The Turkish Grand Prix has been dropped from next year's Formula 1 calendar which has been published by the sport's governing body, the FIA.
In July, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone handed out a schedule that omitted Turkey and it has now been ratified. The Istanbul track has hosted a race since 2005 and though it provided good races, attendances have been poor. Bahrain returns to the 20-race calendar after being dropped this year following civil unrest in the country. The Middle Eastern country was originally pencilled in for late in the 2012 campaign, but the new calendar sees the round at the Sakhir circuit scheduled for 22 April.
Australia's Melbourne Park circuit will once again host the season's curtain raiser on 18 March with Brazil wrapping things up eight months later on 25 November.
The United States Grand Prix at the new purpose-built Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, has moved from June to November when conditions should be cooler.
Earlier this month, Indian motor sport federation president Vicky Chandhok voiced concerns about the Indian Grand Prix's proposed 22 April date when temperatures in the region hover around the 40C mark.
"I am not happy with April because it's going to be hot," Chandhok said.
However, the race in New Delhi has now been confirmed as the 17th race on the calendar on 28 October. 2012 FORMULA 1 CALENDAR 18 March - Australia (Melbourne) 25 March - Malaysia (Sepang) 15 April - China (Shanghai) 22 April - Bahrain (Sakhir) 13 May - Spain (Barcelona) 27 May - Monaco (Monte Carlo) 10 June - Canada (Montreal) 24 June - Europe (Valencia) 8 July - Britain (Silverstone) 22 July - Germany (Hockenheim) 29 July - Hungary (Hungaroring) 2 September - Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps) 9 September - Italy (Monza) 23 September - Singapore (Marina Bay) 7 October - Japan (Suzuka) 14 October - Korea (Yeongam) 28 October - India (New Delhi) 4 November - Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) 18 November - United States (Austin) 25 November - Brazil (Interlagos)
Nick Heidfeld has left Renault by mutual consent with immediate effect.
He has been replaced by Brazilian driver Bruno Senna, who will race alongside team-mate Vitaly Petrov for the rest of the 2011 season.
Heidfeld said: "Obviously I'm disappointed to be leaving in the middle of the season."
Renault team principal Eric Boullier said: "He is a very strong and determined racer and we wish him every success in the future."
Heidfeld was replaced by Senna for the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix after a High Court hearing said Renault were within their rights to sever contractual ties with the German.
The "amicable settlement" between Renault and Nick Heidfeld is highly likely to bring down the curtain on the German's 11-year career. He will be remembered as a nearly man, a very good driver who was just that bit short of the top level. As one career ends, another one begins properly. Bruno Senna now has the chance to prove he deserves a seat in F1 that was not afforded him by lowly Hispania in his debut year in 2010. He started promisingly in Belgium last weekend, but he must keep that up in the final seven races of the year. It's make or break for the Brazilian and the pressure is on.
That was only an interim decision pending a further case due to be heard on 19 September.
Heidfeld, 34, who replaced Robert Kubica following the Pole's rally accident, believed he was contractually obliged to complete the season.
But that is not now required as Renault and Heidfeld have reached a settlement and parted company with immediate effect.
Boullier said: "Our disagreement with Nick has been the subject of much media coverage lately, and we are pleased to have reached a swift and reasonable solution.
"Our separation process was already a painful one, and neither of us wanted to go through another legal hearing.
"We're very grateful to Nick for the highly valuable contribution he made to the team.
"We certainly had good times together, in particular remembering our podium finish in Malaysia."
Heidfeld, a veteran of 183 Grands Prix, is in no doubt that he will return to Formula 1 at some stage.
"I thought I could still make a big contribution to the team, but I have to see things as they are, and I want to turn my attention to the future," he said.
"We have taken the right decision by choosing to end our collaboration. One thing is for sure, I'll be back racing at the highest level soon."
Senna, the 27-year-old nephew of the late Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna, will contest the remaining seven races, with Romain Grosjean as reserve.
Renault are hopeful that Kubica will be fit enough to return next season.
There was a fairytale logic to Michael Schumacher's Belgian Grand Prix on the 20th anniversary of his debut in Formula 1.
Schumacher made an impressive charge from last on the grid to fifth at the end, overtaking his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, 18 years his junior, along the way.
So is this the breakthrough of his comeback, a sign that he is at last approaching the levels he routinely reached in his first career?
Unfortunately, there was nothing to definitively suggest that.
It was almost impossible to compare Schumacher's performance with Rosberg's; their race strategies were entirely different, Rosberg two-stopping, Schumacher three.
