Welcome to yet another OverdriveF1.com exclusive...

After extensive work in the Overdrive wind tunnel - the best part of half an hour - we've produced the first replica of the brand new Ferrari F2012.

There is no apparent logic to the F1 cliché “a beautiful car is a fast car” yet it somehow seems to play out that way. If so, it’s no wonder that Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were smiling at the launch of the new McLaren MP4-27.

The first 2012 car unveiled was the Caterham, which drew gasps thanks to an unsightly step on the nose. Compared to that, the McLaren looks like a Rembrandt.

No wonder Button said: “This is a beautiful car. Many that you will see will not be..."

Of course beauty is one thing but it will rapidly lose its attraction if it's not quick.

Kimi Raikkonen’s return to Formula 1 with Lotus means there will be a record six world champions on the 2012 grid. But none of them is more enigmatic than this Finn who displays the charisma of a speak-and-spell in press conferences yet turns into the closest modern-day equivalent to James Hunt away from the track.

It’s a brave move by the team that has been known as Lotus Renault GP this year – and surprising too, given the copious driving talent it already has on its books including GP2 champion Romain Grosjean plus current pairing Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna.

The Enstone team, which took Fernando Alonso to the title just five years ago under the Renault banner, has thus pulled off an apparent coup. Whether it pays off remains to be seen as the main thing missing from Raikkonen’s armoury to date has been the ability or will to drag an outfit up the grid – either via team-building or car-building.

Renowned as the driver least likely to be found loitering in technical debriefs, this Finn prefers just to drive the socks off whatever machinery he’s given – leading to immense drives such as his classic win at Suzuka in 2005.

It was ever thus. I was lucky to be at Mugello when Raikkonen made his F1 test debut in a Sauber in 2000. It was a mighty start that had Michael Schumacher – the only other car on track – correctly predicting we’d seen a future world champion. I watched Sauber’s Jacky Eeckelaert try to stop the young Finn from paying too much attention to his lap times. Little could he have known how futile that cause was.

It’s an approach that paid off for most of Kimi’s career until 2008, the season in which he finally carried number 1 on his car only to be defeated by team-mate Felipe Massa. Late that bleak summer – which no doubt contributed to the mindset that sent him straying into rallying – I grabbed him at a Jerez test to enquire of his version of ‘the Zone’.

‘It can happen,’ he told me for Overdrive. ‘Of course when everything does go perfectly it’s a great feeling. There’s not much in life that can compare to it. But it’s not something that happens often enough, to be honest. It’s such a special blend to get everything right at the same time. For it all to work out perfectly you need to have the perfect car underneath you. In the course of my career that has only rarely been the case.’

Intriguingly, Raikkonen has since referred to that first Mugello test as his best moment in F1. And it was probably the same ‘love at first sight’ thunderbolt that he was seeking in a rally car. Of course, short of a miraculous turnaround in the Lotus position, Kimi is unlikely to be offered a ‘perfect car’ any time soon. So the question will be whether his two largely frustrating years in a rally car have finally given him the patience to grind out a long-term relationship with his childhood sweetheart.

Like fellow returnee Schumacher, Kimi may find the fickle F1 has strayed in his absence too. But either way it will be a lot of fun to watch.

Newly-signed Lotus race driver Romain Grosjean will make his return to F1 on the back of a stunning 2011 in which he was crowned GP2 Asia champion before dominating GP2.

Anyone doubting that the Frenchman can ruffle Kimi Raikkonen’s feathers will be in for a big surprise next year. Having had one false start in the top echelon, Grosjean will be in no mood for a repeat. He has since grown both as a driver and a man, as I found when I caught up with him earlier this week.

After five GP2 wins and five more podiums in his vintage GP2 season, you’d think one of those might just be his favourite race of the year. But no, instead it was his storming drive through the field from the back of the grid at Monaco, home of the Zone, after circumstances conspired against him in qualifying.

“Every win is special,” says Grosjean. “But coming from 26th on the grid to finish 4th in Monaco was amazing. The amount of bad luck I’d had the day before came back to me that day. I had a very good start into the first corner, then I only overtook one or two cars on the track but every time I reached a guy he would pit and I would carry on. We pitted very late and when they said I was P4 I had a double-take, then I just concentrated on bringing the car home.”

Having once developed a reputation of panicking in tight situations, his rivals and critics were quick to pounce when Grosjean triggered a first-lap crash at the Valencia GP2 sprint race after his victory the previous day. But it actually helped spark a turnaround in his approach.

“After Valencia I said, ‘Okay, from now on I need to finish both races,’” adds Grosjean. “From this race on I went on to have some really good races. I also won races in GP2 the first time round but it was in a different way. Back then I was going from pole position and disappearing. Maybe I was less good when it was a bit difficult, when the car was not there or when I had to wait a little bit.

“That whole first experience has helped me to be much more patient: to analyse the situation much more, and to make the best of the car I have. You know that you are not going to have the best one every time so you have to make do with it and try to get the best out of it you can – even by changing your style – to get to the end.”

Grosjean claims he isn’t into visualisation but he has developed the ability to access the right mental state to perform at the limit and find the Zone.

“I have my own trick,” he says. “I’ve always done some mental things and I do it much more now because I know myself a bit better. I know what I need before I jump into the car, and which mood I need to be in. If I’m leading a race I just try to make it happen. I’m just focused on driving and I don’t like to think about anything else. When I’m at the limit I focus twice as hard on not making any mistakes.”

What does the Zone mean to you?
"It’s basically when you’re able to block everything else out around you, and not have any other outside thoughts interfering with your job. When you’re in the Zone you don’t think about anything else."

Are there different levels of it?
"When you perform absolutely at your best – well, this might vary with different drivers – but usually when I perform at my best I’m not thinking about what I’m doing on the weekend or anything, you’re just there in the moment. That’s my zone…"

Is it pretty magical?
"Yeah, when you’re in it it’s pretty good. It’s usually only when you’re winning, I guess, because otherwise you’re not performing or something’s not happening."

In Formula 1 winning isn’t available to all. Unlike athletics you couldn’t go out and win in a Toro Rosso or a Hispania…
"Yeah, I guess. But with the categories I’ve experienced in the past few years I’ve at least always had the chance of winning. So it’s usually only been when I’ve won."

Does it come because of the result or does this feeling bring on the result?
"That feeling usually brings on the result, yes. I don’t know. Maybe some drivers get into it a bit deeper. I wouldn’t say I feel like another world – but it feels good…"

Martin Brundle will return to Le Mans next year, more than 20 years after he won the event for Jaguar. The driver-turned-commentator was a Le Mans regular in the Eighties, returning to the event after his F1 career ended. His last competitive appearance there was nonetheless a decade ago in the Bentley.

