The season began as usual in Melbourne, Australia and we saw Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus very strong, also Mercedes and Force India seemed competitive. McLaren hadn't only lost Lewis Hamilton, also their competitiveness. Also Sauber wasn't as strong as in 2012.
The race itself ended with a winner who didn't need to overtake someone on the track to win.
Kimi Raikkönen simply won with one stop less than Alonso and Vettel.
In the second race in Malaysia we have had the first controversy of the season. After the last pit stops of the race we saw both Red Bulls very close together, but Mark Webber in front.
Because of uncertainty about the stability of the tyres both drivers were ordered to keep their positions with the now famous command Multi21.
Webber turned the engine down, but Vettel continued trying to pass Webber. He ignored the order and passed Webber in a battle through the first sector. Vettel later excused for disobeying the team order, but weeks later he turned back that he Webber hadn't really helped him in the past.
Also Mercedes had a similar issue in the race, but Rosberg obeyed the order and didn't pass Hamilton ahead and stayed at the fourth position.
In the following we saw Mercedes very strong in the qualifying in China. Lewis Hamilton took his first Pole Position for his new team. Later in the race he saved the third position and Fernando Alonso won his first race of the season.
We came to Bahrain and we saw another Pole Position for Mercedes - this time it was Rosberg. But that was the only highlight for Mercedes that weekend. In the race the German lost many positions in the first stint - he struggled with the tyres in the heat. Vettel eventually won the race ahead of both Lotus which came from bad grid positions from behind.
Then we came back to Europe and Nico Rosberg achieved another Pole Position. Lewis Hamilton completed the silver first row with the second place. But in the race it looked like in Bahrain. Both Mercedes lost positions, Hamilton don't even got any points. Nico Rosberg was able to lead longer than in Bahrain but still just scored a few points. Fernando Alonso finally won his home race ahead of Kimi Raikkönen.
Two weeks later the legendary Monaco Grand Prix took place. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton filled the first row once again.
The race had some moments: First, Felipe Massa made the same crash into Turn 1 as the day before in the qualifying. It followed the first Safety Car deployment of the year.
Lewis Hamilton let a too big gap between him and the leading Rosberg and lost his second place at the pits. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber overtook him this way.
Some laps later a crash between Max Chilton and Pastor Maldonado caused a red flag, because there pushed a barrier at the track.
Sergio Perez who gained a position from Fernando Alonso before the restart because the Spaniard cut the chicane had later an intense fight with Raikkönen.
The Mexican tried several times to pass the Finn at the chicane, Raikkönen always covered his position until one optimistic move from Perez where both clashed.
Raikkönen got a puncture, dropped back out of the points. Perez had to give up because he destroyed his brakes.
But the Finn came back, overtook in the last laps both Sauber and his compatriot Bottas and at least scored one point for 10th place.
Rosberg eventually won the Monaco Grand Prix, 30 years after his father Keke.
But the victory had negative connotation because the information that Mercedes conducted a Pirelli tyre test with 2013 cars after the Barcelona race became public...
