Mid-season report

So this weekend's German GrandPrix marks the half way point in the 2012 Formula One season. The season started as normal in Melbourne, Australia where McLaren's Jenson Button came out on top beating Sebastian Vettel to the victory by 2.1 seconds. Lewis Hamilton was third. It was a successful return to Formula One after two season's away for Kimi Raikkonen who has signed a two year deal to race for the Lotus F1 team as he finished in the points in 7th place.

The teams then moved on to Malaysia where the surprise of the race was Sauber's Sergio Perez who challenged Ferrari's Fernando Alonso for the win and took a fantastic second place finish for the Swiss team. It was another great race for Kimi Raikkonen who finished in 5th place at a circuit where he took his first F1 victory back in 2003.

I have to say that I was extremely surprised that two races we had no RedBull win, so heading to Shanghai for the Chinese GrandPrix I was certain that the team would return to the top step of the podium. I was wrong!! In qualifying I was amazed by the pace of Mercedes GP AMG's Nico Rosberg who put his car on pole position and went on to take his first ever Formula One victory. It was a fantastic result for the Brackley based squad and their first win under the guise of Mercedes.

Round four of the championship was the Bahrain GrandPrix that was scheduled in 2012 despite the fact that there has been political unrest in the country since last year that resulted in the race been cancelled last year. So under a cloud and anger in the media, the race went ahead. Sebastian Vettel managed to take the win just ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus who managed to achieve his first podium in only his fourth race in his comeback season.

So he managed to do in four races something that Michael Schumacher was unable to do in two year's back in Formula One.

It was also a great result for Romain Grosjean, Kimi's team -mate as he joined him on the podium giving Lotus their first double podium.

Following the Bahrain GrandPrix we headed back to Europe for the Spanish GrandPrix, the big question on everyone's lips was would we have a fifth different winner in 2012? The answer to that question was yes we would as Williams driver Pastor Maldonado picked up the Grove based squads first victory since the 2004 Brazilian GrandPrix. Kimi Raikkonen also picked up his second podium in two races with a superb drive to third.

I was delighted to see Williams win again. The victory was long overdue. However the win was overshadowed my a massive fire that broke out in the Williams garage following the team's victory celebration's. Fortunately no one was killed however a number of F1 team personnel received treatment for burns and smoke inhalation. One Williams mechanic received very serious burns however he returned to work last weekend for the British GrandPrix following a long stay in hospital.

So following the dramatic scenes in Barcelona, F1 moved to Monte Carlo for the most glamorous race of the season, the Monaco GrandPrix.

In qualifying, Michael Schumacher was fastest, however the Mercedes driver lost his pole position due to the fact that he was given a five place grid penalty as a result of causes a crash with Williams driver Bruno Senna during the Spanish GrandPrix, that meant that Mark Webber started on pole for RedBull the Aussie taking his first pole of the season.

Mark went on to win the race to take his first victory of the 2012 season and it was another great result for Nico Rosberg who finished the race on the podium in second place for Mercedes just ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

From Monaco the F1 circus rolled into North America for the first of two scheduled visits in 2012. First up was the Canadian GrandPrix in Montreal. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton who had yet to win a race in 2012 had to really fight for victory as he managed to hold off the star of the race Romain Grosjena who finished just 2.5 seconds behind Hamilton in second place. It was another fantastic drive by Sauber's Sergio Perez who, once again showed that the team have a competitive car this year as he finished in third place, taking his second podium so far this year.

Hamilton's win in Montreal meant it was official, this year's F1 season had become a record breaking one with 7 different winners in the first 7 races, a feat that had never been done before.

Following the Canadian GrandPrix F1 returned to Europe for the European GrandPrix at the Valencia Street circuit. In my opinion this race can be a boring event however this years race was far from boring. It was action packed and it was fantastic to see home favorite Fernando Alonso take his first home win he also became the first repeat race winner of 2012. He was followed home by the Lotus driver of Kimi Raikkonen who collected his third podium of the year and for the first time since his return to Formula One in 2010 Michael Schumacher was on the podium for Mercedes in third place.

So we had three former world champions on the podium which was great to see.

From the heat and sunshine of Valencia it was off to the very wet and windy British GrandPrix in Silverstone last weekend. The organizers of the race had not predicted the torrential downpours and this caused traffic chaos at the circuit and reproduced scene's of 2000 which saw tractors being drafted in to help pull cars out of mud filled carparks.

Qualifying had to be red flagged following Q1 due to the bad weather. It was suspended for 90 minutes before it was dry enough to enable the teams to complete the session. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso won the battle for pole position with RedBull's Mark Webber in second place. The Aussie once again outqualifying his team mate Sebastian Vettel so in quali so far this season it's 5 - 4 to Mark.

On race day the rain stayed away and it was an incredible race. Fernando Alonso led from the start and looked set for his third race win of the season, however with four lap's to go Mark Webber was extremely quick and managed to catch up and overtake Alonso much to his own surprise to take his second victory of the season. He followed up from this victory by signing a new one year contract with RedBull for the 2013 season.

So Formula One has a very busy few day's ahead as we have the German GrandPrix and Hunagrian GrandPrix back to back before the Month long Summer break. Here's hoping that the second half of the 2012 season is as exciting if not more exciting as the first half. I will be continuing to give my thought's on the latest news and race results.