Now Brundle will race alongside son Alex and an as-yet-unnamed third driver for Greaves Motorsport in a Nissan-powered Zytek LMP2 car. 21-year-old Alex is making his Le Mans debut after recent racing in Formula 2 and he may find himself at the wrong end of the queue for one particular stint.

Brundle Senior has always retained affection for the event, particularly the unique period of racing in the early hours. He told me: “If you’re a petrolhead you just love driving because you love driving, that feeling of being cosy in your Le Mans car doing 240mph with nothing around and the whole of the Mulsanne Straight to go at, is very special.

“You’re leading Le Mans in a works Jaguar and you’re up there by yourself. It’s dark, it’s scary as well but it is a special feeling, one of the best I’ve ever had in a racing car.”

While Sebastian Vettel shows signs of reaching a similar level, it is hard to present a serious case for anyone other than his near-namesake Sébastien Loeb as the world’s greatest driver.

Loeb sealed a stunning 8th consecutive World Rally Championship today when the only man who could deny him the title, Mikko Hirvonen, crashed out of Rally GB. Such an achievement may draw yawns from anyone hoping for a title fight but it remains awe-inspiring.

Needless to say, Loeb is a regular in the Zone. As he says in Overdrive: “When you are really feeling good in the car it’s like you are a part of the car and the car is a part of your body. When it’s like this you really feel confident. There are times when you are on the limit and things go so well it feels like you can do anything and it will pay off...”

Rare are those who can keep finding that limit over such a huge length of time. But this year Loeb finally faced a genuine challenge from within his own team courtesy of fellow countryman Sébastien Ogier (what on Earth do they put in the milk of babies called Seb?)

It was snuffed out late on by a Citroën team that has an undying debt to its leading Sébastien but maybe the signs are there that he is finally approaching his limit too. After all, even the greatest champions meet their nemesis in the end. For now, the achievements of this truest of motor sport 'greats' should be savoured.

Alex Zanardi confirmed he will be a serious contender in the hand-bike class of next year’s London Paralympics with victory in the New York Marathon yesterday.

Zanardi has regularly sought fresh challenges since his life-changing Champ Car accident at the Lausitzring ten years ago. Now he is proving his infinite adaptability once more as his bid continues for Paralympic glory.

The Italian first competed at the New York Marathon in 2007, coming 4th in the hand-bike class despite never having raced one until a month before. Now he has added victory to similar wins in Rome and Venice.

But such performances in a completely new field will come as no surprise to readers of Overdrive, where the great Zanardi has a whole chapter to himself and his inspirational approach to life.

“I’m having a great time and I’m enjoying the challenge of life,” he told me. “If that brings joy to someone else it’s wonderful. But it has never been my number one goal. I want to try and challenge myself to the limit. That’s not to prove anything to anyone or even myself – only because it’s fun to do it.

“Obviously you can only do some things in the time you’re given on this planet and there’s much that I won’t be able to do. But I’m very happy with my life and every time I have a chance to do something that is particularly interesting for me I jump on it. The future is completely unknown. That’s why it’s interesting to be alive.”

The Formula 1 circus arrives for this weekend’s inaugural Indian Grand Prix in inevitably pensive mood following a tragic week in motor sport. After the fates that befell Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli, the world’s race fans will be praying there is no truth to the old French saying: ‘Jamais deux sans trois’.

But the racers themselves won’t even give it a second thought, let alone a third. One thing that never changes is that drivers like to talk about the prospect of getting hurt in their car about as much as the rest of us like to talk about our chances of getting run over by a bus – and they consider the odds about the same.

Michael Schumacher has always been typically pragmatic on the subject – and he became the spokesman again today. “While we drive, we don’t think we are putting ourselves in danger,” he said. “When we take the cars to the limit, that's what we feel comfortable with. Therefore our ambition is always to take the cars to the limit and it will be the same here this weekend.

“To have total safety is absolutely impossible to call, in any part of life. Yes, there is more risk involved in motor sport and yes, F1 is probably the quickest motor racing in the world. At the same time, safety has been hugely improved. If you look at a new project such as this track, there are lots of huge run-off areas and it certainly has a very high standard of safety. If on top something happens then that's what I would call fate and fate is something we all have to face sooner or later.

“I'm certainly very touched by what has happened to both the drivers that we have lost but unfortunately you have to say that's life.”

He’s right. Indeed, the main life lesson race fans can take from the past fortnight is one that features in the great spiritual traditions of F1's home this week. We all waste so much energy focusing both on the past and a future that may or may not await us, when the answer is to live fully in the present.

Racing drivers do that naturally – at 200mph there is no room for anything other than the ‘here and now’. That, surely, is why they love the sport to death.

At times like this, when the sport we love bites back, all race fans stop and think. Motor racing is all about the absolute limit of human ability. And its protagonists’ regular contact with this ‘limit’ leads to apparently superhuman feats of intense concentration. But at moments like Sunday’s Las Vegas Indycar pile-up, humans and superhumans alike become passengers and the fates take over.

Those fates are generally kind, too. Formula 1 fans have been particularly spoilt by improvements in safety standards which are rightly envied by all other series. It’s 17 years since the last fatality, albeit the big one: Senna. Since then we’ve grown used to watching drivers walk away from such violent impacts as Robert Kubica’s in Canada in 2007.

But even in F1 only extreme good fortune has prevented an overdue repeat. Think of Felipe Massa’s Hungary head injury or any time a car has flipped skywards after riding over another’s wheels, such as Mark Webber in Valencia last year.

Indycar’s record can’t match that – and it has come in for inevitable criticism this week. Still, 14 out of 15 drivers escaped Sunday’s ferocious incident involving several airborne cars. Yet fortune has its own limit too. This time the luck stopped with Dan Wheldon – leaving his wife and two young sons with grief that only an unfortunate few can even imagine.

Put it in such stark terms and it’s hard for any family man to justify such a living. But that would be to misunderstand the nature of the racer. Having been privileged to interview Dan in July, I can confirm he was one of those. Insightful and generous in equal measure, he patiently described at length his approach to visualisation and his visits to the Zone including his win in this year’s Indy 500.

“It’s just about 100 per cent focus,” he said at one point. “Particularly with Indycar racing on the ovals, there are times when the car will suddenly snap. It’s about being able to react to that quickly. If your mind’s elsewhere, if you’re not 100 per cent in that Zone, then that car will go. If you hit the wall, yeah it’s incredibly hard, but it could potentially put you out of racing forever. You just don’t want to be out of that seat. So it’s just 100 per cent concentration and you think of nothing other than making sure you’re driving the racing car as hard as you can be.

