Sebastian Vettel made it third time lucky in Canada by cruising to a dominating victory at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The result ensured Sebastian Vettel extended his lead at the top of the Driver’s Championship to 36 points over 2nd placed man Fernando Alonso whilst Aussie Mark Webber brought home valuable points in a fine 4th placed finish.

The start of the race saw Vettel get off to a clean start to lead the pack into the first corner as Webber pounced on the Williams of Valtteri Bottas to get up into 4th place. After the first round of pit-stops was complete the running order remained the same as the runaway race leader opened up a huge gap over the chasing pack.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber topped the timesheets in the final practice session in Canada ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil as a truncated session saw a frantic end to proceedings as the lap times tumbled left, right and center! Indeed the Aussie’s best effort of 1:17.895s lap was over 0.353s up over second placed Sutil whilst Lewis Hamilton led the Silver Arrows charge in 3rd place.

Fernando Alonso finished the session in 4th place for Ferrari ahead of championship leader Sebastian Vettel whilst Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes rounded off the top 6. Paul Di Resta finished ahead of established big guns such as Felipe Massa and Jenson Button whilst the Iceman Kimi Raikkonen rounded off the top 10 in his Lotus.

The Red Bull team did what they do best as Sebastian Vettel finished runner-up to Nico Rosberg in Monaco while Mark Webber was at his efficient best as the Aussie finished on the final step of the podium in 3rd place. The double podium finish was the icing on the cake as by virtue of the result the Red Bull team extends its lead atop the constructors’ standings whilst Vettel also leads Kimi Raikkonen by 22 points in the chase for the drivers’ championship.

The start of the race saw the Red Bull drivers holding onto their qualifying positions as Vettel was running in 3rd place whilst Webber was running in 4th place. With the Mercedes duo upfront dictating the pace of the race, the opening laps of the race were at best run at slow pace.

Nico Rosberg oozed class as he romped to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix to finally get the monkey off his back, as he converted his scintillating pole position into victory on the legendary streets. The victory meant Rosberg is now the only-second generation winner in the Principality, following his father Keke Rosberg’s victory during the 1983 season.

On a chaotic afternoon in the Principality, which began with the Red Bull team lodging a formal protest with the FIA against the Mercedes team for conducting a test in Spain after the race with tyre manufacturers Pirelli, an eventful race followed which was marked by two safety car periods and a brief halt owing to a red flag.

Nico Rosberg had sent an ominous warning to his rivals this weekend in Monaco by making a clean sweep of all the 3 Free Practice sessions, thereby threatening to claim a third successive pole position of the 2013 season.  The German was the man to beat over the course of a single lap after romping to pole in Bahrain and Spain, but the Mercedes driver lived up to pre-qualifying expectations, as he was in a class of his own, as he wrapped up a third consecutive pole position of the season for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton lines up right alongside his teammate in 2nd place as Rosberg’s pole position is Mercedes’ 4th consecutive pole position as a constructor. The second row is an all Red Bull row, as Vettel lines up in 3rd place ahead of his teammate Webber.

Mercedes were the surprise package in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Sakhir this afternoon, with German Nico Rosberg dominating proceedings through clinical one-lap performances. The result is Mercedes’ second pole in a row, and only the second in Rosberg’s career.

Initial expectations pointed to a three way battle between Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, with the Mercedes struggling in practice sessions. Steady improvements through the Saturday and cooler conditions however came together perfectly for the German marque’s first consecutive pole since the 1950s.

Kimi Raikkonen grabbed the headline time for Lotus in free practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir this afternoon. The Finn, who clocked 1:34.154, lead a close pack of drivers with the top four covered by one and a half tenths of a second. Mark Webber was ahead of Red Bull teammate and world champion Sebastian Vettel, a mere three hundredths off the Lotus at 1:34.184.

The form book seemed to have carried over from the Chinese Grand Prix, with the Shanghai victor Fernando Alonso putting his Ferrari fourth on the timesheets. Notably, this time was set on the hard compound tyre - not the preferred compound for 1-lap pace. The other Ferrari of Felipe Massa came in sixth on the faster medium compound rubber, the scarlet cars sandwiching Paul di Resta’s Force India which enjoyed a strong outing in the either session.