Good to hear former F1 driver and BBC commentator Jonathan Palmer having a chat with Lee McKenzie on BBC TV just now.

There's something in his well-spoken delivery that transports me back to the mid-1990s, when as a teenage F1 fan I would sit and avidly watch races from start to finish - and then within a couple of hours watch them all over again on VHS.

Happy times.

James Constable: Villeneuve and Pironi has to be on the list. Relatively short-lived, but ultimately fatal.

David Dawson: My recent favourite was the battle between Caterham, Marussia and Hispana to be the first points scoring 2010 team.

Mihail Nesterovich: How about two F1 champs on North American soil - Andretti vs Mansell!

Lotus on Twitter: P4 for Pastor. :-)

Image source, Lotus F1

If you said Pastor Maldonado, give yourself a pat on the head and a biscuit.

In fairness to the Lotus driver, he's just one of many drivers to test the limits today. It's what practice is for, right?

Speaking of Maldonado, this feature on the wild Venezuelan is well worth a read.

So Fernando Alonso's spell at the summit was short-lived.

The Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen is now top of the pile, followed by Alonso and Force India's Sergio Perez.

BBC commentator Ben Edwards describes the standings at present as "utterly irrelevant".

Yup.

Right. McLaren have just gone quickest.

Proof, 'twere it needed, that this session hasn't quite hit its straps yet.

While it's gone a bit quiet now would be a good time to wish happy birthday to former Shadow, Arrows, Brabham, Alfa Romeo, Williams and Benetton driver Riccardo Patrese, who turns 61 today.

Patrese won six grands prix in a 256-race career between 1977 and 1993.

For many years he held the record for most F1 starts before he was usurped by Rubens Barrichello, who went on to make a mighty 322 race starts.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean is also celebrating. The Frenchman is 29 today.

Image source, Getty Images

Peter Wanyonyi: Senna and Prost always had a rather sinister element to it. Lewis-Nico pales in comparison. Lewis has Nico totally beat.

Mike Hawkins: How about Jenson Button and reliability.

Emma Harness: Have to mention Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber!? Some very awkward moments there.

It's all gone rather quiet on track.

The only cars pounding around at present are the Mercedes.

Ah, wait a moment - Jolyon Palmer has just joined them... and a Force India.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Image source, EPA

"One of the stars of China - indeed of the season so far - was Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen. The Dutchman pulled off some stunning overtaking moves and in general looked like an experienced campaigner, not the callow 17-year-old he is.

"Verstappen, already very adept on the track, is still finding his feet in public appearances and does not say a great deal, and he was refreshingly straightforward about his weekend. 'Well, first of all, I was really enjoying my race,' he said.

"'We didn't have a great qualifying, but still I was very confident that we could do a good race because I think the car and its race pace is really strong, especially high speed. I had some good overtakes; I was really enjoying that. It's also every race I'm getting more and more confident in the car. Especially in the first two races you don't want to take too many risks and I decided in China it was time to do some overtakes and take some more risk.'

"It is no exaggeration to say that everyone in F1 is watching to see what this rising star can achieve this year."

Just another call for your F1 rivalries.

There's obviously one famous one that all F1 fans know about (clue: it rhymes with Penna and Srost) so try and give us some more from F1's annals.

I like Hill-Schumacher from the mid-1990s. Plenty of thrills, spills and needle. Not least at Silverstone '95 (below).

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

"Sebastian Vettel is under no illusions that his Ferrari has suddenly become the equal of a Mercedes just because he won a race in specific circumstances in Malaysia and managed to stay in touch for a while in related ones in China last weekend.

"'They are still in front,' Vettel said. 'Hopefully we can close the gap some time soon.' The fact that this race takes place after sunset should in theory take some of the heat - literally - out of Mercedes' tyres and make things more comfortable for them. But Vettel still has his hopes.

Image source, Getty Images

"'It is a night race,' he said. 'It is maybe not as hot as the conditions we had in Malaysia. The last races have been good for us we have proved the car is working in cold and hot conditions and hopefully we can continue the trend we are looking after the tyres and put some pressure on the teams in front.'

"There's only one team in front, of course."

We're approaching the half-hour mark in this opening session and top spot at present is in the possession of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who's done a best lap of 1:38.917.

Team-mate Sebastian Vettel is second, two tenths back, with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas a fraction further back in third.

Sebastian Vettel has a problem in the Ferrari, it seems.

The German is going very slowly out there having just set a time good enough for second place behind team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Just a reminder that we have four Britons in this session, with Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Will Stevens joined again by Jolyon Palmer.

Palmer made his F1 weekend debut for Lotus in FP1 in China and did not disappoint, setting a time just over half a second off regular driver Pastor Maldonado.

The reigning GP2 champion again replaces Romain Grosjean in the Lotus for FP1 this weekend.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

"Both McLaren drivers have their eye on the next race in Spain next month as 'moving day' thanks to relatively major upgrades due on both car and engine. 'I think already in Barcelona you will see a good step,' Jenson Button said, 'hopefully with power and aero grip.'

"Fernando Alonso added that he hoped at that point 'we can start enjoying races and doing a normal development phase', although the Spaniard did say: 'We cannot put all the expectations on Barcelona; people will think we will win the race and this is not true.'

Image source, Getty Images

"Button said the McLaren still lacks overall downforce as well as power but the news about the McLaren chassis is more encouraging than that. McLaren were 3.5 seconds off the pace in qualifying in China and the Honda engine was understood to be about 180bhp down on the Mercedes.

"That power deficit equates to about 2.9secs of lap time, which means the McLaren chassis is about 0.6-0.7secs off the Mercedes. Or, to put it another way, about as good as a Ferrari. Given where the team were last year, that is reasonably encouraging, especially if the team's confidence about their ability to add downforce is justified."

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Image source, AP

Maybe 'mystic' is a bit of a stretch as it's not hard to predict trouble for McLaren these days. Writing before today's FP1 session began, here's what our chief F1 writer had to say on the struggling British team:

"McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button are expecting another tough race in Bahrain. Both cars finished for the first time this year in China last weekend and the team have promised the drivers more power from the Honda engine, which is still lagging a long way behind all the others.

"But Button said not to expect too much. 'It was a big deal for Honda to finish both cars,' he said, 'but I don't think you'll see a big step forward in terms of outright power here. It is a very difficult race for everyone because of long straights heat and wind, which brings a lot of sand, and it will be tricky circuit for us because of the long straights. The positive for us is we are pretty good at looking after rear tyres; whether that is enough to move forward I'm not sure.'"

Just as in China a week ago, it's a very poor start to practice for McLaren.

Jenson Button has just spun and stalled his car at the first turn. He's climbing out of the troublesome McLaren and he's done for the time being. At least it's a short walk back to the pits from there.

Of course it's just under a week since his team-mate Fernando Alonso lasted just two laps of third practice in Shanghai before an engine failure halted his progress.

Still real problems down at McLaren-Honda.

First free practice is under way.

The drivers are not hanging around. A queue of them are waiting to get out of the pit lane.

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton won a thrilling race-long battle with his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to win last year's Bahrain Grand Prix.

Their fierce battle at the front became a 10-lap sprint after a late safety car period wiped out Hamilton's 10-second advantage following a crash for Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez.

You can relive their fight for victory here.