“The magical moment for me is when you’ve got a lot of confidence, your car’s not quite right and you’re still able to nail that perfect performance.”

Whether Dan was in human or superhuman mode on Sunday we will never know. As explained, it would have made no difference on lap 12. But given that he’d made up ten places in ten laps in a car that had not looked good all weekend, here’s hoping Dan went out on a high.

As Sebastian Vettel celebrates his second world title at the age of 24 after a year where he set up a permanent home in the Zone, it is timely to remember it is not just racing drivers who can find this magical feeling.

The main man responsible for putting the German at the pinnacle of world motor sport is the brain behind his car, Adrian Newey. Earlier this year I spoke to the mild-mannered genius behind more victories and championships than any driver and found that the moments of magic come to him too.

In Newey’s case rather than the sensation of flying on the track, they come more in the form of ‘flashes of inspiration’ after a long period of pondering over a problem. But the principle is the same: it's about letting go and handing over to the magic of the subconscious...

“You do get those light bulb moments,” says Newey. “I usually find it’s when I’ve had a problem – it can be a month old or it can be a day old – but it’s obviously been sundering away in the subconscious and then it suddenly pops out.

“I used to take notebooks with me to bed so I could jot down these thoughts. But to be perfectly honest I do that less and less: I usually find it just gives you a bad night’s sleep… So no, it tends to happen more in the shower – or quite often not at the place of work. I will be away from it all and doing something and then it just pops up.”

For Newey, who has been producing magic for close to three decades, these moments of lightning are instantly recognisable. But they don’t necessarily all lead to half a second of time on the car…

“You know when the light bulb pops up,” he confirms. “But having said that, what fascinates me is that only part of the challenge of motor racing is coming up with the ideas. You obviously have to have an idea to generate something. But you then have to be disciplined to make sure that idea stands up and makes the car go quicker.

“So when you have those light-bulb-in-the-shower type ideas, the success rate of those ending up on the car is, I’m guessing, 10 per cent. Not every single one is going to be a good one. The danger is that you get so enthusiastic about the idea, you’re not disciplined enough to make sure that it is actually a good one…”

With Newey already threatening to have come up with more magic for 2012, it’s ten-to-one on that Vettel will be smiling again.

In the spirit of David Bader's 'One Hundred Great Books in Haiku', here's Overdrive: Formula 1 in the Zone in rather briefer form:

Out of his body,
Senna flew round Monaco.
He was not alone...

Sebastian Vettel's regular pole positions may be a turn-off for partisan fans of other teams and drivers, but his record is starting to match up to F1's all-time greats.

The German's Monza pole means he has now become the first driver since Ayrton Senna to take ten poles in two different seasons. So yes, it may have taken the edge off the excitement on Saturday but the upside is that we may be watching a future legend of sport.

Two-time world superbike champion James Toseland has been forced to retire from competition due to a wrist injury.

The Briton, who failed to make the same impact when he switched to MotoGP with the Tech3 Yamaha team, features in Overdrive as a good example of how finding the Zone depends on your machinery in motorsport.

‘I’m lucky to have been in a situation when I’ve been in second place, it’s felt very comfortable and I’ve known very well that I’m going to win,’ says Toseland. ‘That’s the Zone that every competitor wants to be in.

"But that Zone only comes when everything works well. It’s always easy winning and the easiest races I’ve had are the ones I’ve won, even if they’ve involved great battles. If you’re further back you can’t be in the Zone because you’re concentrating on other things – like why the bike is doing what it’s doing. You’re having problems so you can never get into that Zone where you can just relax and go as fast as you can.’

Sebastian Vettel reminded all the other pretenders that he is the 2011 world champion elect with a dominant win at today's Belgian Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso offered some early resistance in his Ferrari while Lewis Hamilton crashed out after a clash with Kamui Kobayashi. But it was Vettel who sauntered to victory ahead of team-mate Mark Webber as the rest squabbled.

Jenson Button also produced a typically fine performance to come through from 13th on the grid to the podium. But it is Vettel's day - and year...

Amid a grid full of stories at Spa, notably the magnificent Renault debut for Bruno Senna (see below) plus fine drives from usual suspects Vettel and Hamilton, one of the best performances of the day came from Jaime Alguersuari.

The young Spaniard was in real trouble earlier in the season as it looked like his Toro Rosso seat was in doubt after a string of struggles compared to team-mate Sebastien Buemi. But he has dug in and turned it around - and today's wet drive to P6 round the classic Belgian circuit is the pick of his season so far.

In Overdrive, Alguersuari describes his version of the Zone thus: "When you're driving on the limit the feeling is unbelievable, like dreaming. I had it the weekend I won the British F3 title. But when you reach higher levels you have this crazy feeling more and more - and it's higher with every step you make up the ladder."

It is impossible for any Formula 1 fan not to feel 'fever' at the prospect of Bruno Senna racing in the black-and-gold Renault at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix. Nick Heidfeld has a right to feel hard done by but his days were always numbered with such a mouthwatering prospect waiting for his wings every weekend.

Of course Senna can't survive on his name and he too has to perform immediately with GP2 champion-elect Romain Grosjean also chomping at the bit for his own F1 return. That is far from easy at the circuit that the fates have dealt Bruno for his bow. Eau Rouge may have been watered down but Spa still remains the most challenging driver's circuit of them all.

Grosjean's magnificent performances this year have shown he is now ready for the step up. But Renault has already made the mistake of throwing the Frenchman in at the deep end midway through one F1 season so the team ought to be wary about doing the same, as is rumoured, at the late flyaways in 2011.

So that might give Senna a bit of leeway to show what he can do. His own GP2 performances show that he can also race with the best - even despite the eight-year gap in his learning curve that would have been terminal to most careers.

In Overdrive Bruno admits that he has not yet reached the same magical sensation of 'the Zone' as his uncle in a racing car, though he'd felt it in karting before the break from racing imposed on him by family tragedy. This mid-season start is unlikely to help him find it soon but here's hoping...

Condensing any life into less than the time of a grand prix is a tough ask, but especially a life of as many layers as Ayrton Senna’s. Quite apart from his sheer speed and passion for racing, there’s his spirituality, his humanity, his intelligence, his dignity, his disdain for authority and his abundant, overflowing charisma. No wonder the first cut of new movie Senna was seven hours long.

Incredibly director Asif Kapadia and writer Manish Pandey have pulled it off but it has taken me two screenings in their company to grasp just how much they have squeezed in. My first audience also included Professor Sid Watkins, Terry Fullerton and Jackie Stewart: rather like watching Star Wars alongside George Lucas, Obi-Wan Kenobi et al.