Yes, Schumacher was able to overtake, but on faster soft tyres.
Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn said: "The softs were around one second per lap faster than the mediums and that was the decisive thing that tipped it in Michael's favour. That and the earlier safety car.
His anniversary has given him a chance to reflect on a career that is still remembered for its many controversies as much as it is for his great success.
"That wiped out much of Michael's earlier time deficit to the cars in front [including Rosberg], by which time he had already got his medium tyres out of the way, having started on them and then pitted after four laps."
So the seven-time world champion got to have his cake and eat it thanks to the way the race played out, the safety car gifting him an artificially created proximity to Rosberg on track but on a tyre that at the critical time was much faster.
Looking at their respective fastest laps, set at similar stages of the race, Schumacher's was 1.1 seconds faster than Rosberg's - roughly what Brawn reckoned the time difference between the two tyre types to be.
In other words, the pace of the two drivers was roughly equal and circumstances just played more kindly to Schumacher than Rosberg. Their actual performances were very similar.
But that in itself is progress.
Although for several of the last few races Schumacher has been as fast or slightly faster than Rosberg in the races, he has invariably qualified behind him and very often got himself into clumsy incidents as he tries to progress from poor grid positions.
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Belgian Grand Prix in 90 seconds
This time, the German combined his usual opening lap charge (up from 24th to 15th) with good judgement and calm, clean passing. Even the potentially tricky situation of chasing down Force India's Adrian Sutil, while being attacked by Jenson Button's McLaren did not trigger incident.
Schumacher was perhaps aided in this by the very strong straight-line speed of his car on a circuit at which this creates a lot of passing opportunity. Whether he can deliver similar clean race-craft in tighter confines remains to be seen.
The very early laps of the first practice session on Friday, in the 10 minutes before the rain arrived, saw the two Mercedes lapping in formation, the only cars doing serious running at this time.
Schumacher was clearly enjoying himself, pushing very hard even though the track was still 'green' and pulling steadily away from Rosberg.
The car control is still very evident and in such situations that is all that is really needed to be quick. But usually as the track's grip builds up and everyone gets a finer handle on car set-up, tyre behaviour etc, then driving becomes more about finesse than raw car control.
Schumacher used to have this in spades, but too often since his comeback he has appeared to lack the fine judgement required to maximise the car and tyre.
He used to be able to find the adhesion limit and sit delicately upon it, regardless of handling and tyre traits, but second time around he more often appears to be transgressing the limit and wrestling with the consequences.
This tends to hurt more in the exercise in technical perfection that is qualifying than in the improvisation around varying traits of tyre degradation and fuel loads a driver must contend with in the race.
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Schumacher crashes out of qualifying
Schumacher was not able to demonstrate what he could do in qualifying at Spa because a detached wheel on his out-lap pitched him off the track.
But that enabled him to show off the upside of his current skill set in the race, combined with a favourable set of circumstances concerning strategy and the safety car. Schumacher did nothing wrong all weekend and scored a great result - a Mercedes in its current state of competitiveness could not feasibly have scored better than his fifth.
But it has to be said that the circumstances of the weekend did not play out in a way that might have brought out the shortcomings of his performances.
It was a great foundation for more, but let's reserve judgement before proclaiming that the real Schumacher is back.
Points are awarded as follows: 1st place - 25 points; 2nd -18; 3rd - 15; 4th -12; 5th - 10; 6th - 8; 7th - 6; 8th - 4; 9th - 2; 10th - 1. If drivers are tied on points, positions are decided on results countback. Wins are compared, and the driver with most wins is classified ahead. If wins are equal, second places are looked at, and so on
Vettel is keen to finish the season with the Championship trophy
Sebastian Vettel says he will not back off despite moving into a virtually unassailable championship lead after his Belgian Grand Prix victory.
The German led Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber to a one-two at Spa on Sunday to take a 92-point lead with only 175 remaining in the final seven races.
"If you are out in two races and someone else has a good couple of races, it could change," Vettel said.
"So all we do is try to get the optimum every time."
Vettel admitted his victory had "brought us closer to our final target" but he insisted the title was "still a long way" away. His view that it would be wrong to adopt a cruise-and-collect approach was echoed by team principal Christian Horner.
"There are seven races to go," he said. "There are still a lot of points available.
"It's our seventh win, our 12th pole, we've got a 100% finishing record, but we don't underestimate our rivals and there'll be no complacency and heads down focused on the next race. We won't change our approach."
Vettel's Belgian win - his first at the famous and historic track in the Ardennes mountains - was his seventh in 12 races this year, during which he has also taken nine pole positions. Webber is the only other driver to take a pole position this season.
