The Williams Formula One team have boosted Indian Narain Karthikeyan's hopes of a reserve role next year by calling him back for more tests in Spain.
The Indian was faster than German rookie Nico Rosberg who has secured the team's second race drive for 2006.
Formula One champions Mercedes expect to be beaten by Ferrari this season and also see McLaren catching up fast after a dismal 2015 for the Honda-powered team, engine head Andy Cowell said.
The 18-year-old completed 65 laps with a best time exactly three seconds slower than Ralf Schumacher.
'I think we're still the top three teams. Merc (Mercedes) and Ferrari and us. I think we're still going to be leading the pack for now, so, yeah, hopefully we're deep in that front group and have a chance to stand on that podium'
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has backed a clampdown on the use of team radio to help drivers, claiming it was his idea and suggesting more restrictions should be considered.
The German becomes the fourth quadruple champion and only the third driver to land four titles in a row after Germany's seven-times winner Michael Schumacher and the late Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio.
The billionaires, supermodels and suntanned celebrities sipping cocktails in the Monaco sunshine might wonder what planet Jacques Villeneuve is on.
British media reports have suggested the new deal could be worth up to 40 million pounds ($52 million) a year and is likely to make the four-time F1 champion the sport's top earner.
Four times Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel hopes Ferrari can become the strongest challengers to Mercedes this season after failing to win a race last year.
The win was the third of the Finn's career and season, denying Hamilton a 10th of the campaign.
Lewis Hamilton's record already bears comparison to Michael Schumacher's, and in some areas exceeds the great German's achievements.
Fernando Alonso felt lucky to be alive after walking away from a spectacular crash that left his obliterated McLaren scattered across the Albert Park circuit and brought a halt to the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. Alonso's right wheel clipped Esteban Gutierrez's Haas at high speed going into turn three of the 18th lap and the impact sent the Spaniard's McLaren careening into a barrier, smashing it to pieces, before it flipped, rolled and flew end-over-end into another barrier. The two-time Formula One world champion emerged from the wreckage and walked gingerly over to Mexican Gutierrez, where the pair embraced. "I'm okay, I'm trying to put everything in place again," the 34-year-old told Sky Sports in the paddock after Nico Rosberg won the race for Mercedes.
It was the second win of Montoya's 41 race career and the first of the season for BMW-powered Williams
As we prepare to cruise into the New Year, Rediff.com gives you a glance back, through photos, into all the sporting moments that made the last 12 months memorable.
Finland's Valtteri Bottas took his first Formula One pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday with a sizzling lap that ended Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton's bid for a seventh in a row.
Fernando Alonso believes his McLaren team could have the best chassis in Formula One before long this year but the Spaniard also sees no end to champions Mercedes' domination after pounding out the laps in testing.
The Indian ace was given the honour after Carlin's top driver Alan van der Merwe opted out.
Lewis Hamilton has hinted he could walk away from Formula One at the end of the season, while also indicating it was highly unlikely.
Lewis Hamilton can become Britain's first four-times Formula One world champion this season, but some former racers fear the Mercedes driver's celebrity lifestyle could make the task harder.
The 65-year-old South African says those who raise such obstacles are talking rubbish.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has recognised a fashion faux pas and assured Wimbledon he will respect the dress code next year.
"It was a really bad accident, pretty unlucky," Perez told reporters of his crash at the Hungaroring.
Sergio Perez shook off the gear-box change penalty to claim his and Sahara Force India's second podium place of the season with a third-place finish at the European Grand Prix while Nico Hulkenberg took the ninth spot, in Baku, on Sunday.
Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton has warned that Formula One's new cars, while better looking and thrilling to drive, may not do much for the racing when the season starts in Australia on March 26.
The Mercedes driver was fastest in every phase of qualifying to take pole with a time of one minute 42.553 seconds, a track record.
The Nuerburgring circuit will not host the German Formula One Grand Prix this year, an official for the company said on Thursday after Hockenheim also ruled out the possibility.
Niki Lauda pondered the mystery of the disappearing Mercedes on Sunday after Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg finished one-two in the Japanese Grand Prix but barely featured in television coverage.
Hamilton, Bottas's team mate, started in eighth place after a grid penalty triggered by an unscheduled gearbox change and finished fourth.
Jenson Button hailed Honda's latest power unit as a good step forward for McLaren after completing 121 laps and finishing fifth fastest on the second day of Formula One's final pre-season test on Wednesday.
On a rainsoaked afternoon that saw the race twice stopped and re-started with the safety car deployed five times, there were also those who felt the sport had erred too far on the side of caution.
Max Verstappen was compared to Formula One greats Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher on Sunday after the Dutch teenager's sensational drive to third place in a wet and chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix. Even father and former racer Jos, the 19-year-old Red Bull driver's biggest fan and fiercest critic, was astonished. "What Max showed here today was really special," he said of a race likely to go down in the sport's annals as one for the ages. In the last 15 laps, after a change to extreme wet tyres, Verstappen passed more than half the starting grid as he went from 16th place to the podium.
The most successful current racer, in terms of wins if not titles, Hamilton can also equal seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher's all-time record of 68 pole positions at Spa on Saturday.
And, since, pictures speak more than words, Rediff.com brings you images from these sporting events and others that made headlines in the week gone by.
South Korea's Formula One grand prix has been reinstated provisionally on a record 21-race calendar for 2015 while double points have been scrapped for the final round in Abu Dhabi, the sport's governing body said on Wednesday.
The German, Canadian and Brazilian grands prix were listed as subject to confirmation on a record-equalling 21-race provisional calendar for 2017 published by Formula One's governing body on Wednesday.
'Every great Formula One season is marked by a great rivalry. Last year it was our internal battle between Lewis and Nico and this year it seems that the fight is on between Ferrari and Mercedes and Lewis and Sebastian'
Three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton dominated practice at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Friday, putting Mercedes on top of the timesheets and leaving his Formula One rivals with plenty to ponder before the weekend.
However intense the pain felt by Formula One after Jules Bianchi's horrific accident in Japan, and the shock is deep indeed, Friday's inaugural Russian Grand Prix practice offers some respite.
Ferrari showed impressive pace during pre-season testing and are considered the team most likely to dethrone Mercedes.
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