As for ‘the Force’, substitute ‘the Zone’. Gerald Donaldson’s famous interview about Senna’s 1988 epiphany – the inspiration for Overdrive – makes the cut, overlaid on in-car action of him owning the Monaco streets.

“When we started out there were a few things that the film – for all its deletions – had to include and that lap, for me, was foremost,” Pandey told me. “We knew it would have huge power on a big screen with surround sound. But what makes it work are Senna’s own words about ‘that place’ he reaches when he touches perfection. When I listened to those words, it’s no exaggeration to say I had goosebumps throughout. That is what the film is all about: man touching perfection within himself, on his own terms. Walking on still water.”

After walking on water at the harbour Senna went on to tame the Zone, regularly returning to “that place”. But this mystical area of ability is not limited to the track and when I pushed, Pandey admitted even he had found hints of it during seven long years of work on the movie.

“When we were working on the very first outline the story wasn’t working out,” says Pandey. “Then I was on a treadmill in the gym, which had a rhythm to it. I had stopped thinking about the film when suddenly: bang. It just hit me. Why does he drive? He drives to be with God. That was it. That was the ‘big bang’ moment for me. I realised what the film was really going to be about: a man’s journey to God.”

It’s not an easy voyage, of course, dominated by the rivalry with Alain Prost. Race fans know the twists and turns of the plot along with its desperate dénouement. But it’s wonderful to be transported back to understanding why we all share this knowledge, mostly through the words of the man himself. Senna’s magnetism and spirit sparkles from every shot en route to this journey’s inevitable terminus.

Senna’s other one-time nemesis Nelson Piquet provides light relief in the previously unseen footage of driver briefings. Before the 1990 Japanese GP he chides the powers-that-be for the previous year’s “f***-up” that saw his fellow countryman’s title hopes dashed for cutting the chicane after he was taken out by Prost. It’s far more dangerous to turn round and head in the opposite direction to speeding F1 cars, says Piquet. McLaren’s Ron Dennis gleefully joins in, asking if all the drivers agree. They do. But it’s too much for Senna, who walks out declaring: “I can’t stand it… Last year was really bad for me.”

After a fruitless fight to have pole position switched from the dirty side of the grid comes the first corner retribution which indelibly stained Senna’s reputation to all but his die-hard fans. Those included my teenage self, who would bore sceptical peers with tales of his heroic one-man fight against Jean-Marie Balestre’s Machiavellian power complex. This video evidence is welcome, but sadly a bit late for my cause. The two decades since have finally mellowed my attitude as the interview below about Prost’s own Monaco peak experience shows.

On questions of bias, Kapadia says: “The rivalry is still going. French journalists will never agree with Brazilian journalists about what happened. But the clue is in the title. For a movie you have to take a view. To be passionate you’ve got to go with the story you’re telling. That was his story. I wasn’t the world’s greatest Senna fan so I started quite impartial. But having done as much research as we’ve done, having spoken to everyone and seen everything, I think we’ve been quite straight with what we’re showing and what was actually going on.”

There’s plenty of joy too – and of all the great Senna moments that ensue, both Pandey and Kapadia’s favourite is his long-awaited first Brazilian Grand Prix win in 1991. He finished the race manhandling a car with only sixth gear working and the bloodcurdling screams on the radio as he crossed the line trounce recent imitations. On the podium his pain is plain and his struggle to lift his trophy is a mark of the determination that sets apart the truly great.

Behind it all is a beautiful score by Antonio Pinto, who aptly also wrote the music for City of God, set in the favelas of Brazil for which Senna felt so much affinity. The film touches on the subject of poverty but his actions were never for the benefit of the cameras – and stories of unseen generosity are still being uncovered. What does shine through is the mutual love between Senna and his home people.

The compassion he showed for his fellow drivers in accidents is amply illustrated by footage of his reaction to Martin Donnelly at Jerez and – over the credits – his run across a live track of F1 cars to check the stricken Erik Comas at Spa. We also see him wince at the coverage of Roland Ratzenberger’s fatal accident before he again went to check the scene for himself on the eve of his own demise. But then this was a man with a genuine thirst for knowledge and understanding of all kinds.

That approach is echoed by director Kapadia: “For me film-making is a learning process,” he says. “With each movie I normally start knowing very little. By the end of it I know a lot. If there’s a spiritual element it’s great but you can never guarantee that. I come from a religious background so that part of making the story doesn’t scare me off. It’s just another layer. But it was a big part of Senna’s life.”

All the more poignant given what was to come next, Senna describes his own daily craving for learning new things on and off track, recognising his career had dominated the “first half” of his life: “Of course I shall have a lot more to learn as a man than as a racing driver because my life will hopefully go on for a long time. There’s a lot still to do in life. Happiness will come when I feel complete as a whole, which I definitely don’t feel today.”

As Imola unfolds, tears are inevitable as we wonder just how much he could have gone to achieve. A family, certainly, but perhaps the real tragedy was for the rest of us. Senna had the charisma to take politics by the scruff of its neck. Brazil lost a great leader.

The movie is topped and tailed by a moment cinema fans will recognise as purest ‘Rosebud’ involving one of the figures mentioned above. I won’t blow the ending by revealing which, but suffice to say you leave with a spring in your step.

‘Never meet your heroes,’ they say. Next up must come ‘never watch a movie about them,’ but not in this case. I admit my heart sank years ago at reports that Antonio Banderas was to play Senna in a biopic. Great actor as he is, why make fiction out of a non-fiction story that tops it? Now, thanks to Kapadia and Pandey’s Senna, my heart is soaring again.

Jenson Button celebrated his 200th F1 grand prix with victory at the Hungaroring, five years after his first win at the same circuit.

The Briton took advantage of his favourite mixed track conditions to storm to the front after a fantastic battle with team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who sportingly said: "The better man won." But huge credit goes to the McLaren team for its continued policy of letting its drivers race - the polar opposite of what we've seen in recent races from Ferrari and Red Bull.

Button has an uncanny knack of finding form in these conditions - and he talks of his feeling during many other similar moments in 'Overdrive'.

Racing drivers really don't look or sound like they ever revel in self-doubt. Rightly so, because if they did it would be the end of their career. But racing is all about feel and 'confidence' in how you are working in combination with the four pieces of black stuff keeping you on the ground.

Sebastian Vettel tries to stay chirpy but his poker face is not yet the finished article. He was stung by what happened at his home grand prix and he was determined to put it right. That was the reason why the Red Bull mechanics broke their curfew to work through the night and overhaul the car belonging to the runaway championship leader.

Lo and behold, this afternoon he strung together a magical lap to claim yet another pole position. Yawn? Hardly. Mark Webber could not understand the gap to his team-mate - and he may have good reason to doubt if such extreme measures would have been taken on his behalf. But when Vettel looks back over his increasingly large selection of pole positions this will be right up there.

