Image source, Getty Images

Peter Gethin never completed a full season in F1 yet his is a name familiar to F1 fans the world over.

After earning a single championship point in his debut year with McLaren in 1970, Gethin arrived at the 1971 Italian Grand Prix at Monza with a best finish of eighth place under his belt that year. A win was not on the cards, especially after the Briton qualified in 11th, 1.48secs behind Chris Amon's Matra.

And yet.

After a race of high attrition, the battle for victory came down to five men - Ronnie Peterson, Francois Cevert, Mike Hailwood, Howden Ganley and Gethin. In a mad last-lap scramble, Gethin vaulted from fourth to first to take the chequered flag by 0.1secs from Peterson - the closest finish in F1 history.

Just to fill you in on a replay we saw a little while ago, a man dressed in rather anonymous attire was seen to run across the track from the main grandstand to the pit wall.

He got across the track just a few hundred yards ahead of a Force India and leapt over the pit wall.

We've not heard the last of this. Suspect the FIA will have something to say at the very least.

Nico Rosberg was half a second behind Lewis Hamilton in FP1 - an age in this here sport - but he's already got that gap down in FP2.

The German's 1:39.126 is a big improvement on his morning. He trails Hamilton by 0.068secs.

Everyone has gone out in this session bar the two Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat.

Image source, AFP

McLaren on Twitter: Splash of neon in the garage earlier as the team spray flow-vis on Fernando's car.

Image source, McLaren

We've had a handful of cars pointing the wrong way today and Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari has just become the latest, the German doing a full 360, just catching the gravel, on the exit of turn three.

He carried on and radioed back to say the car was in good nick. Just overdoing it.

Image source, AFP

This was a great story. The 1996 Monaco Grand Prix is rightly remembered as one of the best races of all time. A huge number of retirements, incidents and surprises, at the end of which Ligier's Olivier Panis had come from 14th on the grid to win.

A wet and wild race began with reigning world champion Michael Schumacher sliding into the barriers on lap one and did not look back from there - with just 11 cars running on lap 31 of a scheduled 78.

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Damon Hill led and retired, as did Jean Alesi on lap 60, handing a lead to Panis that he would not relinquish.

But that was not the end of it. Jacques Villeneuve collided with backmarker Luca Badoer to reduce the field further, and when Eddie Irvine's unwise spin-turn on a blind corner took out Mika Salo and Mika Hakkinen, just four cars were running.

That became three when Heinz-Harald Frentzen peeled off on the penultimate lap, leaving Panis, David Coulthard and Johnny Herbert the only men running at the chequered flag.

I've been sat on this picture of Romain Grosjean since around 2am UK time and only now do I feel ready to share it.

It's... intense. Apparently it shows his jet lag.

Anyhoo, it's pertinent because he's actually in the car in FP2, having given up his seat to Britain's Jolyon Palmer in opening practice.

Image source, Roman Grosjean

Second free practice is under way.

Manor Marussia's Roberto Mehri is your first man on track.

Image source, EPA

McLaren on Twitter: Paella with the press. Fernando Alonso and Eric Boullier spotted sharing tapas with the Spanish media.

Image source, McLaren

David Hardwick: Hill and R. Schumacher Jordan 1-2 Spa 1998. Surprised anyone made it to the end of the GP. Last men standing and Alesi 3rd

Kev Ambrose: Jo Siffert British Grand Prix, Brands Hatch 1968 in Rob Walker's Lotus 49

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

"For Red Bull, it has been a sobering start to the season. The controversy over Renault's lack of performance drew attention away from the team's struggles with their car in Melbourne, to the extent that when team boss Christian Horner, in the midst of his diatribe about the quality of Renault's engines, gave a very unconvincing answer to a question about why the Toro Rossos were so close to their big-budget works team, he was allowed to get away with it without a follow-up.

Image source, Getty Images

"Malaysia, though, brought home some uncomfortable truths - Toro Rosso flat beat the senior team there. Daniil Kvyat, promoted to Red Bull from Toro Rosso for this season said this 'opened our eyes a little bit'. And it is now clear that the RB11 is far from the greatest Red Bull the team have ever produced.

"Among the changes for this weekend are a reversion to a different brand of brakes from the one experimented with in Malaysia. Kvyat's team-mate Daniel Ricciardo said: 'Obviously we're experimenting with a few things but for now we're going to go back to what we know, to get the basics right. So we've reverted back on quite a few things and even to stuff from last year, which we knew was more efficient. It's obviously older, but it doesn't mean it's not better.'"

Mercedes on Twitter: Was it something we said?! #SadSeat #CheerUp

Image source, Mercedes

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

"There were further signs of significant progress from McLaren in first practice. Fernando Alonso was seventh fastest after the first runs. He did not improve after that, but Jenson Button did, leapfrogging ahead of the Spaniard and ending up 13th.

"McLaren gained what Button estimated to be 1.5secs on Mercedes between Australia and Malaysia and, while not expecting that progress again, expect to make another significant step in China.

"Will they be able to mix it in the lower midfield, thanks to Honda learning on the engine - the team's biggest handicap - and further aerodynamic upgrades this weekend?"

Image source, AFP

Vittorio Brambilla would finish in the points just nine times in a seven-year F1 career, with only one of those finishes on the podium. The top step to be precise.

After picking up just one championship point in his first F1 season, burly Italian Brambilla retired from eight of the first 11 races of 1975 before improbably winning the 12th - the rain-hit Austrian GP at the Osterreichring.

Having qualified his March in eighth, Brambilla made a flying start to run third early on before passing future world champions Niki Lauda and James Hunt to lead. With the rain intensifying, race officials called a halt to the race after 29 of 54 laps.

Brambilla famously crashed into the barriers within moments of taking the chequered flag, but his place in the history books was assured.

We've been asking for your picks for F1's surprise winners.

We've had loads of great suggestions and we'll be recapping some of them as we amble through the next couple of hours.

Any more to add, get in touch on Twitter, external (#surprisewinners) via Facebook , externalor by visiting our Google+, external page

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

"Mercedes were in a different league in the first practice session, and this second 90 minutes should give a good indication of whether that advantage is real or whether Ferrari are in the ballpark again.

"It was the race-simulation runs in the second half of P2 in Malaysia that first indicated how strong Ferrari were looking there - as Ferrari technical director James Allison said in Sepang, 'those Friday runs tend not to lie'.

"So after the headline lap times are set on the soft tyre, the 'race sims' will make interesting reading."

Image source, Reuters

Ready for some more of the motor cars?

Me too. Thirty minutes til they're back on track.

Image source, Reuters

Right, that's us done for the time being. You can read Andrew Benson's FP1 report here.

We'll be back at 06:30 BST for the build up to second practice, which gets under way at 07:00.

In the meantime, keep your surprise winners coming in. We'll recap some of your suggestions when we're back with you.

Get in touch on Twitter, external (#surprisewinners) via Facebook , externalor by visiting our Google+, external page

Image source, Formula1.com

Daniel Riley: Gilles Villeneuve '81 Spanish GP, with four cars on the tail of his 'Cadillac' Ferrari?

Graham Wilson: Pastor Maldonado, Barcelona 2012. kept it on track for the entire race. shocker.

Ariel Hernandez: Vettel in Monza 08. He's won so many races afterwards that one tends to forget how much of a shock that Toro Rosso win was.

Williams driver Felipe Massa: "Engine was not good on the timed lap."

Massa finished that session in 10th place, just one-thousandth of a second behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas but a full two seconds off Lewis Hamilton.

Image source, Getty Images