Reader Sundar Ramanathan sent us a picture of Karthikeyan from Melbourne.
The Australian GP will give up its high-profile slot as Formula One's season-opening race next year to avoid a clash with the Commonwealth Games.
Photographs of the skywriting were widely shared online but it was unclear who was responsible for them. But the Australian Grand Prix authorities were adamant that Albert Park would welcome thousands of motor sport fans from Thursday when practice sessions and qualifying commence for lower-profile touring car series.
Nico Rosberg drew first blood for Mercedes in the new Formula One season with a dominant Australian Grand Prix victory on Sunday after pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton and world champion Sebastian Vettel retired with reliability problems.
World champion Sebastian Vettel is understandably favourite to open the Formula One season with a victory at the Australian Grand Prix this weekend but there are strong indications he will face a much tougher challenge than he did last year.
Four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel won the Australian Grand Prix for Ferrari on Sunday to dash Mercedes' hopes of extending their dominance into a fourth successive season of Formula One.
It was the first time Verstappen, winner of a record 19 of 22 races last year, has won the first two races of a season. He has also won 19 of the last 20.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris topped the times for McLaren as four red flags, two caused by trackside grass fires, wreaked havoc with the second practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix on Friday.
McLaren's Lando Norris took pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix sprint on Friday with Mercedes' George Russell denying the Formula One leaders a front row.
'We're absolutely confident the Australian Open will go ahead'
Sebastian Vettel started his campaign to win four successive world titles with third place at Sunday's Australian Grand Prix but the German thinks the season-opener race will prove to be an anomaly over the course of the year.
Leclerc was 11 seconds clear with seven laps to go and 8.3 ahead with five remaining as the massed ranks of 'tifosi' willed him on.
Formula One's 2015 season, comprising 20 races, kicks-off in Australia on March 15.
Force India was given a tough lesson in the realities of F1 when both their cars failed to finish Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.
The double finish in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday ticked all the boxes barring aerodynamics and Force India is just a few refinements away from its maiden Formula One points, owner of the Silverstone-based outfit Vijay Mallya said. Mallya said reliability was his main concern coming into the 2009 session but the Australian Grand Prix dispelled all fears and aerodynamic development is all the VJM02 needed to break the duck.
McLaren's Lando Norris dominated the Singapore Grand Prix from start to finish on Sunday to take another chunk out of Max Verstappen's Formula One championship lead.
Jenson Button seized pole position for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Saturday in a fairytale front row sweep for his new Brawn GP team. Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello will line up alongside in Sunday's race in a remarkable turnaround for a team who were fighting for their Formula One survival earlier this year.
The Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) announced that the March 16 event in Melbourne would be the second race on the 2008 calendar and would start 90 minutes later than usual, at 1530 local time, to cater for European television audiences.
Max Verstappen added his name to the list of triple Formula One World champions on Saturday after Red Bull team mate and sole title rival Sergio Perez crashed out of the Qatar Grand Prix sprint race.
Alex Marquez of Gresini Racing shocked Pramac Racing's Jorge Martin and reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia to win the Malaysian Grand Prix sprint from fourth position on Saturday, as the title contenders came in second and third, respectively.
Formula One world championLewis Hamilton has beencleared by New Zealand police after he was investigated over his apparent video selfie while driving a motorbike in Auckland. The British driver, who is touring New Zealand before this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, posted a video to his Snapdeal handle, in which he is seen driving a Harley Davidson on the motorway. It has been illegal to use a mobile while driving in New Zealand since 2009. His constant posts on social media caught the attention of local police. However, they have decided not to take any further action on Hamilton citing a lack of sufficient evidence, Stuff.co.nz reported.
As expected, it was not a great result for Sahara Force India in the qualifying session for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix as Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez will start the season-opening race from the 14th and 15th spots respectively.
Red Bull's failure to win the Australian Grand Prix after hogging the front row of the grid has shown the championship team they were not as good as they thought they were, a disappointed Mark Webber said on Sunday.
The victory at Suzuka was the Dutch driver's 13th in 16 races this season and left him on the brink of a third world title.
While Valtteri Bottas claimed a dominant win for Mercedes and his team mate Lewis Hamilton held off Red Bull's Max Verstappen for second, Ferrari's drivers were left scrambling for minor points in a sobering start for the Scuderia.
Red Bull's Mark Webber swept to the fastest time in the first practice session of the new Formula One season at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday.
Kimi Raikkonen carried the form that propelled him to a season-opening victory to Sepang on Friday after the Finn edged a fascinating first day of practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix in his finely balanced Lotus.
Formula One commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone has dismissed reports from Australia he was visiting New York this week to discuss the possibility of staging a Grand Prix on Staten Island.
Red Bull's triple world champion Max Verstappen followed up a Saturday sprint win with a statement pole position for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, with McLaren's Lando Norris again alongside on the front row.
Narain Karthikeyan's first weekend back in Formula One was a huge let down but the Indian is confident he will finally go racing at next month's Malaysian Grand Prix.
Vitantonio Liuzzi kept his cool in a rollercoaster of a race to finish seventh and win six invaluable points for Force India while Karun Chandhok was among the 14 drivers who lasted the distance in the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday.
Two members of the Haas Formula One team and one from McLaren were quarantined in Melbourne on Wednesday as a precaution amid coronavirus fears ahead of Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix. McLaren said one team member had self-isolated in the team hotel as a precaution for showing 'coronavirus-like symptoms'.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc claimed his second win of the Formula One season with a thumping, pole-to-flag victory at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday as Red Bull's world champion Max Verstappen suffered "deja vu" with another retirement.
Adrian Sutil matched his second best performance of the season by finishing ninth in the European Grand Prix, earning two points for Force India, while Paul di Resta ended up outside the points bracket with 14th position, in Valencia on Sunday.
Force India managed to finish among points for the second successive race with Paul Di Resta signing off 10th in the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton put last weekend's problems behind him by going quickest in both practice sessions for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Friday as Red Bull's reliability issues continued to haunt them.
Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said on Wednesday he is confident his team would bounce back in Malaysia this weekend after making a terrible start to the season at the Australian Grand Prix. Neither of the Italian team's drivers completed last weekend's Grand Prix, although world champion Kimi Raikkonen picked up a point after Honda's Rubens Barrichello was disqualified from a race that only seven cars completed. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton won.
A contrite Lewis Hamilton said suspended McLaren team manager Dave Ryan told him to lie to stewards at last weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Describing the subsequent furore as the worst thing he had experienced in his life, Formula One's youngest champion apologised on Friday to the stewards and fans for his behaviour and assured them it would never happen again.
Formula One champions Ferrari experienced their worst start to a season in 17 years when a risky gamble backfired at Sunday's Australian Grand Prix. The Italian team were left searching for answers after failing to score a single point in the opening race of the championship for the first time since the South African Grand Prix in 1992.
Formula One plans to start its coronavirus-ravaged season in May after cancelling this weekend's opener in Australia on Friday and postponing the next three races in Bahrain, Vietnam and China. Confusingly, while Formula One said in a statement it expected to begin the championship in Europe at the end of May, the governing FIA's statement referred to May 1. Both may prove optimistic as the virus spreads across the continent.
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