Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix with a two-stop strategy last year and the below would appear to suggest another two stopper in Barcelona this year.

F1 journalist Dan Knutson in Barcelona: "Max Verstappen did 30 laps on his second stint, and then pitted, switching the medium tyres for another set of the soft, which he had on when he started his race distance. He only did 11 laps on the first set of softs, and now he will need to do 25 laps on this set if he does not pit again before the end of the 66-lap race distance. But, of course, the fuel load is much lighter now."

Chris Marsh: if not much is happening on track how about a random quiz question or picture competition? 

OK Chris, you asked for it. What do we think Fernando Alonso thinking here? Fire your suggestions over to #bbcf1

Image source, Getty Images

Fernando Alonso is back out. Much like this morning he's been out for short bursts at a time this afternoon. Four or five laps tops. In contrast, Max Verstappen is getting stuck into a race run, 30 laps and counting at the moment.

1) Sergio Perez - 89

2) Carlos Sainz - 82

3) Max Verstappen - 78

4) Romain Grosjean - 76

5) Valtteri Bottas - 70

6) Felipe Massa - 63; Lewis Hamilton 63

7) Nico Hulkenberg - 61

8) Pascal Wehrlein - 59

9) Kimi Raikkonen - 53

10) Lance Stroll - 44

11) Fernando Alonso - 41

12) Marcus Ericsson - 36

13) Jolyon Palmer - 25

Image source, .

F1 journalist Dan Knutson in Barcelona: Lewis Hamilton is doing another long run, which he started with this practice start at pit exit.

Here's the latest times at 16:00 GMT. The only changes from an hour ago are in bold. Most teams have been focusing on long runs rather than outright pace.

1) Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) - 1:19.310 supersoft

2) Felipe Massa (Williams) - 1:19.420 ultrasoft

3) Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - 1:20.406 - soft

4) Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 1:20.432 - soft

5) Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1:20.702 - soft

6) Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) - 1:21.213 - supersoft

7) Sergio Perez (Force India) 1:21.297 - supersoft

8) Lance Stroll (Williams) - 1:21.531 - soft 

9) Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso) - 1:21.872 - soft

10) Romain Grosjean (Haas) - 1:22.887 - ultrasoft

11) Pascal Wehrlein (Sauber) - 1:23.000 - soft

12) Fernando Alonso (McLaren) - 1:23.041 - soft

13) Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) - 1:23.384 - soft

14) Jolyon Palmer (Renault) - 1:26.462 - supersoft

Image source, .

F1 journalist Dan Knutson in Barcelona:  Max Verstappen is doing a race distance. He did a lap, came into the pits but did not stop at the Red Bull garage.

He went to the pit exit and waited a while – just as he would on the grid – before doing a start. He is on the soft compound tyres and turning laps in the 1:25 range, so he has a heavy load of fuel. Red Bull engineers and Christian Horner are monitoring things from the pit wall.

Sergio Perez is leading the way on the lap counter. He's up to 76 for the day.

Perez said recently that he felt Force India can surprise a few people this season and be one of the top three teams.

2I am very optimistic about the car and the season," he said., external "Of course it is easy to talk now, but I have a feeling that Force India has done a tremendous job over the winter."

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen has just done an 11 laps and pitted for the medium compound Pirellis.

His 1:20.432 from this morning on softs is still the fourth quickest time of the day. 

Will Kimi Raikkonen get back out before the end of today? It wasn't a heavy crash and there's just under 90 minutes of practice remaining.

We shall see.

Jolyon Palmer posts a 1:26.222 on supersofts as Fernando Alonso heads back out for the first time since the red flag for Kimi Raikkonen's crash.

George : Interesting test so far, however I want to see Hamilton on a quali run and break 1.18.. can it be done?  

Lots of new information in that tweet. Going to take me a moment to digest it all.

While I do, you might be pleased to learn that Jolyon Palmer is back out now in the Renault. 

He's had to be patient this afternoon, with a couple of false dawns after Renault tweeted an hour or so ago that he was heading out, but he's just now completed his first lap of the day.

A personal best for Lance Stroll as he does a 1:22.217 on softs. He pits and Lewis Hamilton swaps places with him on the track, joining Max Verstappen out there.

Keith Murphy: Only thing getting me through these 10 hour shifts is the formula 1 feed #bbcf1, external#callcentreprobs, external

Good to have you with us, Keith.