In words that will be ominous to those hoping for a miraculous comeback in 2011 he declared: "I felt much more comfortable in the car. I've got my confidence back.

"Finally overnight I think we released the knot and it was much better today. Then you gain the confidence back on top and you just go faster everywhere. Straightaway I noticed the difference and I was happier. If you are happier it is usually because you think the car is better and if you feel confident then you are also able to get more out of yourself. You are more consistent. It is not just one particular place where you find the time, it is just all around the lap a little bit everywhere. So I think that is a good sign and very important for tomorrow's race."

Lewis Hamilton confirmed his return to form with a storming win in today's German Grand Prix after a racelong battle with Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber.

The Briton said: "Driving lap after lap within tenths of each other was about trying to do everything as perfectly as possible – yet, being aggressive yet controlled, I felt the moves I made today were some of the most precise I’ve ever pulled off.

"Being able to drive with your head as well as your heart, and getting it just right, is massively satisfying."

Interestingly, on the BBC's Forum Hamilton played down the significance of McLaren doctor Aki Hintsa in his mental preparations. Instead he credited "my family and the people around me" for putting his head in the right state to race.

Mark Webber took a deserved pole position for tomorrow's German Grand Prix - but it was Lewis Hamilton's lap to join him on the front row that set the pulses racing. Afterwards Hamilton gave a mystified description of his performance that is typical of visits to the Zone.

"I reckon today’s qualifying session was one of my best ever, definitely my best this season," said Hamilton. "The car felt great, we had really good balance and I think it’s one of the best laps I’ve done in the car.

"You’re already on the limit in your first lap of Q3, and usually if you improve in the second run it’s by a tenth; but today it was by four-tenths. I don’t really know where I found the time, and to be honest I’m going to get a recording of the onboard footage and watch it back because I’d love to see it!”

Fernando Alonso took his first win of the season as the British Grand Prix came to a dramatic end behind him.

With Mark Webber hauling in Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel for second place, he was given a team order to hold station. Then Lewis Hamilton fended off Felipe Massa after they made contact at the last corner to hold on for 4th place. Fun, fun and more fun...

Of all the performances in Valencia qualifying, it is Adrian Sutil who deserves most credit for mind-management after his last ditch lap to scrape into Q3.

Many drivers can claim problems in getting the right state of mind to go racing to the limit. But few have ever faced a charge of GBH. That is what Sutil is up against after the incident with Renault's Eric Lux in a Chinese nightclub earlier this year.

Sebastian Vettel may have another pole position in the bag but for his countryman to block everything out and make the top ten in Valencia is mighty impressive.

Jenson Button produced 'the best' race of his life to take a scarcely believable win in the Canadian Grand Prix, despite having dropped to the back of the field after a series of incidents early in the race.

Following a string of setbacks including clashes with team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Button found a level of performance that blew the rest of the field away. In wet/dry conditions where he has long been the master, he made full use of a late safety car period before passing Michael Schumacher, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel in quick succession in the dying moments.

A stunning win. Was he in the Zone? You bet...

The order on the grid has changed - a bit - for the Canadian Grand Prix, with the Ferraris occupying P2 and P3 on the grid.

But the all-important man sitting at the front hasn't changed. Sebastian Vettel continues to demonstrate the majestic form of a world champion with all the confidence that title brings.

Vettel has had two big crashes already this year, but the difference to previous years is that they have come in free practice. He recovered to win after the last one and now he's in the best position to repeat the feat in Montreal.

With the subject of a 2011 reinstatement of the Bahrain Grand Prix still on the agenda, Mark Webber has been the first current F1 figure of any kind to point out the moral, rather than expedient, element to the decision.

"When people in a country are being hurt, the issues are bigger than sport," he tweeted under his tag AussieGrit. "Let's hope the right decision is made..."

In the week of the Senna movie premiere in the UK, it is apt that a driver should be the one with the guts to show the bigwigs the way on humanity in global affairs.

1996 world champion Damon Hill made his own point to the Daily Mail: "F1 must align itself with progression, not repression, and a lot of demonstrations in that country have been brutally repressed. You are either aware of that or you're not."

Sebastian Vettel held on for victory at Monaco - and all despite being given the wrong tyres at his pit stop due to a pair of fortuitously-timed safety car interruptions.
Vettel held off the charging Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button but the race was denied a grandstand finish by a red flag due to a crash involving Vitaly Petrov.

By contrast with the immaculate driving of the top three, Lewis Hamilton endured a bitterly frustrating weekend on the principality's streets. To make matters worse, he let fly after the race with accusations that he is being victimised by race stewards.
A far cry from his stunning win in 2008 when he found the Zone and shone...

No wonder Fernando Alonso was whooping like a child on his in-lap after qualifying 4th for the Spanish GP: it seems he found the Zone out there today...

"I did a perfect lap," he was quoted by Autosport. "I reckon that if I tried to repeat it twenty times, I could not do better! When you do a lap like that it's hard to put into words what one feels: always being on the limit, in every corner is a really special feeling for a driver."

In Overdrive Alonso goes into detail about what the Zone feels like: "You arrive at a point where you feel you're not in a Formula 1 car but a Scalextric. Winning a world championship leads to recognition and is good for self-confidence but inside your heart and your mind this feeling is better."

Michael Schumacher is still holding out hope that he can regain the once-routine, now elusive 'flow' that marks out the greatest moments a sportsman can enjoy.

Speaking in a press briefing for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, the German acknowledged that he cannot afford to make the kind of elementary errors that sent him 'over the edge' in Turkey. But he still believes he has what it takes to find the magical feeling of the limit.

"If you are in the flow and everything is right then you feel it," Schumacher was quoted by Autosport. "I know that I am able to do this, but I know you have to pull it in the right moment of time and that success rate is not yet 100 per cent."

No kidding, but Schumacher showed glimpses of his old self during free practice in Turkey and with Mercedes on the up it would be a brave man to bet against him pulling out something special and finding that flow now he is firmly established as the underdog.

Overdrive: Formula 1 in the Zone has made the shortlist for the British Sports Book Awards to be held on May 9, 2011 at London's Savoy Hotel.

Author Clyde Brolin is one of six in the shortlist for the Best New Writer award - along with Steve Bunce, Matthew Syed, Mike Perham, Daniel Harris and Neil Clack.

See http://www.britishsportsbookawards.co.uk/book/byhierarchy/11/237

Today's qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix boiled down to the performances of three German drivers.

