Still no sign of Fernando Alonso, I wonder how he passes the time when he's got these long spells of knocking about in the McLaren garage. He's sadly got plenty of experience of it.

Here's the moment he spun off and lost a wheel earlier this morning:

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Valtteri Bottas is straight back onto the track. He's done 32 laps so far this morning, all without a hitch.

Mercedes racked up an incredible 1096 of laps across the eight days of testing last year. Will they surpass that total this time?

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

A couple of keys pieces of information arose from the Force India news conference. The first was that a change of team name is still very much on the cards before the start of the season. Chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer said there was a “probability” of greater than 50%. “We haven’t quite decided (the name) and it also needs to go through the formal approval progress,” he said.

The other was that technical director Andy Green confirmed the car at testing is very much an interim design - which is underlined by how similar it looks to last year’s car. Green said: “It’s a continuation of where we left off last season and a foundation of the work we have to put on the car. For the next few races, there is significant amount to put on the car. There are lots of things outside our control that we need to understand. We get all that learning done here, understand the car, make sure we have built what we think we have built and then we will go ahead and start to bring the updates through, starting in Melbourne.”

The Force India has been cleared from off the track and we're back up and running once again!

Image source, .

F1 journalist Dan Knutson in Barcelona: Force India held a press conference with technical director Andy Green and chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer.

They were asked about the relationship between drivers Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez who clashed on track several times.

“We are going to start off the season where we left it last year – the last few races they were allowed to compete against each other,” Szafnauer said. “Like any relationship or partnership, or even a team, they go through phases, and one of the phases of team building is the conflict stage. When you get past that you work better together I think that is the stage that they are at now. They had to understand each other and get through that phase, which they have, and now we look forward to working together as a team and being even stronger than before that conflict stage.”

Michael Starkey: If Nikita Mazepin keeps doing that every time he leaves the garage it won't be long before he starts being called Nikita 'Has-A-Spin'

Fantasy F1 League: Surely Marzipan should be driving the yellow Renault?

Neil Foot: All this talk on the halo aesthetics, who cares? Sure, the combination of safety and aesthetics is the goal, but the former is far more important than the latter. Take the positive safety step, and see if they can improve the look moving forward

Chris of Ballard: I quite like the halo. People are rubbishing this as much as they rubbished the new engine formula and new sounds. You're allowed to not like it, but it's there for a reason, and next year you won't care.

Nikita Mazepin is in the gravel at Turn 4 and it looks like he's had a spin. Well he's quite clearly had a spin because he is facing the wrong way.

The recovery truck is on the case.

Red flagpublished at 10:36 Greenwich Mean Time 26 February 2018

10:36 GMT 26 February 2018

And Nikita Mazepin has brought out the red flag.

Nikita Mazepin has joined Valtteri Bottas on the track.

We've just had a quiet spell on the track but Valtteri Bottas is back in business.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Ferrari have done very much what Mercedes have done with their new car in terms of continuing down the development path they were already on.

One difference, though, is that the Italian team have headed a little down the Mercedes route in lengthening the car. Like Mercedes, they want to keep their strengths of the previous year - in Ferrari’s case, a very good high-downforce package and low-speed performance - but the longer wheelbase gives them a better chance of higher aero efficiency when they need it.

The cars were evenly matched at the Spanish Grand Prix last year so testing will probably not be a place to judge the successes of these approaches.

Big improvement for Kimi Raikkonen as he does a 1:21.986 to go third quickest.

Ferrari quietly going about their business this morning.

Christopher Clee: I still wish the aeroscreen was an option. Frankly it is a lot better looking. I'm nowhere near convinced by the Halo both on a safety aspect and on aesthetics.

Darren Cooke: Nope the Halo still looks dreadful

There's a change at the top as Nico Hulkenberg goes fastest of all with 1:21.326. That's half a second quicker than Valtteri Bottas.

1) Bottas 28 laps

2) Hulkenberg - 10 laps

3) Harley - 18 laps

4) Grosjean - 17 laps

5) Ricciardo - 15 laps

6) Raikkonen -11 laps

7) Mazepin; Stroll - 8 laps

8) Alonso - 6 laps

1) Bottas (Mercedes) - 1:21.843 - Medium

2) Hulkenberg (Renault) - 1:22.791 - Medium

3) Grosjean (Haas) - 1:23.092 - Medium

4) Ricciardo (Red Bull) - 1:23.221 - Medium

5) Alonso (McLaren) - 1:24.202 - Supersoft

6) Hartley (Toro Rosso) - 1:26.430 - Soft

7) Mazepin (Force India) - 1:28.830 - Medium

8) Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1:29.113 - Medium

9) Stroll (Williams) 1:35.112 - Soft

No time: Ericsson (Sauber)

Image source, Toro Rosso

F1 journalist Dan Knutson in Barcelona: Toro Rosso have held a news conference in the paddock with technical director James Key, driver Pierre Gasly, team principal Franz Tost and Honda’s new F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe, who is in one of two roles created in splitting the responsibilities of last year's Honda F1 boss Yusuke Hasegawa, who is back working in Japan ono there projects.

Tanabe has been involved in F1 for many years including stints as Honda engineer for Gerhard Berger and Jenson Button. This year is the first time Toro Rosso has had its own unique works engine partner.

Key said: “It is great to have that level of cooperation so we can very much tune the whole package as one, whereas when you are a customer you cannot do that. We are very flexible towards Honda, and they have been the same towards us. We have a one team approach where we want to make the quickest package. It was not possible for this year because it was a September agreement, but we were able to for next year start very early on having an integrated chassis/engine approach. Which allows us to maximise both and play to the strengths of both as well. This is something you can’t do as a customer."