I was reinventing history a moment ago and had Verstappen still in a Toro Rosso. Hope Daniil Kvyat wasn't reading.

They have taken the floor off Verstappen's RED BULL and are looking for where the leak is coming from.

On the track Valtteri Bottas is looking good in the Williams.

He's gone top with a 1:47.707.

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are second and third - but both are in the pits.

Image source, Getty Images

An update on Max. He's in the garage, out the car and, according to BBC Radio 5 live sports extra reporter Jennie Gow, they will probably remove the floor and take a look.

Max Verstappen's Red Bull might have a bit of a problem - there seems to be a bit of fluid dribbling out.

Dribbling is never good. Never.

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have notched the most laps - 13. Hamilton still tops the time board.

Actually, just as I type, Valtteri Bottas completes a 14th lap - he's in P3.

Stuart van der Lee: I might be a bit daft, but somewhere that is actually in Europe would be a good start...

Amit Mandalia: I’d like to see the European GP back at somewhere like Imola, Zandvoort, Mugello, Magny Cours. Actually in Europe!

Daniil Kvyat slips off the same corner as Gutierrez - Turn 15 - and into the run-off area.

Drivers are finding the upper limit of how quick they can go into that left-hander.

A bit of lock-up for Esteban Gutierrez and he flashes straight into a run-off area - fortunately there is one on that portion of the track.

And Sebastian Vettel goes for a little spin - grip issue maybe? It's harmless and how stays on the tarmac. 

Ah, that awkward moment when you book flights to the European GP but end up at the old venue.

Or, you just wanted to go to Valencia.

"Stop it with the waffle and give us some cuffing times, Osborne."

Is what you might be shouting if you were really mean and grumpy. You probably need your morning coffee.

Anyway.

Lewis Hamilton has gone quickest with 1:49.174, picking up where he left off in Canada. 

Then it's Rosberg, Bottas, Massa, Button.

Image source, Getty Images

Womble DEATH: Australia of course - we are after all in Eurovision

My main concern with Australia is that they were better at Eurovision than most of of Europe - if we give them a second race they'll most definitely do that better too. And have great BBQs (national stereotype alert)

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Baku

Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko said before coming here that the Renault-powered cars would be losing 1.2 seconds on the long straight alone. That sounded a lot. Not least because the metric engineers use for calculating the lap-time effect of power is 0.016secs per bhp, the track is estimated to have a full-throttle percentage of only about 50% (although that is dependent on its grip) and the Renault is reputed now to be only 20-30bhp behind the Mercedes.

Daniel Ricciardo sounded sceptical, too. ‘I hope he’s wrong,’ the Australian said. ‘It sounds like a lot. I hope we don’t lose that much. If we lose around that, we can make up a bit of time around the corners, on Mercedes probably not that much, they have a good car as well. And Ferrari minimal. But on someone like Williams. We expect them to gain a bit on us down the straight but in the corners I’m hoping our advantage takes over.’

Champagne momentpublished at 10:13 British Summer Time 17 June 2016

10:13 BST 17 June 2016

I'd be putting it on my Wikipedia page immediately...

Nico Rosberg heads through the slalom by the old medieval buildings, where it's about 7m wide - which is about equal to four F1 cars.

Image source, Getty Images

Drive2HungaryF1: I'd like to see the Adelaide street circuit return to host the European Grand Prix

Andy Joslin: How about Adelaide for the European Grand Prix ? They are in Eurovision so what next ????

Yup, enjoying this. Just the 16,000km between Adelaide and Brussels - so a short hop really.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Baku

Another key feature is the long straight, where cars are expected to exceed 200mph. Something to watch out for here is Turn 19 - the final one of three kinks in a 2.1km flat-out section. It doesn’t look much on the map, but the issue with 19 is that the track tightens there, so it might take drivers a while to work up to taking it flat out.

‘It should be flat,’ Daniel Ricciardo said on Thursday. ‘I just spoke to my engineer and he said: “Don’t try to take it full on the install lap!” But by the time we get going it’ll be flat. It’s still before the DRS. If it was after the DRS then that would be a very interesting corner.’

Here's the section of which I speak.

Image source, EPA

Esteban Gutierrez is first out - he's apparently been a bit poorly this week. Hope he's feeling up to it.

We're getting a first look at the cars going through the corners in the old town. My word it's tight.

If you've ever driven into an old walled town in Italy or France or Portugal or something and waited for a little cart carrying bottles of pop to come the other way, you'll get an idea of what they're going through.

Off we go. First practice is happening.