Lewis Hamilton has experienced mixed fortunes in the opening rounds of 2010 – a podium in Bahrain followed by frustration in Australia, where he watched new team mate Jenson Button secure McLaren’s first win of the season. Then came an epic drive in Malaysia, but one that yielded ‘only’ sixth place, thanks to his P20 grid slot.

The smile is well and truly back on Adrian Sutil’s face. After disappointment in the opening two rounds, the Force India driver saw a real reversal in fortune in Malaysia, coming home fifth to move one point clear of seven-time champion Michael Schumacher in the standings. With any self doubt gone, and the VJM03 looking more and more like a regular points’ scorer, the young German is targeting more success at the forthcoming Chinese race…

With Robert Kubica following his podium in Melbourne with a fourth-place finish in Malaysia, and team mate Vitaly Petrov finally finding his stride in Kuala Lumpur, Renault are looking ahead optimistically to the forthcoming Chinese Grand Prix.

His Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel eventually ended qualifying on top, but Mark Webber came very close to securing pole position at his home race on Saturday.

Red Bull annexed the front row of the starting grid for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, courtesy of poleman Sebastian Vettel and local hero Mark Webber. The German set the fastest time of the weekend on his first runs in Q3, with 1m 23.919s

Mark Webber owned Albert Park on Saturday afternoon in the final practice for his home race, lapping his Red Bull in 1m 24.719s to head off the challenges of Bahrain winner Fernando Alonso (1m 24.929s) in the Ferrari and the revitalised Michael Schumacher (1m 24.963s) for Mercedes. In a session that remained dry, they were the pacesetters for most of the way…

The rain during Friday’s Practice Two seemed to make all the difference for the fortunes of McLaren, with Lewis Hamilton topping the timesheets ahead of team mate Jenson Button in second. Although the British team are still unsure about where they stand when compared to their rivals, it’s certainly boosted Hamilton’s confidence…

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button set the pace early on in Friday afternoon’s practice session in Melbourne with 1m 25.801s and 1m 26.076s respectively. And, after a rain shower, the closest anyone got to them was Mark Webber who vaulted up to third place for Red Bull with 1m 26.248s. That displaced Michael Schumacher, who had been the first man to get going once the track had dried out again

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The FIA has given Virgin permission to increase the size of their fuel tank on reliability grounds after the new team discovered the tank is not big enough to get them to the end of the race at some events. “It has become clear during pre-season testing and our debut race in Bahrain that our fuel tank capacity is marginal…