Lewis Hamilton on Friday was told he was lucky to escape penalty in Bahrain.

Nico Rosberg’s defensive driving got the lion’s share of the media attention three weeks ago, but in fact it was Hamilton’s pass on the Mercedes that was a more contentious topic during Friday’s drivers’ briefing in Barcelona.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reported that the topic was discussed between the drivers and the FIA’s Charlie Whiting for no less than fifty minutes.

“In the end, it was resolved that Rosberg did nothing wrong. Lewis Hamilton was (unofficially) reprimanded.

“Charlie Whiting said the McLaren driver was lucky not to have been punished.”

The report said Whiting warned the drivers that similar cases, in which passes are made with four wheels off the circuit, will be penalised.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Kamui, so far this season a couple of good races and a couple not so good. What’s been the difference between them?

Kamui KOBAYASHI: Of course it’s definitely the car. We had quite good performance at the start, quite a good start to the season. Unfortunately, we also some races where the strategy was not really going well. It’s not let’s a bad thing for my season. I had a great start but I think we have to work hard especially on the long runs.

Yesterday, Fernando talked about drivers having more respect for one another. Do you think that’s the case? Should drivers leave more space for each other?

KK: Maybe. I don’t know. It’s always difficult to say.

You’re quite an aggressive overtaker

KK: Yeah, but for me I’m doing something quite normal. It’s not special. I’m just doing my job. Maybe it looks aggressive but I never crash with anyone. I never crash and stop the car. There may be contact but it’s always quite OK. Maybe it looks aggressive but it’s not aggressive in fact.

And of course, you’ve been on the receiving end as we remember from Spa last year.

KK: Spa last year? Where? Ah, with Lewis, you mean? That’s what I mean that was just an accident you know. I didn’t expect both cars to make contact because there was no point. I didn’t expect Lewis to come across and I just stayed on my line. It was just sudden, you know. There was no way to avoid that. That was something special though, it’s not really a racing accident and not aggressive stuff from me, so…

Nico, on paper you’ve been beaten by your team-mate so far this year. How are you feeling about it?

Nico HULKENBERG: Well, the first four races have been quite tough to be honest. I would have liked to take more than two points out of the first four races. We have been quite unfortunate in some races, such as Melbourne, where we had a first-corner incident and there was very little I could do and then a clutch failure issues in Bahrain. These were two races where we potentially could have finished in the points. But I’m looking forward, I’m bedding in well with the team. I think the team is doing a good job in putting everything together and if we get a bit more luck then I think it will be good.

How do you feel about team development? Are the developments coming at a reasonable rate as far as you’re concerned?

NH: Yes, definitely. We bring some new parts, probably like every other team, here and we have to wait and see where the new parts put us but obviously we’re hoping it’s a step forward. I think it is a step forward but just how big a step we’ll see over the next two days.

Pedro, we see a new team that has recently moved to new premises and taken on a lot of new staff. What sort of role do you see yourself playing in the development of Hispania Racing Team?

Pedro DE LA ROSA: As you’ve said, everything is new. We’re establishing ourselves; restructuring the team; we are growing. But really I’m not playing any different role than any other race driver would do. I’m part of the team; I’m a race driver; I’m experienced. If they need my advice on anything, I am there. But I’m not playing any special role other than driving as fast as I can and giving good feedback about the car.

You spent so long at McLaren are you not trying to put some of those influences on the team?

PDLR: Gradually I will. That’s the aim and that’s what I’m here for as well. But so far the team has been extremely busy trying to move into our new premises in Madrid, establish a structure, a ‘basement’ as I say, and after that we will grow gradually and that’s when I think my input will be, if possible, more beneficial. But so far the objective has been clear. We have to establish ourselves, we have to put he ground for building more floors on top of us but so far I’ve been very discreet and not in a very important position.

And where do hope the team will be at the end of the year?

PDLR: I have no idea really. We are improving race by race. We have made the car a lot quicker. Don’t forget at the first grand prix we did not qualify and gradually we have been closing the gap to pole position. That’s what we have to aim for: race by race, closing the gap, making sure that our car is a little bit quicker than it was at the previous grand prix. After that, at the end of the year, we will see. We don’t have to set ourselves any targets other than making the team more competitive race by race.

Kimi, you were plainly a little frustrated that you could have won at Bahrain but didn’t. Is that a true appraisal of your feelings about Bahrain?

Kimi RAIKKONEN: Yeah, I think once you get so close, you’re not happy with second. If you’re 20 seconds behind then it doesn’t really matter but we had a chance but at least for the team it was a good weekend.

You’re a two-time winner here, both from pole position. Do you think a win is possible here? You’ve said you team will be winners at some stage.

KR: Well, the rules are different, so you don’t have to be on pole now to win. We’ll try. I don’t know how it will go. It’s very difficult to say before the weekend starts. The teams are very close. So if everything goes smoothly then we can be up there. But small difficulties in some areas and you’re suddenly much further back. We try to do everything right and then see what happens.

