John Hastings, Raiphy Vincent Gomez, B. Akhil, Deepak Chougule, Gnanaeswara Rao, Yashpal Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Chandan Madan, Sushant Marathe and Prasanth Padmanabhan.

DELHI DAREDEVILS:

Virender Sehwag (capt.), Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha, Ajit Agarkar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Venugopala Rao, Aavishkar Salvi, Prashant Naik, Rajesh Pawar, Robin Bisht, S. Sriram, Tejashwi Yadav, Unmukt Chand, Varun Aaron, Vikas Mishra, Vivek Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Shahbaz Nadeem, David Warner, James Hopes, Morne Morkel, Aaron Finch, Matthew Wade, Roelof van der Merwe, Andrew McDonald, Travis Birt, Colin Ingram and Robert Frylinck.

KINGS XI PUNJAB:

Adam Gilchrist (capt.), Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Love Ablish, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty, Salabh Srivastava, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh, Vikramjeet Malik, Amit Yadav, Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, Ryan Harris, Nathan Rimmington, Ryan McLaren and David Miller.

RAJASTHAN ROYALS:

Shane Warne (capt.), Rahul Dravid, Pankaj Singh, Aakash Chopra, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Paunikar, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Nayan Doshi, Pinal Shah, Samad Falla, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Amit Singh, Dinesh Salunkhe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan, Ross Taylor, Johan Botha, Shaun Tait and Jacob Oram.

Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) roared to victory in the Moto2 category, having started the race from pole position. He was  rarely challenged throughout the race, and eventually won by a big margin of 4.330s. Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) grabbed the second spot on the rostrum and gained his 14th podium of his career. Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) finished third, Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) was fourth, and Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing) fifth. After a poor start from the front row, reigning 125 World Champion Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) found life more difficult on his Moto2 race debut and crashed out in the first part of the 20-lap race.

Nicolas Terol (Bankia Aspar) repeated his 2010 heroics at the Losail International Circuit, as he stormed to victory from pole position. Terol was never headed from the start and made an early getaway, winning by a large margin of 7.710s. The fight for the podium was hotly contested amongst a group of four riders, but it was Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) making his 100th Grand Prix start, who clinched second place in the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar, taking his sixth podium in 125cc. The fight for the final podium position was fierce, but it went to the experienced rider Sergio Gadea (PEV-Blusens-SMX Paris Hilton). Danny Webb of Mahindra Racing just missed out on the points, as he finished 16th.

The riders had observed a minute of silence in honour of the victims of the Japan earthquake ahead of the MotoGP race. Also, the late Shoya Tomizawa was honoured on Saturday with the unveiling of a memorial plaque at the circuit, in which he had won last year. Though the pole-sitters won the race in all three categories, the races were all incident-filled. It was a wonderful start to the new season, and we can look forward to some high quality racing in the coming few months. Next stop is Spain’s Jerez circuit, in two weeks time.

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Commercialbank Grand Prix Of Qatar 2010

The result led us to wonder whether, had Robert Kubica been present in Australia and racing the Renault, he would  have been challenging for the race win. Petrov seems to have improved a lot compared to last season, but one still feels that Kubica would have been able to find a few extra tenths, and made the car punch above its weight. Red Bull kept quiet about the fact that neither of their cars were using KERS. They were worried they might be vulnerable at the start, but both drivers made quick getaways from the left-hand side of the grid and Mark Webber almost passed Hamilton for second. Button was right on Massa’s tail, and pressurized him for a few laps. Once the DRS was enabled, he was all over the back of the Ferrari but couldn’t find a way through. And , when he finally made his pass, he had cut a corner, and got slapped with a drive-through penalty. Alonso had fallen to tenth at the start but made his way back up the order, passing Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Rosberg. He latched onto the tail of the Button-Massa battle and moved ahead of his team mate. With the tyres wearing out quickly, all the drivers were soon into the pits.

Perez impressed the most with his ability to look after his tyres, as he was the only driver to finish the race on a single stop. He had started the race on the harder compound tyre, and brought the car home after a single stop in a race where all the big names were struggling with coming to terms with the Pirelli tyres. The Mercedes pair couldn’t finish the race, due to reliability issues, and the Williams pair also had a similar result. The Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta finished just outside the points, ahead of Jaime Alguersuari, Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli and Jerome d’Ambrosio. Hamilton’s efforts to catch Vettel were further delayed by damage to his undertray. Vettel ended the race with a comfortable 20-second lead which is an ominous sign for Red Bull’s rivals for the rest of the season. However, lets hope that other teams would catch-up soon, and give us an exciting season. The Malaysian Grand Prix is next on the calendar, and a few teams and drivers need to improve on their performance pretty soon.

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2010 Australian Grand Prix

UPDATE : Both the Saubers have been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix due to a technical infringement. Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi therefore lose their seventh and eighth place finishes in the race. Their upper rear wing element was found not to conform to the regulations. The team will be appealing the decision of the stewards.