Vettel is 102 points ahead of the first non-Red Bull driver - Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who finished fourth in Belgium - and 110 ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button.
The Englishman moved three points ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton after finishing third, while Hamilton crashed out.
Spa was a tense race for Red Bull as they overcame safety concerns about their tyres to win on a track where they had not expected to be so strong.
Red Bull had not won since the European Grand Prix at Valencia at the end of June, and Horner said he was surprised the team were so competitive.
"In many respects, yes," he said, "because power is a dominant factor here, particularly in the first and third sectors and that was arguably our most competitive race of the season.
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Belgian Grand Prix in 90 seconds
"We had very strong race pace. We thought it would perhaps favour some of our opponents more. But it just shows how difficult it is to predict performance."
"For the team it has been a phenomenal weekend. Yesterday was massively tricky for the team. It shows how strong we are as a unit to get the calls and strategy right, the cars had tremendous pace and the drivers did their bit. It was a massive result for us."
Horner said he rated Vettel's Spa victory as one of the best of his 17 career wins because of everything the team had to cope with.
"It was right up there among some of his best, like Monaco when he went so far on the hard tyre," Horner said. "He produced a very mature drive."
Lewis Hamilton has apologised to his McLaren team and taken the blame for his crash with Kamui Kobayshi's Sauber that ended his Belgian Grand Prix.
"After watching the replay, I realize it was my fault today 100%. I didn't give Kobayashi enough room though I thought I was past," he Tweeted.
"Apologies to Kamui and to my team. The team deserves better from me."
Team-mate Jenson Button, who came third from 13th on the grid, said "little mistakes" cost him a chance of victory.
Hamilton crashed out after colliding with Kobayashi into the braking zone for Les Combes, having just passed the Japanese driver up the hill for fourth position.
It was the 2008 world champion's second retirement of his season after a coming-together with Button in June had brought his Canadian Grand Prix to an early end.
Immediately after the incident in Spa, before revising his opinion online, Hamilton said he did not believe he was culpable for his most recent collision.
"I'm not really quite sure [what happened] to be honest," Hamilton said. "I just remember hitting the wall pretty hard.
"It's a bit unfortunate for the team, we were in a good position and as far as I was concerned I was ahead of whoever it was I was racing and then I just got hit by them and that was my race over. That's motor racing. There has been a lot of races where we haven't finished this year, so that's just another one of them."
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McLaren errors frustrate Button
The race stewards - who included 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell - decided to take no further action regarding the collision.
On Saturday Button had blamed a "miscommunication" with his team for his poor qualifying result, saying he chose to cool his tyres, not realising he did not have time to do another flying lap in the second phase of qualifying.
"A misunderstanding in qualifying cost us a lot of points," said Button. "If we can stop the little mistakes happening we can win races."
But following the race the 2009 world champion said that even starting from 13th he could have challenged Red Bull duo, race-winner Sebastian Vettel and second-placed Mark Webber, had his car not been damaged by debris from crashes ahead of him at the first corner of the race.
"If I'd stayed in 13th at the start it would have been easier but Turn One was mayhem caused by the guys up front," said Button, who is now fourth in the championship.
"[Paul] di Resta hit my rear wing, or we collided, it damaged my rear wing, half the endplate was gone, and then driving to Eau Rouge someone's rear wing came off and went through my front wing and took the wing mirror off, which was scary.
"I wanted to pit immediately, but the guys said we needed to keep going until lap five. We did, then put options on and then it was a case of flat out for the rest of the race.
"All weekend the car felt great, the balance has been phenomenal. So it was a case of what might have been but it was a good finish to get on the podium.
"I feel confident in the car and hopefully in Monza we can be competitive."
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said Button's qualifying disaster might have cost him the win.
"Jenson's was the drive of the day," Whitmarsh said. "If we could have got him up the front of the grid where he could and should have been he would have been a contender today."
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Whitmarsh salutes "fantastic" Button drive
Unlike Button, Hamilton said he did not think he would have been in a position to challenge for victory.
"I think we were struggling," he said. "For whatever reason we were massively slow on the straight, massively, massively slow and I guess that's really what got us in that position [to collide] really.
"Everyone was just pulling away from me on the straights and I was only able to keep up on the infield. I think we probably had a little bit too much downforce on. Nonetheless we were in a good position still, we were still able to challenge and I got past one of the Ferraris. We maybe have been able to have at least got a podium."
Vettel is keen to finish the season with the Championship trophy 