You didn’t test at Mugello as apparently the team hadn’t brought major modification, but for this race have you at least brought modifications that will at least see you maintain where you were at the opening rounds?

KR: We should have some new parts and we’ll see what happens.

Fernando, another winner here in 2006. How did you feel the Ferrari was in testing? Did you feel it was a lot different?

Fernando ALONSO: No, not really. We didn’t have any big improvements in the car, so what we tested were different set-ups and things we missed from winter testing. It’s been quite difficult for us with a lot of problems on the car and not many laps. The Mugello test was to complete what we had left from winter but in terms of improvements, we had minimum changes on the car so it felt the same?

Did that set-up research, as it were, make you feel more comfortable with the car, more competitive?

FA: Well, we’ll see. Obviously we had some ideas in terms of setup and some different possibilities that we were not introducing in the first four races because we didn’t have the opportunity to test them. So, it was good in Mugello: some of them were positive; some of them were negative so it’s good to know. As much information as you have is better preparation for the next grand prix. Obviously we arrive more prepared now than how we arrived in Australia with only three tests in the winter. But to make the car faster I think in terms of setup you cannot find much. If you want to be running at the front it’s more aerodynamic parts and updates in the car. Hopefully they come but we need to wait.

You know this circuit pretty well, you had a very good start to the race last year – do you think we’re going to see more overtaking on the circuit now, what with more KERS and a longer DRS as well?

FA: I think it will be similar to last year, to be honest. I saw some numbers of previous races here. On average like four or five overtaking manoeuvres in the last nine years and last year there were 57 – so it was a big change. The race this year will be similar to last year because of the degradation, the DRS and the KERS. With all the possibilities that we have now, as we had last year, for sure we will see some more overtaking. This changes also a little bit the philosophy of this circuit. As Kimi said, pole position was 60 per cent of the victories, now pole position is obviously the best starting position but it’s not crucial anymore because with this year’s tyres it’s less important.

Sebastian, you broke the mould last year by winning from second on the grid, where you’ve started for the last three years but you won last year from there. This is such a performance track, is this a track where you’re really looking for an indicator for the rest of the first half of the season? If you’re competitive here you will be elsewhere?

Sebastian VETTEL: Well, I think if you are competitive here I think it means that you have been previously. It’s a track that we usually know quite a lot from winter testing, we have some data to compare to, so it’s very familiar. But it doesn’t mean if you are competitive here you are competitive everywhere. Equally, if you are not competitive here it doesn’t mean you will never be competitive. I think it’s similar to other tracks. Really, if you think which sector you’re talking about, which speed range of the cars. I think you have sectors on every track where you could get an indication. As I said, I think it’s the fact that we know a lot about this track, we have a lot of data to compare against, to see if we did a step forward compared to the winter and how big the step was. Surely then you have to consider different temperatures: it’s a different time of year so it’s also difficult to compare black and white – but yeah as a rule of thumb probably this circuit does give you an idea because simply you have all the corners you find somewhere else, you have tight chicanes like in the last sector, hard braking for the hairpin, fast corners like in the first sector. You have a bit of everything.

And yet everyone has been here, everyone knows exactly what sort of setup they would require. Is it perhaps one of the toughest races in that respect?

SV: Yeah it is. But as I said as well, you race here in May, it’s quite different if you look at the temperatures compared to February or March, so yeah, it does have a big change on the setup, so whatever you might have found out over the winter in testing, it might not work in the same way or the same style it did during testing. Also, you need to consider that the cars you launch are quite different to the cars you race at the first race, and then, you know, you race around May or June later in the season. So, yeah, it’s a bit wishy-washy because of that – but overall it’s a track we know fairly well from a driving point of view as we’ve done a lot of laps here. We should know our way around here.

Questions from the floor:

(Alex Popov – RTR TV) Question for Pedro and Fernando, about the Spanish Grand Prix in general because here and there we read about the difficult situation in Valencia, the difficult situation in Barcelona and now we have two grand prix but in the worst situation we will finish with no grand prix at all. Your thoughts about it.

PDLR: I’ve said a lot already since the first time we were told that Spain would have two grands prix, that it was a historical moment and a unique situation and we should be very, very proud of it. I still say the same answer: we still have two grands prix in Spain this year, and we should, all of us, be very proud, very happy and maximise this moment and then wait for the future to tell us what will happen – which is completely out of our hands, you know? This is all I can say. I’m very happy to be here, this is a Spanish Grand Prix, but also a Spanish Grand Prix with a Spanish driver in a Spanish team – so let’s forget about what might happen in the future because, as I said, I have absolutely no control over it.

(Mike Doodson – Honorary) Gentlemen, Michael Schumacher persistently criticises the Pirelli tyres, or at least the policy of Pirelli. To us and the fans it’s clear that Pirelli has been a major ingredient in the improvement of the quality of the racing this year and last year. Do any of you share Michael’s concerns about the tyres or do you think he’s just making excuses for not winning?

