The race gets going at 16:10 BST, 6.10pm in Bahrain, it is still hot at 34C at track level.

Image source, F1

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

On pure average of lap times on race-simulation runs on the super-soft tyre on which the front-runners will start the race, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were quickest in Friday practice. Verstappen looks out of the reckoning after his crash in qualifying but Ricciardo starts fourth.

Some fancy him in the race, but he said he “didn’t quite buy into” the theory that Red Bull looked fastest on long runs in practice. Nevertheless, he’s hoping for a good run. “I think we were decent yesterday (on the race runs),” he said on Saturday evening. “But I would say I am happier with my car today than I was last night.

"We can be pretty close, I’d hope.” How will he gain three positions? “Brake late,” he said, omnipresent smile widening. “The pit stops - undercut this and that. Undercut could be powerful but hopefully we will do overtaking on track. That is more satisfying for me and it’s more fun for anyone watching.”

Adam Wiseberg: Greatest fightback. Clark. Monza '67. Puncture whilst leading on 12th lap. Lost an entire lap. Back to 1st place (!!) before fuel pickup problems on last lap let Brabham and Surtees past.

Image source, Getty Images

Both Saubers failed to make it out of Q1, with Marcus Ericsson starting in 17th and Charles Leclerc in 19th, although Ericsson is confident of a better performance today.

Image source, Marcus Ericsson

It has been a while since Marcus Ericsson last scored a point. In fact, it'll be 50 races this weekend if he fails to make the top 10. Should he score again, he will set a record for the number of races between points finishes.

Image source, Getty Images

Renault got themselves to seventh and 10th in Australia and Nico Hulkenberg, starting in seventh today, is hopefully of another good day.

Image source, Getty Images

All smiles beforehand from Lewis Hamilton. Will we see a beaming Brit later on?

Image source, Getty Images

Gautham Rajendar: Greatest comeback? Easy one there! Kimi from 17th on the grid to win it at Japan! Throw in a last lap overtake as well!

John Baskerville: Best #bbcf1, external fight back? Has to be Jenson Button in 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, from last to first - scaring Vettel out of the way in last few laps!

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

Ferrari's pace has drawn further attention to an unusual feature of their car, which is that it pumps out a big cloud of smoke when it starts in the garage.

There were suspicions about this from the start of pre-season testing, but governing body the FIA say they have no concerns. It is said to be a function of a rule change introduced this year to stop teams burning oil as fuel, which helps reduce detonation - or 'knock' - in these complex turbo hybrid engines.

The breather pipe for excess oil has been rerouted and must now exit out of the back of the car, whereas before many were venting it into the engine air intake.

FIA F1 director Charlie Whiting said: "We see it quite often, we saw it a lot with the Toro Rosso last year whenever they fired up. We think that's just oil getting into the turbo through the seals. It's not doing it on the track."

Image source, Getty Images

A delighted Esteban Ocon says the "hard work is paying off" for him and his Force India team.

Image source, Esteban Ocon

In Australia, Force India failed to score points with either car for the first time since the Monaco Grand Prix last May. If they can get back inside the top 10 in Bahrain and score 13 points or more, they will break the 1000-point barrier.

Image source, Getty Images

Stoffel Vandoorne, who starts 14th, says there is some work to do today for McLaren.

Image source, Stoffel Vandoorne

Image source, Stoffel Vandoorne

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

Fernando Alonso is paid $20m a year by McLaren and he earned a fair amount of it on Saturday evening, when racing director Eric Boullier ducked the post-qualifying news conference to attend what the team referred to as an “emergency debrief”.

Alonso and team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne were left to fend off the journalists’ questions and inevitably Alonso did most of the talking. The upgrades brought to Bahrain had worked, he said, but this was also a bad track for McLaren last year. The car was lacking “probably a little bit everywhere - we are not the strongest on top speed, braking performance was not great, traction”.

But the race pace was stronger and points were the target with both cars. “I feel positive,” he said. “The points are given on Sunday, not on Saturday. It was the same feeling on Australia. We were seventh, eighth, ninth in P2, P1, P3 and then in qualifying we were 11th and 12th and a little bit disappointed.

"And then on Sunday we were P5 and it was the ‘McLaren comeback and we will fight for a championship this year’. Now we are out of Q3 again. Something we not expected but were afraid of, looking at last year’s performance here. It is a tough circuit for us but tomorrow if we both are in the points again it will be a great result and it is what we are aiming for.”

Image source, Getty Images

Steve: One of the greatest fightbacks have to be what I've just seen at the BTCC at Brands Hatch, Senna Proctor started 27th and won! Great racing!

Kayleigh: Sebs ‘comeback’ at Brazil 2012 is a good one. Poor start, collision, damage to the car, and he still did enough to win the drivers championship!

Not often you get a tweet from space. Astronaut AJ Feustel tweeted this picture of the circuit from thousands of feet above last night...

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Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, speaking during the drivers' parade on whether he is one of the favourites to win: "Seb would be a favourite as well because he starts pole.

"It will certainly be a good chance here, it is fun, cool and it is only the second race of the year.

Can you get past Kimi Raikkonen? "Yeah, think so! I am quietly confident the long run can be competitive."

And here you can watch Pierre Gasly's magic moment as he is set to start in fifth on the grid.

BBC Sport app users may need to click on the link to see the video.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Bahrain

The star of qualifying was undoubtedly Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly, who qualified a brilliant sixth - which will be fifth on the grid with Lewis Hamilton’s penalty. Toro Rosso have some aerodynamic upgrades at the rear, on the floor and brake ducts, but Gasly said the improvement in pace from Australia, where they were closer to the back, was as much to do with a new approach to set-up.

“From the aero we expected less than 0.1secs in lap time,” he said. “Maybe it looks like it is working really well. Maybe we need to analyse the impact on the car a bit more deeply, but mainly the set-up has given us a lot of performance.” In Australia the car was lacking corner-entry stability, and suffering from mid-corner understeer, whereas in Bahrain the balance and overall grip had been “really good”.

The likeable Frenchman described his lap as “the best of my F1 career”. But he admitted with a facial expression that the Honda engine’s limited energy recovery potential might make the race a bit more difficult. “We know that’s tougher for us in the race,” Gasly said. “We know the race will not be easy. They did a bit better compared to last year, but we know in the race we are still struggling a little on this.”

Image source, Getty Images

Max Verstappen has not had the best of weekends. He had an electrical fault early in session one that saw him have to push his car back to the pits on Friday and then pranged his Red Bull into the wall during qualifying yesterday.

So 15th it is for him, but he sounds confident of weaving his way through the field. And, as we have seen before, that is certainly a great sight.

Image source, Max Verstappen

Image source, Max Verstappen

This is how the track is designed. Fifty-seven laps of high drama and great overtaking coming our way. Hopefully.

Image source, .