Firstly, they did not show the Friday practice session on TV, only radio. ITV used to show all 3 days, but due to rule changes in recent years the Friday session changed from a qualifying session to a practice session. However, it didn’t stop ITV giving full TV coverage of the days events.

Secondly, Formula 1 action is not available on the iPlayer! Apparently due to ‘rights’ issues. This is perhaps the most disappointing part of it. I was looking forward to being able to watch the action any time – and what a fantastic facility that would be.

It’s not surprising that it’s not available, it’s inline with Bernie Ecclestone’s tight-fisted grip on the sport. Personally, i’m a fan of allowing unlimited access to generate awareness and involvement in the sport, and then generate revenue through that user base.

It’s also fairly obvious that McLaren are not coping well with the recent car design changes – is this a co-incidence? I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but i’ve never seen Ecclestone say a good word about McLaren or Lewis Hamilton. In fact, in his rookie year when he was a race away from victory, Ecclestone very boldy and camly stated that he would not win the championship – almost as if he knew before hand!

EDIT: the race is available on the iPlayer for 7 days. I’m not sure why qualifying was not – perhaps it will be next week.

It’s great to have such a young talent coming into the sport and making it his own at such an early point in his career. It feels that as one great legend leaves, we have another to fill his shoes. I’m not a die-hard F1 fan, but having this young guy come in and make history certainly increases my interest!