FA: I think Seb should answer, being German.

SV: Yeah? I think, y’know, we get a completely different impression inside the car than you might get outside the car. So, you’re always talking of two different worlds. I think for us quality of racing, if you compare racing today, you have to, I think, look after your tyres a lot more than probably you had to three, four, five years ago. For us, if you take, for instance, 2009 where we were allowed to refuel, we had new tyres and the tyres lasted longer, in that they didn’t see that much degradation. It’s a different quality inside the car because you can push nearly every lap similar to qualifying, whereas now I think the racing is different: we fuel the cars up, they are much heavier, and if you have a heavier car there’s more stress for the tyres, so it puts the whole thing in a different window. If you put a new set of tyres on with 20 laps to go, or 15 laps to go, which is, let’s say, the stint length, earlier, a couple of years ago, it’s a different world for the tyres. The tyres do see more degradation and then we start to slide and then one guy slides more than the other because he puts his tyres on two laps earlier. It creates a different type of racing, more overtaking, which I imagine is seen as better quality from the outside, simply because things happen. I think it depends what you really want. We have more overtaking. Fernando is good with numbers, so like Fernando said earlier. I think the races today – over the last two years since we have changed a couple of things – has become much better. Also for us. I had a race here where I was following – how many laps is the race, 66? – I think I was following Felipe [Massa] for 60 laps out of that and I couldn’t pass. Nowadays you know that your chance will come in the race and that’s changing the position inside the car as well.

Fernando…

FA: I don’t know. I agree with Seb but I don’t agree that Michael has continually criticised Pirelli. Michael said one thing and what has been written in the press has maybe exaggerated what he said. I read what he said and I don’t see any big problem with that.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Fernando, you have a very different car from this race. Let’s suppose this car does not correspondent to that criteria…

FA: We’ll see, we’ll see after the race, because we don’t know what car we have. Obviously we have new parts, but everybody has new parts. Because it’s Ferrari, there are quite a lot of expectations every race we go to. It seems like only Ferrari is bringing new parts. We have a step forward, we believe, on what we had in Bahrain, but we also know that it’s not the last step we have to do. It’s a continuous work, that we need to start here in Barcelona, making a step forward and try to improve our qualifying position and our race pace, but in Monaco we have to bring new parts. In Canada (we have to) bring new parts. So we will not bring a new car to every race as it seems that we brought here in Barcelona.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) But just to finish the question: if the car does not correspond…

FA: I answer you on Sunday.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Yes, but just to finish: considering your car has completely new ideas, a revolutionary car, do you think this could be the end of the season for Ferrari and you will start thinking about next year’s car?

FA: I don’t think so. I don’t think so. We need to see how the car works here and if it works fine, it will be a good step, the first step of many that we have to do during the next couple of races. If the step is not good enough, because the others improved the same or more than us so we remain in the same position, we need to work harder, for Monaco and for Canada, and bring more new parts in a more aggressive approach or whatever, because the championship is long and we will never give up in May, after four races.

Q: (Livio Orricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Do you think the basis of this car could be used for next year’s car?

FA: I think so. Yes.

Q: (Gary Meenaghan – The National) For all of you: if you look at the drivers in 1992, there were only two non-European countries represented. If you look at the same field twenty years later, this year, there are seven non-European countries represented. Is there a chance that in a few more years, the majority of the drivers will come from outside Europe and how do you think that will impact the sport?

KK: It’s difficult to stay. For drivers I think it’s very difficult, everywhere, Asia especially. I don’t know for the future, but at the moment I don’t know how many Europeans there are now? 17. We have to see. It’s very important for a programme for the development of drivers. I think that this programme is quite weak everywhere. I think for the future, they definitely have to work a lot. It’s very difficult to find how young drivers come to Formula One. I don’t know how it can be changed for the future but I definitely think we have to work on programmes for driver development.

Q: A huge German presence on the grid at the moment, Nico. Can you see that being maintained by a young driver programme in Germany?

NH: Which young driver programme? Is there one? I don’t know. We don’t keep track of that statistic. I think it will always be a good mixture between European and non-European drivers in the future.

Q: (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) To anyone, but Fernando and Sebastian particularly: following the rulings in the two Nico Rosberg incidents in Bahrain – one of which Fernando was involved in – are you clear in terms of what’s allowed and what isn’t when it comes to defending your position?

FA: Yes.

Q: (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) Has your understanding changed between before Bahrain to now?

FA: No, maybe I did…

SV: Fernando made it pretty clear. He said ‘you have to leave the space. All the time you have to leave the space!’

FA: Yes. Yes.

SV: It was clear, no?

FA: As I did last year with Sebastian. In Monza.

Q: (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) That isn’t what happened in Bahrain.

SV: He just thought my car was slimmer.

FA: But you passed. You passed.

