Team by team analysis of Sunday's Russian Grand Prix (listed in championship order):
Media reports suggested the McLaren driver, whose wife is Japanese, was likely to announce at this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix that he would be leaving Formula One at the end of the year.
Lewis Hamilton kept championship leader Sebastian Vettel off the top of the timesheets in both Friday practice sessions for the Korean Formula One Grand Prix while Kimi Raikkonen slammed his Lotus into a tyre wall.
Formula One's governing body is planning to tighten the rules on telemetry next season to limit the amount of remote assistance drivers can get from their data engineers.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Williams' Valtteri Bottas have all been highlighted in media speculation but 22-year-old German reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein remains the bookmakers' favourite.
Jenson Button says he has no plans to race again in Formula One after Sunday's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, even though McLaren are keeping the door open for a possible return in 2018. "I go into this weekend thinking it is going to be my last race. I think that is the best way to be," the 2009 world champion told reporters on Thursday. "At this moment in time I do not want to be racing in Formula One past this race. I think of this as my last race and hopefully everybody else does as well."
The Dutchman stopped Hamilton from winning an eighth title with a gutsy turn in the final lap.
Lewis Hamilton has had more success in Shanghai than any other Formula One driver, which makes Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix the ideal location for the triple world champion to end Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg's winning streak. While Rosberg has started the season with a perfect 50 points from two races, and a run of five successive victories dating back to last November, Hamilton is ready to turn the tables. The Briton has won four times in Shanghai and is on for three in a row after last season becoming the only driver to win the race in successive years. "It's not been a smooth start to the season for me, so to be in the championship position I'm in right now is actually pretty positive," said Hamilton, who lies second in the standings after a second and a third place. "Now we go to China for the next battle. It's a track that's been good to me over the years... so hopefully this race can be the turning point." Hamilton has not won since he took his third world championship in Austin, Texas, last October but the 31-year-old has started both races this season on pole position.
Formula One was accused of sending out a mixed message on alcohol at the Monaco Grand Prix on Friday by giving extensive publicity to drinks brands while campaigning for road safety.
Double Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has agreed a new three-year contract that will keep him at Mercedes until the end of 2018, the team announced on Wednesday.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the French Grand Prix on Saturday with Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas alongside him on the front row.
German Nico Rosberg eased to victory in a chaotic Belgian Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday.
Mercedes can hardly wait for Sunday's Abu Dhabi Formula One title decider to be over so they can tie Lewis Hamilton down to a long-term contract.
Stefano Domenicali resigned as Ferrari's Formula One team principal on Monday, and the company's North America president and chief executive Marco Mattiacci was appointed as his replacement.
World champion Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets for Mercedes in both practice sessions of the Australian Grand Prix on Friday but team mate Nico Rosberg crashed as waterlogged conditions put a dampener on Formula One's season opener.
Kimi Raikkonen has plenty of supporters among the passionate Ferrari 'tifosi' as the team's first champion of the post-Schumacher era, and last to date, and his return would a break with Ferrari tradition as much as a blast from the past.
Electrical gremlins held up Lewis Hamilton in Italian Grand Prix practice on Friday after the Mercedes driver had lapped more than half a second quicker than anyone else in the morning session.
Rosberg and triple world champion Lewis Hamilton shared testing duties on Tuesday, with the Briton taking over in the afternoon for a race simulation. Together, they did 169 laps without a hitch
Fernando Alonso hailed the Briton as a Formula One great and said he was happy to see him stand on the brink of a fifth world championship.
Triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton hailed his 'fantastic' Mercedes after wrapping up the first pre-season test with another 99 laps before lunchtime on Thursday.
McLaren unveiled their new Formula One car on Sunday, certain it cannot be any worse than last year's but still unsure when they might get back to winning ways after their longest drought in decades. The former champions have not won a race since 2012 and finished last season, the first of a new partnership with Honda, ninth of the 10 teams with just 27 points compared to 703 for dominant Mercedes. The three years without a win is the team's longest barren stretch since their absence from the top step of the podium in 1994-96. "As we embark on the second year of our renewed McLaren-Honda partnership, all of us remain united in our purpose. That purpose is to develop our team towards our shared ambition: to win," said McLaren boss Ron Dennis. "We'll make no predictions as to when those wins will come," he added. The new MP4-31 car was presented online in a predominantly black livery with some prominent new sponsors in LVMH's sparkling wine brand Chandon and watchmaker Richard Mille replacing the departed Tag Heuer.
The pole was Hamilton's eighth in nine races this season and the 46th of his career for the championship leader, who won at Silverstone last year and has a 10 point advantage over the German.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz will make a dream move to Ferrari next year, with Australian Daniel Ricciardo replacing him at McLaren, as Formula One's driver carousel took another big twirl on Thursday with the 2020 season yet to start. Ferrari said 25-year-old Sainz, who replaces four times World champion Sebastian Vettel alongside young Monegasque Charles Leclerc at the sport's most glamorous team, had signed for 2021 and 2022.
The German secured his first pole since Spain in May when the red flags came out with 36 seconds remaining, leaving team mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton no chance of claiming a 12th pole in 14 races.
Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes stormed to pole position with a scorching lap in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix as title rival Sebastian Vettel was left stranded in the garage and will start dead last.
Nico Rosberg led from pole to flag to win the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday and celebrate his 200th Formula One race by retaking the championship lead from Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton. After a chaotic start that brought out a safety car on the opening lap, Rosberg stayed clear of a late charging Daniel Ricciardo in a Red Bull at the Marina Bay Street Circuit as Hamilton completed the podium in third place.
Lewis Hamilton continued his season's sweep of qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Kimi Raikkonen is enjoying being at Ferrari more than ever this season.
Triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday to seize the championship lead from team mate Nico Rosberg for the first time this season.
Hamilton, Bottas's team mate, started in eighth place after a grid penalty triggered by an unscheduled gearbox change and finished fourth.
The Briton lapped the Albert Park circuit in a searing one minute and 21.164 seconds to cross the line 0.664 seconds clear of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
The next time the four-time world champion will get behind the wheel will be for first Friday practice at Melbourne's Albert Park on March 23.
'After many years of having to find new adjectives to say horrible, I realised I would rather write about things I want to write about.'
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was fastest in Formula One's pre-season testing at a chilly Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday while Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton took one for the team and "sacrificed" his scheduled stint.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Sebastian Vettel continued his imperious march towards a fourth consecutive Formula One world championship by storming to pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday after dominating the two days of practice.
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