The FIA stewards have given McLaren driver Fernando Alonso their go ahead to race this weekend at the Shanghai circuit, after undergoing the process they call “reintegration.” He is allowed to race in the weekend ahead providing he passes a further test following first practice to ensure he is fully fit. The Spaniard was forced to sit out the last race in Bahrain due to rib injuries sustained at the first round in Australia, and he was replaced by rookie Stoffel Vandoorne.

The qualifying format has dominated far too many headlines since the season began, particularly as no one liked the elimination style and almost everyone was keen to see the back of it. The FIA weren’t so keen that their sport be seen to be going backwards, and hoped for an alternative format, but after teams united and wrote a strongly worded letter to the governing body, things have changed.

Another bad start for Lewis Hamilton lost the Brit his pole position during the Bahrain Grand Prix, and Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg swept into the lead to secure a relatively straightforward race victory. Hamilton recovered to finish third, with Kimi Räikkönen taking home the second place trophy.

It was a close fight between the two Mercedes drivers around the Sakhir circuit but Lewis Hamilton managed to take pole position by seven hundredths of a second over Nico Rosberg. The Ferrari duo were behind, locking out the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s race, with Vettel ahead of Räikkönen.

Nico Rosberg was the fastest driver out on track for both sessions in the desert, but Mercedes were showing their dominance again, finishing FP2 a full second faster than the rest of the field. In the first session, there was more running than normal due to the lower than average temperatures. Stoffel Vandoorne made his debut as deputy for Fernando Alonso, whilst Alfonso Celis was in for Force India, neither of them making too much impact on the timesheets.

Fernando Alonso has had to withdraw from this weekend’s race in Bahrain, following the injuries he sustained in the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago. Although he’s recovering well from what turned out to be a collapsed lung and fractured ribs, doctors have advised the Spaniard not to risk any further injury by racing – particularly due to the unique way drivers sit in an F1 cockpit.

Sauber have been quietly struggling for sponsorship and to stay in business for a while now, but it became obvious earlier in the year when employees found themselves receiving their salaries a bit late. Team principal Monisha Kaltenborn has criticized the way the sport is funded, and whilst not talking about the Swiss team’s specific budget problems, she does air some concerns reported by Crash.net.

The new elimination format of qualifying that was introduced in Australia failed to live up to expectations and was frowned upon by everyone in the paddock. After team bosses got together and said they would revert to last year’s format going forward, it emerged that the elimination style would have to continue – as they couldn’t get a unanimous agreement from teams, the governing body and the commercial rights holder.

The Australian Grand Prix delivered everything that qualifying did not, providing entertainment from the very first moment until the end. Lewis Hamilton made a bad start and dropped back from pole position, handing the lead over to Sebastian Vettel. However, a huge crash on lap 16 brought out the red flag.

With the new elimination style qualifying underway, we saw the expected results of Manor and Haas dropping out early, but the surprise of Daniil Kvyat also failing to get out of Q1. The Red Bull driver was left in the garage rather than out on track defending his lap time which put him firmly in 18th place.