SV: I think the rule is clear. You can argue. I think there were two incidents with Nico in Bahrain, one with Fernando and I think Fernando made his point clear afterwards. And with Lewis, and I think Lewis got past, so I think you can talk for hours now, but if you saw the situation in Bahrain, it’s exceptional, because you have a kind of asphalt run-off. Yes, it’s pretty dirty but we always try to go on the limit, the one who is overtaking, the one who is defending. Surely sometimes you need to respect that the guy is there and you need to leave the space. I think if it would have been grass, it would have been a different story. You wouldn’t go there in the first place. In Fernando’s case I think he would have made the same point.

Q: (Carlos Miguel- La Gaceta) Fernando and Pedro, if a fan of Formula One in Spain is thinking about coming here on Sunday, what are your goals for the race? What can you offer to the people?

PdelaR: Well, from our point of view, you know our goal is to fight and to improve from where we left it in Bahrain and that’s all we can offer, we can promise. We cannot promise victories – we leave that for Fernando – but we will promise, wherever we finish, we will do it with the pride of being here and doing a serious job, giving it all, and maximising what we have.

FA: Same thing. And giving 100 percent. We cannot promise anything. This is not a mathematical problem, it’s a sport, we all try to do our best so we will work hard, we will take care of every detail this weekend as we do normally, trying to do a serious job and hopefully finishing in the best position possible, but you cannot promise anything.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Leaving aside whether or not it’s a home race for you guys, how much of a difference does it actually make for you to be back in Europe again? Kimi, you don’t actually like the travelling very much out of Europe, do you?

KR: Yeah but I I arrived in China on the Thursday morning, so arriving for a European race on the Thursday morning is no different really.

PdelaR: I’m biased answering this question because it’s back to Europe, but especially it’s back to Spain, so for us, it’s a Grand Prix that arrives a little bit too early in our development programme, as far as I’m concerned. We have been improving since Australia but we probably need more Grands Prix to offer a more competitive show to our fans. That’s the only downside, but nevertheless, we are here, we are in Spain. It’s our home ground and we are very happy to be here. I’m looking forward to it. I used to live ten minutes away from the track and this is something that – when you grow up – you can always listen to the engines, so the Formula One cars, when you wake up every morning during the weekends – for me it’s a very special event, absolutely.

Q: Kamui, not so easy commuting from Japan.

KK: For sure. I’m used to being here a lot of times. I came to Europe 17 years ago and I’ve been here to Barcelona a lot of times. After long trips being back in Europe in Formula One is always great and it’s always great to see the motorhomes in Barcelona. This is always great and it’s always good to be back in Europe for Formula One.

SV: I think for all of us we’re happy to race in Europe. Surely we have races overseas which we enjoy. For instance, we all love going to Australia. Yes, it’s a long trip but once we are there I think we all enjoy being there and it’s the same here. In the end, I don’t think it makes a difference how long you travel. Yes, it is more convenient if you are only an hour, an hour and a half or two hours on the plane rather than twelve and then another twelve. As I said, I think every country we go to, there is a strong culture for motor sport. We hope for a lot of excitement and for a lot of people to come. It makes us feel very special when we are on the grid, to see that the grandstand is packed and usually around here are a lot of fans, cheering, especially for Fernando and the Spanish drivers, but it’s the same when we go to Silverstone, they’re cheering for their drivers. I think we can be very happy everywhere we go, and hopefully put on a great show so that the people enjoy it as well and they come back next year.

Q: (Alex Popov – RTR TV) Gentlemen, after testing at Mugello, Vitaly Petrov criticised the circuit, because he expressed concern about its safety, so do you think he was wrong to express his concern like this? He was criticised by other drivers, because he expressed concern. Is he wrong?

FA: I think everyone will have his opinion. I’m not someone to say that Vitaly is right or wrong. It’s more maybe the safety commission’s job or whatever. Personally, everyone will have their opinion, as I said. I like Mugello, I like the layout, I like the feelings, the emotions that you have driving there. As I said after the test, driving one lap in Mugello is like driving one hundred at another circuit, for adrenalin and how much you enjoy the lap. We were in Italy, with a lot of Ferrari support. I enjoy those three days testing so much, but in terms of how safe the track was or not, I don’t have the information to give an answer.

NH: Personally I enjoyed Mugello very much. I think it’s a very different circuit to all the others that we go to. You always feel like you’re flying there, a lot of fourth, fifth, sixth gear action which is great to have. Like Fernando said, whether you feel safe or not is a very personal thing. I think it was OK.

KK: That’s a great circuit. There are a lot of very safe circuits like Abu Dhabi without gravel, but this circuit had gravel and if we made a mistake we ended up in the gravel which is good for drivers and good for training and testing. The test was something we had to try and in the race, of course we have to stay on the track and it’s difficult to take a lot of risks but during testing we can take more risks to improve our driving. It’s great for me.