Sebastian Vettel romped to his 4th pole of the season despite missing most of yesterday's practice after crashing out. But it was the pace of the Mercedes that caught the eye. The team showed a lot of promise in Barcelona testing but had yet to fulfil it until Nico Rosberg's 3rd place on the Istanbul grid.

More alarming, though, is the failure of Michael Schumacher to capitalise on what is clearly an improving car. He was outshined yet again by his younger team-mate, this time to the tune of more than a second.

Lewis Hamilton stormed to victory in a thrilling grand prix at Shanghai today. The Briton kept up his record of winning a race in each of his seasons in the sport with a trademark battle through the field. Afterwards a delighted Hamilton described himself as feeling "blessed", adding: "This race is in my top three of race wins – it's up there with Silverstone and Monaco in 2008."

Sebastian Vettel had no answer on his two-stop strategy but held on for second while his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber looked every bit as much in the Zone as Hamilton as he made it up from 18th to the podium.

Sebastian Vettel is starting to develop an invincible aura after his second straight victory at today's Malaysian Grand Prix. On the slowing down lap he praised the 'cool heads' of the team in the hot conditions and he showed them the way. That coolness under pressure is what the Zone is all about.

Jenson Button and Nick Heidfeld were both delighted to be on the podium, gaining momentum back over the respective team-mates since Australia.

Lewis Hamilton produced a near-immaculate lap to close to within a tenth of pole man Sebastian Vettel in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix. With their team-mates in line astern behind them and the ever-present threat of serious rain at Sepang, it means Sunday's race is beautifully poised.

"That was an almost perfect lap," said Hamilton. "I lost a tenth-and-a-half in Turn 14 – so we’re much closer to the front than we’d anticipated."

If Hamilton can keep it up it will be good news for the Formula 1 season ahead, which is shaping up for a battle royal between Red Bull and McLaren.

The Australian Grand Prix was a chance for the lead drivers from the top teams to assert themselves early in the season.

Sebastian Vettel took the win, destroying team-mate Mark Webber in the process. Lewis Hamilton's second place was a similarly strong performance while Jenson Button struggled in traffic behind. Then there was Fernando Alonso, who was ushered past Felipe Massa within seconds of catching him on track in this new era of freedom with team orders. While both Mercedes dropped out, Renault's Vitaly Petrov (pictured) was the star of the show, taking a deserved podium.

Sebastian Vettel produced the dominant performance of a champion brimming with confidence in the first qualifying session of the year to take pole by three quarters of a second.

Last year he told me his Melbourne pole was his favourite of all, even though he admitted he'd screwed up the last corner (see story below). This year it seemed he went one better - an ominous sign for the rest. Lewis Hamilton has every right to his delight at McLaren's turnaround after taking second place but many will already be scratching their heads.

After their winter struggles McLaren showed they had made progress by taking a one-two for Jenson Button (pictured) and Lewis Hamilton in Friday's second practice for the Australian Grand Prix - though Red Bull dominated in the morning.

The times have to be taken with a barrowload of salt because the big teams were only doing race work - and in recent years McLaren have often flattered to deceive on Fridays. Still, it shows that they will be closer to the front than they would have dared dream as they manhandled their car round Barcelona earlier this month. They could yet mount a challenge to favourites Red Bull.

The belated removal of Bahrain from the F1 calendar means that teams have much more time to prepare for the first race, now the Australian Grand Prix on March 27.

Of all the teams in Barcelona that will have been most welcomed by McLaren, for whom both Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton struggled this week. Button had his running regularly curtailed by technical problems while Hamilton (pictured) found it hard to get his tyres to last. With Ferrari and Red Bull piling on the mileage and looking quick, McLaren need every extra second they can find.

How important is it to you to be on the F1 grid?
I’m a driver, I love to race. And it’s difficult to stay away from the race and the grid. But you have to find the best environment for yourself. I think the plans in this team are good and they can make a step forward.

What did you make of the clamour to get you back into the sport when you parted ways with Force India?
Of course I was happy that a lot of people in the paddock who know this business realise and understand what my potential is. But not everyone agrees. We know that F1 is a difficult business – where there is sport, politics, all these other things, and we have to be strong in all these parts. At the moment my biggest strength is the sporting side, not the others. But I’ll keep fighting and hope to get a winning car in the future.

How did you feel when Robert Kubica said you would have been his choice as substitute for the Renault seat?
It was a great feeling because all the drivers in the paddock know what each other’s level is. And fortunately from the driving side I’ve always had big support. But F1 is a business where it’s not just the skill, it’s a lot of other things, and we have to accept it. Robert has been great to me – and I just hope that he can recover as soon as possible and get back in that seat because he deserves it.

Nick Heidfeld has never been the flavour of the month in F1 circles, which is why he so regularly finds himself having to force his way back in via shootouts for race seats. It is nearly a decade since I sat with him at a dark Jerez as he tried to convince Jordan to employ him.

This year it's Renault - and he seems to have done the job at Jerez again with the fastest time on day three of the test. If so it would be the deserved fruit of his unrelenting pursuit of a dream. Let's not forget he has eight second places in F1, including Canada in 2008 when he moved over early on for the eventual winner - and then BMW team-mate - Robert Kubica.

Surgeons have spent seven hours battling to save Robert Kubica's right hand after he suffered a heavy crash during a rally in Italy. A guardrail is believed to have come through the footwell of Kubica's Skoda, leaving him with fractures to his right leg and arm. But it was the hand that caused the most concern due to problems with the blood supply.

At the end of the operation doctors remained cautious, saying it would be a week before further judgement could be taken on the success of the procedure. If it has worked, the hand itself will nevertheless take a year to recover.

Kubica has long lived in Italy to work alongside Dr Riccardo Ceccarelli (left), one of the most experienced doctors in F1. Ceccarelli is alongside Kubica while hand specialist Professor Igor Rosello led the surgical team.

Robert Kubica's hopes of the 2011 F1 title appear over after he suffered a heavy crash during an Italian rally this morning. Full details have not yet been released from the hospital but the Polish driver is reported to have suffered injuries to his right hand, arm and leg that will rule him out for the foreseeable future.

The Renault team, sponsored by Lotus, has taken an aggressive approach to its design this year and Kubica even set the best lap time of the Valencia test. The news leaves Bruno Senna in pole position to inherit the drive.

While there's never much point in analysing headline lap times at the early winter tests, one development already looks interesting. Over long runs the times rapidly get worse due to the degradation of the new Pirelli tyres.

It's cold in Valencia so not entirely representative, but if this continues be prepared for multiple pit stops during the races in 2011. Deliberate or not, it could be good for the show.

British newspaper The Daily Telegraph (Dec 10) has listed Overdrive among its top ten sports books of 2010.

