The return of a familiar face (and finger), action on - and beyond - the track, underdogs showing their teeth.... the Bahrain Grand Prix had it all, but who shone brightest through desert haze?
James Allison: The most encouraging aspect from this week is the feedback from the drivers. Their comments have been full of encouraging statements. We haven't heard positive comments like those during the past couple of seasons...
Romain Grosjean: I am very pleased [to have won the title]. I can see that the team is very emotional and that's important for a driver to feel that everyone is behind him. It has been a very special season.
Esteban Gutierrez took the lead from pole sitter Josef Kral at the restart after an early safety car, and proceeded to romp away to an emphatic sprint race win in Valencia.
Charles Pic was celebrating his second win in consecutive weekends after leading the race from pole position and through two restarts after incidents triggered safety car appearances.
Romain Grosjean and Sam Bird were in a class of their own in the first GP2 feature race of 2011, with the Frenchman being made to work for his victory in an incident-packed race.
Romain Grosjean won the opening GP2 race of 2011 but he was made to work for it by Sam Bird, while his arch rival Jules Bianchi battled his way up to finish in third place.
Lotus Renault GP star Robert Kubica has been seriously injured in a rallying accident in Italy, with speculation that the Pole's condition - although not life-threatening - could threaten his F1 career
Renault F1 refugee Romain Grosjean admitted that he had been caught out by a bump on the entry to the Porsche Curves as the Le Mans rookie gave Matech Comp?tition quite a headache in Wednesday practice
Vitaly Petrov has attempted to shed some light upon the reason why his Renault F1 predecessor Romain Grosjean was not retained into 2010 - suggesting his former GP2 Series team-mate made a mistake in joining the grand prix grid midway through 2009
Renault has finally confirmed who will be racing alongside Robert Kubica at the newly-owned Enstone-based outfit in F1 2010 - and in Russian GP2 Series front-runner Vitaly Petrov, they have taken a chance on a man who has never previously driven a grand prix car
Kamui Kobayashi could yet be joined on the F1 2010 grid by countrymen Takuma Sato and Kazuki Nakajima should speculation turn out to be true, with the former being linked with the second seat at Renault and the latter with a drive at Campos under new ownership
Giancarlo Fisichella's brief Ferrari career ended with a whimper rather than a bang in the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as the Italian finished well outside the points again around the Yas Marina Circuit
Renault F1's Fernando Alonso has predicted that he should be able to get 'close to a podium' this weekend in Singapore, but his real aim will be to try and help the squad put 'Crash-gate' behind them.