SV: Well, the first time I heard that he was saying something about safety at Mugello. I think we all loved the track because it’s different – like Nico said, there’s a lot of high speed corners. Sure, if the speeds are high, there is higher risk. There is obviously quite a lot of run-off but surely here and there you would like to have more. As long as nothing happens, everything is fine; if something happens… it’s always easy to say something after there’s an incident and say this and that. I think it was not as if we felt we were scared. We left the garage feeling safe. I think if we would race there one day, potentially yes or no, then surely here or there you can argue to make improvements for safety, but I think they did everything they could on the day.

Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – Radio Estado ESPN) Nico mentioned that Mugello is different from every other track that you guys race on in the year so does this very fact make it less useful to have tested there instead of somewhere else?

KK: Difficult. I think maybe it’s not really useful for mechanical stuff but definitely useful for aero development at least, because we can test the aero on the straights. Difficult to see the stability in the corner. Basically I think this was a good test.

SV: I agree. I think it was good to test some parts of the car, not for some others, but like all the other circuits. When we test in Jerez, test in Barcelona, we try different things. I remember in the old days testing in Paul Ricard. Some days we test on the 50s lap circuit because we were testing for Monaco Grand Prix: different tyres and different parts, so every test is welcome for different areas of the car, but it’s good. For people who don’t like Mugello there is a very easy solution.

A tension has crept into F1 drivers’ relationships, as they look ahead to a fiery meeting at the Barcelona circuit on Friday.

Fernando Alonso had given the first hints about the tension when he hit out at Nico Rosberg’s aggressive tactics in Bahrain three weeks ago.

And earlier this week, the Spaniard insisted there is not enough “respect” between the drivers when they are jostling for position at grands prix.

“Fernando made it pretty clear,” world champion Sebastian Vettel told reporters on Thursday. “He said ‘you have to leave the space — all the time you have to leave the space!’”

Rosberg said he is happy if discussions about his driving take place this weekend, but also in the firing line is Lewis Hamilton, who passed the Mercedes driver on the asphalt run-off in Bahrain.

“I was surprised Lewis was allowed to keep his position,” said Mark Webber.

“I’m sure we’ll talk about it in the drivers’ briefing.”

McLaren’s Hamilton insisted he did nothing wrong, but he added: “I’m not really bothered. It’s good to have clarity.

“Mark is probably one of the most – if not the most – outspoken individuals here (in F1), so that is the least I expect from him.”

Also among the most aggressive – and regularly criticised – drivers is Michael Schumacher, and he insisted that the FIA is fully able to make judgements about incidents.

“If it’s not within the rules the FIA would have taken action,” said the seven time world champion, referring to the incidents in Bahrain. “They didn’t and I didn’t see anything wrong either.”

Rubens Barrichello has alleged that Ferrari made a threat that might have ended his motor racing career during the infamous 2002 Austrian grand prix.

Ten years ago, the Brazilian led the race at the A1-Ring but eventually, at the very last corner, succumbed to team orders that allowed number one teammate Michael Schumacher to pass him.

Subsequent video footage has depicted then Ferrari team boss Jean Todt asking Barrichello on the radio to simply “let Michael pass for the championship, please”.

But Barrichello, having left F1 at the end of 2011 for a seat in Indycar, says it was not quite as simple as that.

“It was eight laps of war,” he is quoted by Brazil’s Globo.

“It’s very rare that I lose my temper, but I was screaming on the radio. I kept going right to the end, saying I would not let him pass.

“That’s when they said something about something much broader. It was not about the contract.

“I cannot tell you what they said, but it was a form of threat that made me think about re-thinking my life, because the great joy for me was driving,” said the 39-year-old.

The Spanish windscreen repair and replacement company and HRT Formula 1 Team have signed a collaboration deal for Cristalbox to become a new sponsor of the Spanish outfit for 2012. Cristalbox, who have already been linked with the motorsport world for a few years, have decided to extend this link and have taken a step into Formula 1 alongside HRT Formula 1 Team, with the objective of supporting the Spanish team’s project in the pinnacle of world motorsport.

The deal with which Cristalbox joins the team as a sponsor has a one year duration and the glass repair company has bolstered its commitment to HRT’s project by completing a spectacular glazing job at the new Caja Mágica headquarters in Madrid. The creation of a curtain wall at the team’s workshop supposed the installation of more than 25,000 kilogrammes of specially fabricated glass and will enable the team to make the most of the sunlight and environmental conditions.

Just like the conditioning of the other project areas at the Caja Mágica facilities, the installation and reinforcement of the curtain wall has been completed in under a month, thus proving the capacity of the Spanish company to expand its services.

Javier Celaya, Cristalbox General Manager: “A passion for cars is in the genes, the DNA, of our brand and top level competition reflects the essence of Cristalbox’s values: precision, speed, safety, resistance, reliability…From an advertising point of view, after two years sponsoring Formula 1 broadcasts, this was the logical evolution: to form a part of the competition. With HRT we can support a credible Spanish project in the pinnacle of motorsport and strengthen the reach of our brand to our targets”.

