Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Barcelona

“Jenson Button had a troubled day on Friday - a problem in his engine systems stopping him running at the end of first practice and at the beginning of second. And when he did do his qualifying-style lap, he found himself 0.5 seconds off team-mate Fernando Alonso. But Button sounded positive, nonetheless. ‘We had a pretty bad day,’ he said. ‘Eventually we did a bit of running, the long run pace isn't too bad and on the soft tyre we've actually found balance - we've had big issues with the rear just floating all day, but we're getting there. Saturday should be much better. We're just a little bit behind the game.’ Button said he ‘didn’t think it would be the easiest race to score points’ but Alonso was a little more hopeful. "It looks like we are more or less like in Russia,’ he said. ‘It appears we are in the top 10. It's not easy, but it's close... we are eighth, ninth, 10th, but then for some reason in qually the rest always find more power in their engine - or they have a special mapping - and we fall behind.

"Here it's a circuit where the engine matters a little less so let's hope those mappings they have don't give them too many tenths and we can be there.”

Almost half an hour in and Max Verstappen has been released for the first time.

Meanwhile, Jenson Button - who had a troubled day yesterday - has only managed a couple of laps so far today, but no time on the board yet. More problems?

Here comes Lewis Hamilton on his soft-tyre run. Can he edge Nico Rosberg? Nope. He posts a 1:23.485 to go P2 and is four tenths of a second down on his team-mate.

First blood to Rosberg?

Nico Rosberg leads the way but sandwiched between the two Ferraris in third is none other than Fernando Alonso after a 1:24.555.

A good weekend in front of his home fans in the offing? 

Sebastian Vettel goes quickest with a 1:24.186 but Nico Rosberg knocks that out of the park with his soft-tyre run, flying round the circuit in 1:23.078. 

Over to you, Lewis Hamilton...

Sebastian Vettel has decided to join the action now. Like his team-mate, he is on medium tyres but is much quicker through the first two sectors.

Meanwhile, Nico Rosberg has bolted on a set of softs.

Kimi Raikkonen, on mediums, storms to the top of the timesheet with a 1:24.916, putting him half a second clear of Esteban Gutierrez, who's on softs.

Kimi's come out to play, but there's still a few others who haven't, namely Sebastian Vettel, the two Renaults and Max Verstappen.

Daniil Kvyat, now in the Toro Rosso, pops up in P2 with his first timed lap, clocking 1:25.954.

No sign of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull yet this morning.

A number of drivers have despatched of the hard tyres to slap on some mediums and there's a few more times on the board as a result. Sergio Perez goes quickest with 1:25.832. He's ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Felipe Naser, Marcus Ericsson, Rio Haryanto and Carlos Sainz.

Image source, McLaren

Well done Andrew Benson on winning what would appear to be a miniature McLaren helmet in the McLaren media quiz last night.

Can we have the rubber duck for the office?

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Barcelona

“What to make of Ferrari’s performance on Friday in Spain? One-two in the first session, and Kimi Raikkonen was just 0.2secs down on Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes in the second. 

"On the face of it, that looks promising. But on race pace it looked less hopeful - only Raikkonen’s runs could be compared with Rosberg’s because Sebastian Vettel ran the tyres the other way around, but the Finn was a whopping 0.6secs off the Mercedes on average.”