Force India’s Adrian Sutil set the fastest time in the final practice session here in Valencia on Saturday morning – after much of the session was red-flagged when Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull stopped out on the track, after lubricating it with an oil leak following a serious mechanical failure. Sutil had been fastest before the red flag came out after half an hour. The session resumed for five minutes and there was a flurry of quicker times – and it was again the German who set the standard…

Williams have announced the formation of their first non-for-profit Williams Foundation. The Foundation will be based in Angola and will be established in association with the team’s newly appointed partner, Ridge Solutions, a leading private investment group involved in real estate, agriculture and other sectors of the Angolan economy…

Back in the swing of things again after the summer break, the Formula One teams revelled in 30-32 Celsius track temperatures in Valencia on Friday, as they focused on their usual set-up work and tyre evaluation ahead of the European Grand Prix.

Since its inception in 2005, the GP2 Series has established itself as a serious breeding ground for Formula One talent – with the likes of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton as evidence. And official tyre suppliers to the series, Bridgestone, are helping to do the same for motorsport journalism, with their e-reporter competition. Eight of the 2009 finalists will each get to report from one round of the series, and will be supplying Formula1.com with details of the GP2 action…

Renault’s Fernando Alonso was in a feisty mood in Valencia on Friday afternoon. After inadvertently punting off Nick Heidfeld in the BMW Sauber in the final corner towards the end of the 90-minute session, the Spaniard pushed his own detached front wing into the pit lane. After repairs he then spun in Turn 17, before banging in the fastest lap of 1m 39.404s to beat the two Brawns and become the only driver to breach the 1m 40s barrier…

Signalling a return to form for his team, Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello set the fastest time in the first practice session here in Valencia on Friday morning, lapping in 1m 42.460s in 27 degrees Celsius ambient temperature. It was close-run, however, as the Brazilian had the McLarens of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton right behind him on 1m 42.636s and 1m 42.654s respectively, indicating that their form is also carrying over from Hungary…

Situated in the marina area of Valencia, the European Grand Prix street course is one of the most exciting additions to the Formula One calendar in recent years. Hemmed in by concrete walls, the 25-turn circuit combines a mix of high and low-speed sections and presents a challenging layout for the drivers and engineers. Good straight-line speed and stability under braking are therefore paramount, as is good mechanical grip through the mix of low and medium-speed corners, as the Renault team explain…

With a newly-built, bespoke street circuit awaiting them, the Formula One paddock couldn’t wait to arrive in Valencia ahead of the track’s inaugural hosting of the European Grand Prix last year. Boasting 25 corners, and located within the Spanish city’s marina, it was an exciting proposition, especially after the end of F1 racing’s traditional three-week summer break.

Lewis Hamilton comes to Valencia in the same frame of mind he approached every Grand Prix in 2007 and ’08: expecting to fight for victory. Since his surprise success in Hungary, which yielded his first victory since China last year, the reigning champion believes that McLaren can now fight for wins for the rest of the season – partly because his car’s KERS energy storage system will come into its own on the remaining tracks, and partly because of further aerodynamic revisions to its configuration…

Surfing the net and finding out that your job has all but evaporated is a bit hard to swallow, but that is exactly how Robert Kubica found out that BMW will be withdrawing from Formula One racing at the end of 2009.