Luis Pérez-Sala, HRT Team Principal: “Formula 1 is all about technology and speed, two basic principles which we share with Cristalbox. They are a leading company in our country and we’re proud that they decided to fully submerge in Formula 1 alongside us and fully back our project. I want to thank them for the trust they have put in us and also for the extraordinary efficiency with which they have completed the structure and glazing of the workshop area in our new headquarters at the Caja Mágica. It was a structural and temporal task and they passed it with flying colours. We hope to overcome many other tasks alongside them this year”.

Romain Grosjean has admitted he didn’t try to keep his teammate Kimi Raikkonen behind him at the recent Bahrain grand prix.

In the wake of Lotus’ podium breakthrough, it was suggested Frenchman Grosjean was the victim of team orders.

Team figures, including boss Eric Boullier and 2007 world champion Raikkonen who finished the race second ahead of rookie Grosjean, denied the charge, even though team orders are fully legal.

But it emerged this week that, just before Grosjean was passed by Raikkonen, the French driver was told on the radio: “Kimi is faster than you.

“Do not hold him up,” the radio message, broadcasted for the first time by F1′s official website this week, ended.

Onboard footage of the move also showed Raikkonen briefly waving to his teammate as he completed the easy pass, ostensibly to thank him.

“I think that if I had closed the door on Kimi, or if we had fought, then I could have lost a wing,” Grosjean said this week.

“We knew that we could have a podium as a result and I didn’t want to make a mistake. I didn’t race at my best level,” he admitted to RMC.

Romain Grosjean was given a familiar instruction by his team during the recent Bahrain grand prix.

The Finnish broadcaster MTV3 reports that the Frenchman was told that his teammate “Kimi (Raikkonen) is faster than you”.

“Do not hold him up,” the radio message reportedly ended.

In 2010, when team orders were still illegal, Felipe Massa was famously told “Fernando (Alonso) is faster than you” shortly before the Brazilian gave up the lead of the race to Alonso.

Ferrari was fined $100,000.

Today, team orders are allowed, but Lotus denied it instructed Grosjean to let 2007 world champion Raikkonen pass before the Finn finished second in Bahrain.

“We don’t want to play team orders,” Lotus team principal Eric Boullier insisted in Bahrain, “so we let them race normally and what happened, happened.”

Force India deputy boss Bob Fernley has dismissed reports the Silverstone based team could pull out of the controversial Bahrain grand prix.

Two members of the team were allowed to return to Europe this week following a Molotov cocktail attack en route from the Sakhir circuit to the hotel.

There were high-level meetings involving Force India on Thursday, sparking speculation the entire team could follow its frightened members back to the UK.

But Fernley, admitting that security has been ramped up after the incident, is quoted by Express newspaper: “We are definitely taking part, that is decided.”

Bahrain’s information affairs authority also released a statement featuring quotes by Bernie Ecclestone.

“I have no knowledge of any teams planning to withdraw from the race and we are all looking forward to racing in Bahrain,” the F1 chief executive said.

According to Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary, however, another incident like the one involving Force India this week could force F1 to change its decision to go ahead with the race.

“If that happened again and someone was injured then that’s the nightmare scenario for organisers as it might push the teams over the edge,” he said.

Many drivers, like Kimi Raikkonen, have said the situation is normal this weekend in Bahrain, but Cary does not agree.

“Normally there would be PR events in town, you know, ‘meet the fans’ and that sort of thing but certainly as far as I’m aware there aren’t any of those happening,” he said.

World champion Sebastian Vettel said he will be happy when track action begins on Friday.

“I think it’s not a big problem,” the German said when asked about the security situation this weekend, “and I’m happy once we start testing tomorrow because then we worry about the stuff that really matters — tyre temperatures, cars.”

Earlier, Vitaly Petrov’s manager indicated the Russian would only travel to Bahrain if F1 could guarantee his safety.

“If it was dangerous they wouldn’t let us in,” the Caterham driver told The National in Bahrain.

“If they make sure nothing gets thrown onto that track to hurt us, then we’ll be fine. We are here; if it happens, it happens,” added Petrov.

In fact, almost everyone in Bahrain has been reluctant to comment in detail, but there is an obvious feeling of unease.

Peter Sauber told Blick newspaper: “I feel like a guest, and so it is not polite to criticise your host.”

But 1996 world champion Damon Hill allowed himself some criticism of F1, including the sport’s most powerful figures, Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt.

He pointed out that FIA president Todt has said “next to nothing” about the Bahrain saga.

“This I find baffling,” Hill wrote in the Guardian. “Surely it is possible to condemn acts of inhumanity without taking a side?”

As for F1 chief executive Ecclestone, who has consistently trivialised the Bahrain issue, Hill noted that “few” in the paddock “dare to publicly disagree” with the imperious 81-year-old.

“Perhaps we should (criticise him), instead of just muttering under our breath, scared of losing our passes,” said Hill.

