Tom Clarkson
BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter

"Oh dear. That's two years in a row now for Daniil Kvyat. Last year his gear box failed on the way to the grid."

Daniil Kvyat climbs out of his car and we have our first Did Not Start of the season. A disastrous start for Red Bull.

Problem for Red Bull already. Daniil Kvyat has come to a stop as he approaches his grid position. He's stranded at the back and the yellow lights come on.

Time for another formation lap. Get another brew on.

Scott Anderson: Ok. I did it and crawled out my nice warm bed. Don't let me down guys!  

Rachel T: Every year I think I'm mad for getting up at this time, but every year it is worth it!

The engines fire up and the drivers head off on the formation lap. The usual dash to clear the grid ensues. 

Almost time...

Image source, Reuters

Arnie on BBC Radio 5 live: "I'm not a fanatic enough fan to pick winners. I'm here because I enjoy it and like seeing the best in the world. All the manufacturers are fantastic. It's great to be part of the best of the best."

Image source, F1

FIVE minutes until lights out.

Forget the farce of yesterday, the butterflies are fluttering in my stomach.

F1 is back!

Image source, Getty Images

Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda on BBC Radio 5 live:

"It's not an easy race. There are new tyres, the strategy could be different so it could be an interesting race. Lewis Hamilton did a perfect job in qualifying. I thought Nico Rosberg would be quicker than he was. It seems Lewis has the edge again."

An absolute whopper of a plane has just flown over the circuit. Massive

Arnie's tanks being delivered?

Image source, Reuters

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Strategy-wise, this is likely to be a two-stop race for most, with the fastest strategy being to start on the super-soft and then do two stints on the softs. Intriguingly, though, both Ferrari drivers have a new set of super-soft available in addition to the used ones from qualifying on which they have to start the race, whereas the Mercedes drivers do not. Will they be tempted to use them in an attempt to try to gain an advantage in the race? 

I am disappointed the seats are not yellow.

Image source, AP

Britain's Jolyon Palmer, starting 14th in his Renault, speaks to BBC Radio 5 live on the grid:

"I'm excited. I've been waiting a while and now it's here. The atmosphere's great. It's all positive. It's going to be difficult, we're straight in the mid-field with quick guys behind but I think we can finish in the points."

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Melbourne

There is a late news update ahead of the race. The FIA has relaxed the restrictions on radio broadcasts so that teams can now discuss race strategy with their drivers. This follows an intervention by the teams, who felt that the ban has negatively affected the show by dramatically reducing the amount of team radio. 

The ruling says teams can give drivers information about “the driver's own race pitstop strategy as well as those of his competitors, this is limited to the timing of pitstops and which tyres will be (or have been) used. For the avoidance of doubt, no car or power unit set-up may be included in any such strategy discussion." 

I love bananas. I love K-Mag. I LOVE this picture!

Yes Arnie! What a response.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

The mood at McLaren has definitely lifted after their troubled 2015. Honda has pretty much solved the biggest problem with the engine - its weak hybrid power deployment - and made a small step on absolute performance, too. The result was a performance Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button could not have dreamed of last year. “It is an obvious step forward,” Alonso said. “I am happy with the car. I have enjoyed the weekend and was able to enjoy driving on free practice, trouble-free weekend for us so far. A very positive step

"I came here and in Q1 I was third, with two sets of super-softs obviously, but in Q2 at the first attempt with everybody on the same tyres at the same time I was 10th, 1.2secs off the Mercedes. Definitely a nice surprise. We came out of Barcelona not knowing exactly how the performance was with this new car and we are happy and surprised. But there's a long way to go and we don't want to be 12th and 13th - we want to be first and second and the biggest step of all is when you need to find the last bit of performance. But it's definitely a starting point that makes us happy."

I'm really excited to see how McLaren get on today. 

They line up 11th and 12th on the grid after a very solid qualifying display. They were five seconds quicker than they were in qualifying last year.