Summary

  • Bottas fastest, Rosberg sixth

  • McLaren's Jenson Button completes just two laps before lunch

  • ERS problem hits Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo after 10 laps

  • Nico Rosberg has set fastest time of winter so far and is back in Mercedes today

  • Pastor Maldonado crashes after lunch, bringing out red flag

  • First race is the Australian Grand Prix a fortnight today

Live Reporting

Jamie Strickland

  2. Green flag

    The Lotus is cleared away on a truck and the barriers at turn four are patched up.

    Will bring you more information on that incident when we have it.

  3. Red flag

    Pastor Maldonado's Lotus has gone into the barriers at turn four.

  4. Button up to four laps completed

    The second half of the day has not started in the most promising fashion for McLaren. Another two laps are on the board, but the MP4-30 really needs to get some consistent track time.

    Friday's 100-lapper suddenly seems a long time ago.

  5. Nico settles in for an afternoon drive

    Mercedes tweets: "Action stations..."

    MercedesMercedes

  6. Who, what, where, when? Answer

    Thanks for humouring this F1 nerd by once again playing along with the lunchtime quizzes.

    A good number of you got the blurry picture right. But I think I'll let sean, who got in touch using #bbcf1, to explain the answer, just because I love the way predictive text has hijacked his message.

    "It's a bar and Prost fever trimming back after a lap 1 traffic jam at Leows, Monaco. 2000? Heidfeld and Zonta/JV?" sean - and his phone - wrote.

    Indeed it is a BAR and Prost driver running back after a lap one crash at Monaco in 2000. The drivers were Nick Heidfeld of Prost and BAR's Ricardo Zonta.

    Nick Heidfeld and Ricardo ZontaGetty Images

  7. Green flag

    The final session of pre-season testing 2015 has arrived.

    It's now or never guys.

  8. Race sim planned for Ferrari

    Andrew Benson
    Chief F1 writer

    "Ferrari have revealed that Sebastian Vettel is to do a race-simulation run this afternoon - just as team-mate Kimi Raikkonen did on Saturday.

    "Rivals have been crunching the numbers on Raikkonen's run, and a source told BBC Sport it was 'nothing special'.

    "After a bright start to testing, the supposed Ferrari revival is not looking quite so strong, and the evidence at the moment is that they are a couple of tenths or so behind Williams, never mind Mercedes.

    "Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene, though, said he saw no need to revise his aim of two wins this season. 'It is ambitious,' he said. 'If you are near to them (Mercedes); I am not going to wish them bad luck but you never know. The most important thing is to be there. The target is ambitious but not unrealistic.'"

  9. Lunchtime quiz #3

    OK, one more quick quiz question before the action starts up. I'll give the answers to all three teasers after 13:00 GMT.

    Ronnie Peterson, Jody Scheckter, James Hunt and Gerhard Berger.

    Please tell me what connects these four men.

    #bbcf1

    Ronnie PetersonGetty Images

  10. Lunchtime quiz #2 What's the fourth in this sequence?

    Victoria Coren

    In a move that's sure to have my wife rolling her eyes, I'm abusing my position to the full this Sunday lunchtime by including a picture of Victoria Coren-Mitchell to illustrate this next round.

    If you're not aware, the lady above presents Only Connect, a quiz show that asks people to find the connection between seemingly unconnected things.

    So, to cut to the chase, I want you to tell me who or what comes next in the following sequence?

    Olivier Panis

    Eric Bernard

    Johnny Herbert

    ??????????

    Answers to #bbcf1

    Go.

  11. Final pre-season test, morning times and laps completed

    1. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1:23.063 (45 laps)

    2. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 1:23.469 (52)

    3. Felipe Nasr (Sauber) 1:24.023 (72)

    4. Sergio Perez (Force India) 1:25.113 (54)

    5. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1:25.186 (69)

    6. Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso) 1:26.267 (49)

    7. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 1:26.587 (10)

    8. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) 1:28.272 (35)

    9. Jenson Button (McLaren) no time (2)

  12. Who, what, where, when?

    Right, here's today's blurry-picture quiz offering,

    Normal rules apply. Tell me who these two gents are, what they are up to and where and when this all played out.

    Answer using #bbcf1 please.

    Begin.

    GettyGetty Images

  13. Chequered flag

    Pens down. We're done for the morning in Barcelona.

    Times and laps completed coming right up.

  14. Spoke too soon

    The McLaren lives. Jenson Button is on track just minutes before lunch.

    He tours round for a lap and heads straight back to his garage.

    McLarenMcLaren

  15. Ten to go til lunch

    There's a few super-soft runs going in before lunch. Perez, Vettel, Nasr all on the Red Stripe, as it were.

    I'll let the dust settle and bring you up to speed in due course.

    In other news, still no McLaren...

  16. Mercedes' message for Schumacher

    Mercedes tweets: "Still in our thoughts and prayers every day."

    MercedesMercedes

  17. Nasr improves again

    Felipe Nasr is enjoying his Sauber today. He improved his best time to 1:24.023, again on the super-soft tyre, and is closing in on 70 laps completed already.

  18. What am I?

    Just to mark your card for not one but two quizzes this lunchtime (well, who knows when the bosses will let me do this again?)

    We'll have the revered who, what, when, where? round and a new one that I've just made up that in no way rips off a popular BBC Four quiz that recently made the jump to BBC Two. Oh no.

    Henry Kelly

  19. New Ferrari boss criticises Ecclestone

    Andrew Benson
    Chief F1 writer

    "Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene was pictured in the grandstands on Saturday. Today he has held a news conference, and in his explanation for his visit, he has had a bit of a pop at F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and his usual stance of making it difficult for teams and others to get passes to access the paddock at races.

    Maurizio ArrivabeneGetty Images

    "'I heard that in Australia there will be more restrictions in terms of passes and I think this is not acceptable,' Arrivabene said. 'So I said to the guys 'OK, if we are going to have a situation where the paddock is going to be empty, it's better if we start training to go to the people and we sit in the grandstands.'

    "I have to say it was a good experience because the people were very well-educated, we were with our headphones following the test. They were respectful, asking for pictures. It was a good experience and I hope to have others like this.

    "Exclusivity doesn't mean having an empty paddock. This is my clear statement.

    "I don't play golf but I watch it on television sometimes and it's one of the most exclusive sports. But when they play, you have thousands of people following the players. And this is not working against exclusivity of the sport.'"

  20. More on Alonso and McLaren

    Andrew Benson
    Chief F1 writer

    "Another observation on the likelihood or otherwise of Fernando Alonso's return in time for Australia.

    "Kevin Magnussen would stand in for the Spaniard if he was not fit. The Dane was scheduled to drive on Sunday, but after his only day in the car was restricted to 38 laps on Saturday, McLaren changed their plan and put Jenson Button in it. Or will do, once it works.

    "Surely they would not have done that if they thought there was a strong possibility Alonso would not be fit."