Hermann Tilke, the German architect who designed the Sakhir circuit, sees the entire saga as a storm in a teacup.

“It is safe in Bahrain,” Tilke, whose company has an office there, told the Kolner Express newspaper. “I’ve never heard about any problems from our people.

“Of course there is some unrest, but it is protests, not civil war. As Bernie Ecclestone has said, we do sports, not politics,” he insisted.

“And if they demonstrate peacefully now, the media will report on it, so both sides benefit.”

Statistically, the Chinese grand prix raced straight into the history books as one of the most exciting formula one events of all time.

“For me, we are having some of the best races in formula one history,” agreed Jenson Button after finishing Sunday’s Shanghai race behind Nico Rosberg.

Finland’s Turun Sanomat newspaper reports that only three grands prix in the history of the sport played host to more individual overtaking moves.

The report said there were 72 passes in total on Sunday, not including the first corner of the race. Seven of the moves were on Kimi Raikkonen on one lap, after the Lotus driver’s Pirelli tyres gave up the ghost.

Last year in Shanghai, there were 63 passes. So far in 2012, there were more overtaking moves in China, Malaysia and Australia compared to the same races last season.

Canada 2011 still stands as the site of the most passes during a single grand prix, at 89.

In second place are the 1983 US grand prix and the 2011 Turkish grand prix (79 passes), followed by China last weekend.

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh is celebrating the spectacle of the 2012 season so far.

“Who’s going to predict who will win?” he said, referring to this weekend’s grand prix in Bahrain. “I won’t.

“We’ve had three very different races and I think we are going to have potentially 20 very different races this year.”

More wins could quickly follow for F1′s newest race victor, Nico Rosberg.

The Mercedes driver began the 2012 season with more than a century of races under his belt, causing some pundits to predict he will never taste winning champagne.

But he broke through in China just a day after his maiden pole.

“I took 113 (races to win) and he’s on 111,” 2009 world champion Jenson Button smiled in Shanghai.

Niki Lauda thinks Rosberg’s next wins will be easier.

“It (winning) gets easier,” the Austrian legend said in China late on Sunday, “because he know you can do it, and you’ve proved it.

“The next victories come quite quickly,” Lauda told the German broadcaster RTL.

Patrick Tambay won just two grands prix in consecutive seasons, 1982 and 1983, but he said the first one – achieved in Keke Rosberg’s championship year – came with “a sense of completion”.

“After that, things seem easier,” said the Frenchman, “especially so when you’ve waited 110 grands prix!

“It will feel like a relief,” Tambay told RMC Sport. “Now, he’s still young at 26 but with a lot of experience; he has everything he needs to reproduce this victory.

“The first is the most difficult.”

However, Tambay thinks Rosberg has a fight on his hands if he thinks the Shanghai victory is a springboard to a potential championship challenge.

“I see the McLaren as the best car of the season. They passed up a good opportunity for the (China GP) win,” he said.

The 2012 season has kicked off promisingly, with more overtaking moves recorded in the first two races than in the same exciting period last year.

The finding is significant, given the highly lauded contribution early in 2011 made by the new passing aid ‘DRS’, and new official supplier Pirelli’s heavily-degrading tyres.

Finland’s Turun Sanomat newspaper said 2012 has so far broken even the all-time records of early last season, when there were 63 overtaking moves – excluding the first laps – in Australia and Malaysia 2011.

This year, there were 70 passes in Australia-Malaysia combined.

It bodes well for this weekend’s Chinese grand prix, after last year’s Shanghai race saw no fewer than 63 separate in-race overtakes, including Lewis Hamilton’s winning move on leader Sebastian Vettel.

“China proved to be one of the most fascinating races in our first year, so we have a tough act to follow,” said Pirelli’s Paul Hembery.

“However, the philosophy we have adopted this year actually extends the window of peak performance on the slick tyres, which means that the drivers should be able to race harder and closer,” he added.

Yet another factor at the 2012 Chinese grand prix could be the weather, with F1′s travellers already sampling wet Shanghai roads early this week.

That forecast would suit Malaysia winner Ferrari, with technical director Pat Fry admitting that the Italian team’s 2012 car is almost a second off the pace in the dry.

“Damp, low grip conditions suit our car and flatter some of the issues we have at the moment,” he said.

Jenson Button has revealed he will “definitely” remain loyal to McLaren for the next few years.

It was reported this week that the 2009 world champion received an “offer” from Ferrari last year to replace the struggling Felipe Massa.

According to the Brazilian news agency Agencia Estado, those talks took place prior to October last year, when the 32-year-old Briton signed a new ‘multi year contract’ to stay at McLaren.

“I had a listen to what some of the other teams could offer me,” Button confirmed.

He also appeared to leave the door open to a Ferrari move in the future, admitting it would be “exciting” to be paired with Spaniard Fernando Alonso.

