Three races in Asia and the Middle East, producing three different winners and a three-way tie at the top of the drivers' championship, have lit the touch paper for a thrilling Formula One season.

The return to the sport's heartland, with the first European race in Spain on May 13, promises plenty of fireworks with McLaren's double world champion Fernando Alonso, British rookie team mate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen all level on 22 points.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa, winner in Bahrain on Sunday, has 17 in a four-way title battle.

The next few weeks will see all the teams hard at work, testing and developing their cars and hoping to make big steps forward in performance.

"For all the teams, you would imagine that from this race to the next race is when you would expect the largest incremental improvement during the season," said McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh at the weekend.

"The car is still young and very much at the start of its development cycle. We've got a four-week break and the opportunity to test in Barcelona.

"Everyone who is doing their job will improve their car between now and then."

McLaren lead Ferrari by five points in the constructors' standings and both teams can see substantial performance gains to be made before their next appearance at the Circuit de Catalunya.

HAMILTON PHENOMENON

Ferrari, who also won in Australia with Raikkonen, have major aerodynamic updates in the pipeline, among other improvements.

McLaren will have work to do on their braking systems, with Alonso ill at ease in his car all weekend and finishing fifth in Bahrain after leading Hamilton in a one-two in Malaysia the previous weekend, but they are confident.

"One of the races that I am looking forward to is Spain because that will help demonstrate how hard our development programmes work and how successful each team will be in trying to get ahead of the other," said team boss Ron Dennis in Bahrain.

"I know that we flattered the performance of the Ferraris in Australia," he added.

"In the period between Australia and Malaysia we definitely improved the performance of our car. Even here, we brought a couple of things which had a positive impact," continued Dennis.

"Going to Spain we have every intention of making it a two horse race (between Alonso and Hamilton)."

Spain will be Alonso's home race and the flowing and familiar Circuit de Catalunya is also far more to his liking than the hard braking characteristics of Bahrain.

"This race (Bahrain) is so unique and it was complicated by wind and sand contamination, so it had all sorts of things making it difficult for the drivers," said Dennis.

"Don't read too much into this (result), one way or another. I think the true level of competitiveness, team to team, will start to unfold over the next three or four races."

As far as the drivers are concerned, several things are clear already -- Alonso has a real fight on his hands to retain the title he has held for the past two years, and not least from his team mate.

Hamilton has been the revelation of the season, if not the decade, in becoming the first driver in the history of Formula One to stand on the podium in all his first three races.

Third in Australia, second in Malaysia and Bahrain, he will surely join the winners before the year is out.

"He is a serious title challenger this year," said Whitmarsh. "He will want of course to go one better soon and win a race and I don't think any of us doubt that is going to be achieved some time during this season."

(China Daily via Reuters April 17, 2007)