Hamilton on pole, Vettel 2nd, Rosberg 3rd, Raikkonen 4th
Hamilton dominant in Q1 & Q2
Alonso through to Q2 for first time this season
Button breaks down in Q1, will start last
Fraser Dart: I think that tyre management is one of the things that keeps F1 exciting, but I would like to see PROPER racing.
Schniges: It kills the sport and makes it boring. We wanna see lap records being broken not Sunday afternoon drives.
Christopher Smith: Make it compulsory for two pitstops in races and give the drivers more rubber to push 100%.
Not entirely sure was it is at this stage, but Pastor Maldonado's car has just shed a considerable piece of its bodywork.
Lewis Hamilton just missed his braking in a big way at turn one. He wasn't even close to making that one!
Luckily for the Mercedes man there's a hefty acreage of run-off area down there and he continues on his way.
Nico Rosberg goes fastest for Mercedes with a 1:37.599, but quickly radios back to the team to report "a bit too much understeer at the moment".
Mercedes on Twitter: As for the breezy conditions, the official data currently suggests a headwind on the main straight, so crosswinds through many corners...
Nothing representative as yet, but as things stand the top times are:
1. Felipe Nasr (Sauber) - 1:38.095
2. Jenson Button (McLaren) - 1:39.127
3. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) - 1:39.441
Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer
Image source, Getty Images"An early indication of form beyond the top three is as follows: Red Bull look about the fourth fastest team in both qualifying and race trim, but then so they did in China, only for it to go very wrong in the race. Lotus are then in a close fight with Sauber - Pastor Maldonado's race-sim run was just 0.06secs on average faster than Felipe Nasr's, with the Toro Rossos after that.
"Fernando Alonso's race run for McLaren was 0.8secs off Maldonado/Nasr, but unfortunately for McLaren still slower than the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg.
"As you were, in other words."
Mercedes on Twitter: Here's Lewis Hamilton checking out seat mods to avoid the hot bot issues he's been having :)
Image source, MercedesHamilton's derriere - as was the case in China and Malaysia - is getting toasty warm in that Mercedes again.
Dhiren Khandel: Hardly relevant to the real world and holds back talented drivers. They should always be on edge.
Stuart Hatto: It's time to make a tyre that goes the distance with manual gearboxes - then we will get decent racing.
Allie: Maybe they need to get Bridgestone back. They manage to give Indycar soft and hard tyres without it being all about tyre management.
Jenson Button: "I've no rear grip at all. Traction is very poor."
Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer
"It was all smiles at Williams on Friday. Valtteri Bottas was in fifth place just 0.03secs slower than Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and head of performance engineering Rob Smedley called it a 'really good day', on which the team were 'where we expect to be with regards to both high- and low-fuel runs'.
Image source, EPA" At the beginning of the season, that would have meant on a par with Ferrari. Now, expectations recalibrated, it means a bit off them but ahead of everyone else - Bottas was 0.5secs off the Mercedes in race trim on Friday. But both he and Felipe Massa, who had a difficult day unhappy with the balance of the car, will have hopes of splitting the Ferraris on the grid, as they managed in China last weekend."
Just a word to the wise on this session.
Don't forget that yesterday's opening practice - run at a similar time of day - failed to give us any truly useful information about what to expect in the race. To underline that fact, the Mercedes were 15th and 16th.
With qualifying and the race set to be run under lights and in cooler conditions, there is only so much that the teams can learn from blasting around in these higher temperatures.
We're up and running in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Ben Edwards and Allan McNish are poised in the commentary box...
Just on that Mark Webber tweet, do you think the former Red Bull driver has a point?
Has "extreme tyre management" become too much of a feature of F1 and other series? It was certainly key to Ferrari's win in Sepang and is very much a topic of conversation in Bahrain.
Your thoughts via #bbcf1 please.
Mark Webber on Twitter: Blood's boiling watching most single seater categories including F1 become completely dependant on extreme tyre management. Let drivers push.
Image source, Getty ImagesMcLaren-Honda racing director Eric Boullier described yesterday's practice sessions - which saw Fernando Alonso run reliably and Jenson Button hit trouble in both sessions - as "a game of two halves".
He also said the following, which no doubt had McLaren supremo Ron Dennis beaming with approval:
"It's too early to say where we are, pace-wise, but Fernando's best FP2 lap-time was 1.5s off Nico's Rosberg FP2 benchmark. That isn't where we want to be. Having said that, I believe it demonstrates that our progress, although not always linear, is nonetheless directionally positive overall."
Image source, Getty Images"No, no no. It's 'linear'. L-I-N..."
Red Bull Racing on Twitter: Anyone for an arm wrestle? Place your bets!
Image source, Red Bull RacingHorner. Has to be Horner.
Manor driver Will Stevens on Twitter: Pretty solid first day! Pace is looking strong & really nice to drive in the night again! Get some cool shots!
Image source, Will StevensAndrew Benson
Chief F1 writer
"The Ferrari threat to Mercedes is real, but it has to be said that it looks like something does not quite add up. The Mercedes had at least half a second over the Ferrari on one lap on outright pace - and if both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had 'scruffy' laps, as Rosberg put it, so too did both Ferrari drivers. It doesn't really make sense, then, that the Mercedes can then be 0.6secs on average slower on a race run.
Image source, Getty Images"It's hard to believe that there could be a swing of more than a second between the two teams between qualifying and race - or that Mercedes could be that far off in race trim a week after an ultimately comfortable win in China, in which Hamilton clearly had plenty in hand when he needed it.
"Equally, Hamilton did his main race run on the mediums, and when he switched to the soft tyres late in the session he did two super-quick laps - a 1:39.3, which just under 0.1secs slower than Vettel's fastest lap on his race run, and then a 38.6, 0.3secs quicker than Vettel's best race-run lap. Perhaps Mercedes over-did their care with the tyres and were running them out of their temperature window. This promises to be a fascinating weekend."