But Button has now insisted that he is perfectly happy at McLaren, despite the common paddock perception that the British team lacks the sort of “passion” seen at Ferrari.

“We have a great atmosphere, everyone thinks it’s a very cold, very grey team,” he is quoted by the Daily Mail.

“People talk about Ferrari and them being very passionate, and they are. But I don’t think most people realise how passionate this team is, and how much they want to achieve.

“So I’m very happy here, and you never know what’s going to happen in the future,” said Button.

“I’m not going to sign my life away, but I’ll stay here for the next few years, definitely.”

Button also lived up to his promise to “hurt” himself after a poor result in Malaysia recently, finishing sixth overall in the Waikoloa Lavaman triathlon in Hawaii.

“Yeah, I did (hurt myself),” he smiled immediately after the event. “My gluts are killing me. “They say that means you are riding the bike correctly, but it hurts.”

Martin Brundle has admitted he is surprised HRT is still struggling so much at the start of its third season in formula one.

Better known then as ‘Hispania’, the Spanish team was founded by Adrian Campos after former FIA president Max Mosley opened up three new places in pitlane for the start of the 2010 season.

But last year, the team’s second group of owners – the Carabante family – passed the baton yet again to Thesan Capital, who have rebuilt HRT in the wake of the management and infrastructure that was brought by former boss Colin Kolles.

Even so, the highly respected British commentator and former grand prix veteran Martin Brundle is surprised that Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan are struggling so much with the team’s Cosworth-powered 2012 car.

“Somebody’s got to be at the front, somebody’s got to be at the back,” the Briton told the BBC motoring programme Top Gear’s website.

“(But) the HRT is particularly poor at the moment, and it confuses me why in year three it’s worse than it was in year one.”

Carlos Gracia, an FIA vice-president and head of Spain’s motor racing federation, doesn’t fully agree.

Speaking to the sports newspaper Marca, he explained that veteran de la Rosa faces a “handicap” as the Spaniard races with HRT this year.

“He knows where he is; in a brand new team, although some people believe it is their third year.

“They have begun again, but it seems that they are in a situation where they have only just started and yet they have to clean up the image of the other years.

“That’s his handicap, but the team will have credibility because of Pedro and also because of a good business investment,” added Gracia.

Sauber has revealed it cannot afford to simply jump in and copy Mercedes’ innovative F-duct solution.

The small Swiss team had almost winning race pace in Malaysia last weekend even without the extra straight-line speed that would be provided by a system along the lines of Mercedes’ DRS-complimenting concept.

Despite their complaints about the legality of the system, there is little doubt the big-budget teams will be working frantically to emulate the Mercedes’ concept, which to date has the blessing of the FIA.

According to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, however, it will be a different story for the smaller teams.

“If we started now with a blank sheet of paper, we would be ready in two months,” said Sauber’s chief designer Matt Morris.

“But it would really add up. We have to ask ourselves whether it’s worth it for us, or whether we would be better off chasing the laptime with more conventional steps.

“On the other hand the big teams can handle a development like that in parallel to their normal programmes,” he added.

Also on the technical front, Auto Motor und Sport reveals that rival teams are closer to getting to the bottom of Red Bull’s ever-flexible front wings.

After the last day of testing in Barcelona, detailed photographs emerged of Sebastian Vettel’s stricken RB8 that appeared to show a sort of torsion bar inside the damaged front wing.

The report said the torsion bar may be pre-loaded in order to pass the FIA’s static load tests, but then bend at speed.

An FIA insider suggested the system, although permitted in private testing, “would not be allowed” at the actual grands prix.

Norbert Haug has the ‘F-duct’ debate around by admitting he questions the exhaust solution featured on this year’s McLaren car.

Some teams – notably Red Bull, Lotus and Ferrari – have complained loudly about the W03′s aerodynamic configuration, arguing the F-duct ban completely ruled out similar systems that are triggered by a driver’s movement.

Mercedes argues that its new F-duct is entirely passive and is triggered not by the driver but by the activation of the ‘DRS’ rear wing system.

So far, the FIA agrees, but it has led to suggestions Mercedes is only performing in qualifying because of its questionable F-duct, before struggling in the race when DRS use is much more limited.

“We have to live with that,” Mercedes’ motor racing chief Haug is quoted by Sport Bild, “until we are faster in the race, but it’s not true that we do not have a good car.

“We are a serious team that has to pretend nothing; we have prepared well in winter testing.”

Team boss Ross Brawn said recently he suspects all the fuss about Mercedes’ F-duct is a diversion when it comes to the exhaust solutions taken by some of his rivals in the wake of the blown diffuser clampdown.

Haug agrees that championship leader McLaren’s solution, for example, is “probably not what they (the FIA) had in mind when the blown diffuser was banned”.

But he also said Mercedes is not threatening to protest the “clever” British team.

“It is quite legitimate that we ask the FIA for a clarification, otherwise we could be missing a trick.

“It’s part of the game,” he explains.