2012 Racing Season underway

Formula 1's first race of 2012 brought an historic circumstance.

Never before had 6 former world champions compete in the same

sanctioned Formula 1 race.

From eldest, 7-time champ Michael Schumacher

is in his second year after returning from retirement.

He's reunited with Ross Braun with whom he won

6 of his 7 titles while at Ferrari. Now he's driving a

factory powered Mercedes and along with teammate

Nico Rosberg are ready to take the next step: onto the

podium!

Next we have Fernando Alonso, the youngest champion of his day. He won two consecutive titles with Renault.

Also, Kimi Raikkonen is back in F 1 after several years away. Kimi

won the championship for Ferrari in a last second circumstance that saw him enter the last race third in points to Hamilton and Alonso. Kimi took the opportunity to race World Rally and some Ice Driving as well as a foray into

Nascar in a couple of quality rides.

Lewis Hamilton became the youngest world champion when he won for McLaren. Lewis was discovered and groomed by McLaren boss Ron Denis winning the UK and then European karting championships before moving on to formula cars and finally F1.

Jensen Button, UK, won when Ross Braun resurfaced in F1 with his own team and due to technical regulations was able to get a fast start to the season and the rest of the teams weren't able to close the gap.

Finally, Sebastien Vettle became the youngest champion when he won the first of two consecutive championships the past two years with Red Bull Racing Renault.

Melbourne, Australia had the first race of the year again and it was the usual suspects up front, although Renault's dominance in qualifying and in the race for the past two years seems in jeapardy of not repeating: Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button took the front row in qualifying, and Button with a strong start led from start to finish, Hamilton second.

Nascar's first race of the season was The Daytona 500 and strong efforts from several teams made it competitive as ever, but a large weather system delayed the race until the following day, the first time the race has ever been postponed to the next day. On Monday, more rain caused the race to be delayed and started late in the day. Well into the night, more bizarre circumstances cause more delays and eventually Matt Kenseth was awarded the victory well after midnight on Monday night.

-katykarter