Reviewer Simon Briggs described Overdrive as 'eccentric but stimulating' while declaring it the 'Best Metaphysical Quest' of the sports books released this year. Okay, so admittedly there may not have been much competition for that particular category but we'll take it, thanks...

Sebastian Vettel took ten pole positions in 2010, only the seventh driver to do so - after Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen, Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher.

When I grabbed the chance to ask his favourite, it's no surprise he had to stop and think: 'There were quite a few,' he smiled. No kidding. After another pause he listed Bahrain, Australia and Hungary as his top three. 'But Australia was the one where I really nailed it, even though I lost a little bit in the last corner...'

The twists and turns of 2010 will live long in the memory but Sebastian Vettel took a deserved maiden world title with another sublime performance in Abu Dhabi - amply displaying how much he has up top.

'It was an incredibly tough season for all us, physically and especially mentally,' he said. 'I kept believing in myself and today was a special day.'

Truly great drivers, it is said, have spare mental capacity. The concentration they need to find the limit is not all-consuming and they have brainpower left to devise tactics or pester the pit wall for information about action elsewhere. Such ability will be crucial for the 2010 title challengers in Abu Dhabi this weekend.

But Ayrton Senna took it a step further. Away from the track he found yet more cerebral volume available - so he filled it with his passion for the wider world and despair at its injustices.

To see my new column visit http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft22800.html

It was already looking like a tight year at the pre-season tests - and so it has proved.

When I asked one leading designer who we should put our money on as he left the final test in Barcelona, he said 'Alonso or Vettel'. As the season goes down to the wire yet again, it's hard to argue - though Mark Webber's outstanding year means he's still in the mix.

The fact that Lewis Hamilton is ready to pick up the pieces if the top three take each other out is a suitable end to a cracking year of F1.

No one saw that coming... Talk about finding the Zone. Nico Hulkenberg showed a load of promise in GP2 but what a way to confirm it with a stunning pole lap for the Brazilian Grand Prix - with all of Europe watching in prime time too.

In Overdrive, Hulkenberg talks of the secret being 'to find a balance between aggression and calmness. That comes from your brain and is partly natural...'

Before Korea, Lewis Hamilton described how he'd always thought you 'make your own luck' but recent races had made him question that. He also brought up the subject of 2007, when Kimi Raikkonen pipped him to the title after being 17 points adrift with two races left.

In today's money Hamilton has only half that gap to Alonso heading to the final double-header in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. Now's the time for him to make his own luck again - and if he wants a good example he should look see my latest grandprix.com column: http://bit.ly/axqGxI

Suzuka served as a reminder of a fact that has sometimes been deceptively hidden in this vintage championship year: the Red Bull is the class of the field by a country mile.

Sebastian Vettel has made good use of it recently and his Japanese Grand Prix win was another impressive lights-to-flag win. The only question that remains is how many of these he should have had in 2010...

After Fernando Alonso's Singapore triumph reshuffled the five cards on top of the F1 deck yet again, Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali stated that the championship is now a mental battle. He's right - but success in this unprecedented five-way contest will hinge not on doing the most thinking but the least...

Check out the thoughts of NASCAR great Jimmie Johnson and others in my latest column at http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft22651.html

Check out this video released by McLaren (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9QH8-lKEYY) to see Gerald Donaldson and Jo Ramirez discussing Ayrton Senna's finest hour around the streets of Monaco.

It was Donaldson's original interview that provided the inspiration for Overdrive - and a decade of searching for more of the same by the other greats of Formula 1 and beyond.

Fernando Alonso dominated the Italian Grand Prix weekend in a Ferrari that was the class of the field. But after a race-long duel with Jenson Button's McLaren it was left to his mechanics to get it right in the pits at his all-important stop.

They nailed it - and I'm left wondering how many of them found the Zone...

To see Clyde's latest column, visit http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft22608.html

If there remains any doubt that grand prix motor racing is primarily a mental contest, the Belgian Grand Prix provided the perfect illustration.

In the most trying of circumstances - a mixture of wet and drying conditions round Spa's legendary mix of corners - not one of the protagonists made it through the race without some kind of hiccup...

To hear the thoughts of F1 psychologist Dr Riccardo Ceccarelli see Clyde's latest grandprix.com column at http://bit.ly/ci2duD

Lewis Hamilton used all his skill and mental strength to dominate the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, prompting eulogies from McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh.

There was only one dodgy moment all weekend, when Hamilton went off on slicks on the wet track as he edged back for a pit stop. After the race he said 'the Lord definitely had his hand over me there as I was able to get away with it...'

With or without divine assistance, Hamilton needs to press on at Monza before the Red Bulls regain the advantage at the remaining circuits.

One week after F1's most successful team reminded us how they tarnished their mystique, F1's most successful driver reminds us why he so lacked such mystique in the first place.

The Belgian Grand Prix will now be a massive one for Michael Schumacher. After Hungary, he desperately needs to find 'the Zone' and steer clear of 'the Grip'.

To find out what that jargon means and why a multiple world champion needs to pause for thought, see Clyde's latest column at www.grandprix.com

Just when you thought Michael Schumacher's karmic debt to Rubens Barrichello could scarcely rise any further, along comes the move to make any racer wince.

For those who endured the years when the pair were together at Ferrari, what has happened this year has been curiously refreshing. While Barrichello has shown consistently strong form in the Williams, Schumacher's legend diminishes daily.

It's not as black and white as that but today's Hungarian GP move shows how Schumacher's true colours may be set fast.

"I am a sportsman. I love sport. I love the fans. But I don't consider Formula 1 any more a sport."

These were Fernando Alonso's words on the morning of the 2006 Italian Grand Prix. Hours earlier he'd been given a five-place grid penalty for 'blocking' Ferrari's Felipe Massa in qualifying - though Massa was 100 metres away. This was part of a bizarre run of difficulties he faced as he fought off the Ferrari of retiring Michael Schumacher for his second championship...

For Clyde's full grandprix.com column visit http://bit.ly/b5ZT2k

After his recovery from the horrific injuries incurred a year ago in Hungary, Felipe Massa spoke in near-messianic terms of a 'reason' behind his suffering that he was yet to discover.

The German GP showed that may not involve a Hollywood-esque return to glory. But Massa is made of strong stuff. In Overdrive he says: 'We learn from good and bad things. Sometimes we think we go down but afterwards we come back stronger.'

If Massa can use the ultimate mental fortitude that comes from a brush with death to unveil the contempt in which the general public are held by those with 'power' in sport and elsewhere, he has the chance to become an even greater hero.

Valentino Rossi's appearance at this weekend's German MotoGP six weeks after a compound fracture of his leg is, by any normal standards, miraculous. But there is a secret weapon in the armoury of all top riders: Dr Claudio Costa.

