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Formula 1: Season Update And A Look Ahead

by Harsh Kalan|Posted on Apr 24th 2012| Rating

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The 2012 Formula One season has produced some dramatic action in the first four races of the year. With four different drivers claiming the top spot at each of these races, the competition is heating up as the season heads into a three-week break before the Spanish Grand Prix. The gap will allow teams and drivers to make suitable adjustments and bounce back in time for the next race.

After a slow start to his 2012 campaign, reigning champ Sebastian Vettel won his first race of the season at Bahrain last weekend. The Red Bull driver secured pole position in qualifying and then managed to dominate proceedings on raceday from beginning to end. His biggest challenge came from Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen, who trailed him by a little over three seconds.

Lotus even managed third place as Romain Grosjean drove exceptionally well to secure his first podium finish in just his 11th race. Even Force India's Paul di Resta was impressive as he came in sixth and notched up 8 invaluable points for his team, while teammate Nico Hulkenberg finished the race in 12th position.

Due to last weekend's results, Vettel has moved to the top spot in the Drivers Standings by dethroning McLaren's Lewis Hamiton, who had to contend with an eighth-place finish in Bahrain. Also, thanks to Jenson Button's inablity to finish the race and the fact that Mark Webber came in fourth, Red Bull has now overtaken McLaren in the contructors' race.

Force India is currently in the eighth spot in the Team Standing with 17 points--just one point behind Williams.

As of now, it looks like the competition has been blown wide open thanks to Vettel's timely triumph. However, if the last two seasons are anything to go by, this might just be the ideal launchpad for the German driver to steadily distance himself from the rest of the pack. After all, he did overcome a stiff challenge from Hamilton in Spain last year, and never looked back after that!