Dr Costa is not your typical GP - but a man who firmly believes in our ability to heal ourselves. He was also in charge of Alex Zanardi's recovery and his amazing attitude towards the mental power of healing is detailed in depth in Overdrive.

Sebastian Vettel spent his early F1 career fending off comparisons with his illustrious compatriot Michael Schumacher. The standard retort for any rising star is always 'No, I'm not the second X, I'm the first Y.' But Red Bull's Silverstone antics have brought the associations flooding back - sadly not with bright young Schu but with Schu the pantomime villain...

To read Clyde's full column visit www.grandprix.com/ft/ft22440.html

Mark Webber's Valencia crash drew gasps from all who saw it - but the Australian has been there before. In Overdrive, Webber speaks of how time slowed down for him both in his eerily similar Le Mans flying incident and the bike crash where he broke his leg.

'I remember everything that happened in the clearest detail,' says Webber. 'In both cases it was like slow motion. It's a strange sensation but you have a feeling of calm in spite of what's happening to you.'

Overdrive contains an entire chapter of first-hand accounts of the astonishing mental ability that crashing unleashes.

It may have been a shaky start to the season for Lewis Hamilton but he has now found the way back to his natural home in the Zone.

Following his double win in Turkey and Canada, Hamilton is establishing himself as the man to beat in 2010. He is displaying both his talent and his mental strength in this mid-season purple patch. Now all they need to do is send him to South Africa to show a bunch of other English sportsmen how you really do it.

The Turkish Grand Prix showed how results can't always mean everything in Formula 1. The sport has always had team orders, but ever since Ferrari took that to ridiculous extremes with Michael Schumacher, teams have had to disguise them by using code words over the radio.

Whatever Red Bull and McLaren were hoping to communicate (or not) to their drivers on Sunday will remain open to debate, particularly as the men behind the wheel can always plead innocence under the current rules. Long may such cockups continue for the results made for fantastic racing and the fallout over perceived favouritism may keep it that way.

One week after his dominant victory in Spain, Mark Webber showed he is a serious contender in 2010 by repeating the feat at the ultimate driver circuit, Monaco.

Webber described it as 'the greatest day of his life', expressing his delight at joining the likes of Ayrton Senna. This came a day after his stunning pole lap described as the greatest of his life by Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, who added he was really 'in the Zone'. No kidding...

The all-British McLaren team proved the class of the field at a wet Chinese Grand Prix. Jenson Button showed just what an inspired move his much-criticised switch to McLaren was, jumping back to the head of the world championship with his second win of the year.

Lewis Hamilton had yet another stunning race too, charging through the field for the third time in a row after two extra early pit stops en route to a fine second place.

While Michael Schumacher continues to struggle on his return to F1, it is easy to overlook the impressive performances of his team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Rosberg has made full use of the chance fate has thrown his way. Everyone had Schumacher penned in as a dead-cert number one at Mercedes but the main effect of his difficult start has been to fill his young countryman with confidence. It is still too early to rule out a turnaround for such a great of the track but so far Nico has been showing Schu the way to the Zone.

The most spectacular difference to F1 in 2010 will be lightning-fast pit stops. With refuelling outlawed, the guys changing the tyres will no longer have a nice cushion of time in which to remove and replace the four wheels.

In training some of the teams have broken the two-second barrier. As Overdrive reveals, when time pressure is so extreme anyone can have a Zone experience. The mechanics should prepare to fly...

Alex Zanardi's inspirational story continues apace. The Italian may have swapped his high-speed machines for the rather more leisurely-sounding hand cart - but it hasn't made him any slower.

Zanardi kept up his preparations for the London Paralympics in 2012 by winning the Rome Marathon at the weekend. His amazing recovery since losing his legs in a racing car is detailed with a full-length interview in Overdrive.

Sebastian Vettel finally earned the reward his impressive early-season form has deserved by taking a commanding win in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Vettel made good use of the open door kindly provided to him by team-mate Mark Webber at the first corner and he never returned the favour. The Red Bulls were so dominant that they won this race at a canter. They can thank McLaren and Ferrari for their schoolboy error in qualifying yesterday but it was still an ominous one-two.

Ayrton Senna would have celebrated his 50th birthday on March 21, 2010. Senna may not have survived that long on the planet but his legend lives on - thanks to his outrageous talent coupled with his extraordinary humanity and spirituality.

Senna's day of days during qualifying for the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix was the inspiration for Overdrive - leading to many long hours trawling the F1 paddock for all the current heroes who have gone through anything similar. As Lewis Hamilton says, that was 'beyond' the Zone...

Jenson Button won the Australian Grand Prix after he kept the calmest head of all during a frantic race on a drying track. Moments after being passed by team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Button made a brave call to switch from intermediate tyres to slicks. It proved inspirational as he jumped up through the field, eventually inheriting the lead when Sebastian Vettel suffered a brake failure.

Hamilton also looked like he was back in the Zone after his trying weekend with some stunning passing moves. But he ultimately lost it when McLaren called him in for a superfluous extra stop, a call Hamilton described over the radio as 'terrible'.

Lewis Hamilton's qualifying performance in Melbourne has given ample indication of the importance of finding the right mental state for racing. Hamilton's run-in with the Melbourne traffic police on Friday - and the predictably OTT media fallout - was enough to take him out of the Zone on Saturday.

In the wake of last year's Liegate at the same event, which similarly blew up out of all proportion, Hamilton said he had learned from the experience and become a stronger driver and man. He has the perfect chance to show how true that is from 11th on the grid for tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso looked like the first driver to find the Zone in 2010, leading home team-mate Felipe Massa in a Ferrari one-two at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Alonso inherited the lead from Sebastian Vettel when the German's Red Bull suffered a spark plug glitch late on. Vettel still limped to 4th, just behind Lewis Hamilton's McLaren. Nico Rosberg pipped Michael Schumacher to 5th in the Mercedes, with Jenson Button and Mark Webber next up.

Felipe Massa pointedly thanked God for his recovery from injury during the televised press conference after returning to racing with second place in Bahrain.

The Brazilian driver, like so many of his sporting countrymen, has always had a strong faith. This part of the mentality of sport is explored at length in Overdrive - with quotes from Massa, Rubens Barrichello, Kakà, Cafu and others.

After a desperate winter of waiting and worrying, Bruno Senna has finally been confirmed as a driver with the renamed HRT F1 team.

The Brazilian, nephew of Ayrton, whose exploits are so crucial to Overdrive, will make his F1 debut in Bahrain. The addition of yet another famous name adds further to the astonishing line-up of stars for 2010.