Chris Medland
F1 journalist in Barcelona

Valtteri Bottas flashes past the huge Ferrari flags that have been unfurled in the main grandstand opposite the Ferrari garage. The timing of them wasn’t great though, with the flags appearing just as Vettel crashed at Turn 3 to bring out the third red flag of the day.

After such an encouraging opening week, that’s consecutive mornings that have been disrupted for Ferrari. Bottas is also having to make up for lost time yesterday too, and it all has left Red Bull feeling a little bit smug about how smoothly their second second test has started off, even after a very brief stoppage for Verstappen this morning.

Image source, Chris Medland

Bruce, another one of our excellent roving reporters out in Barcelona, has sent us this picture and video of Kubica in action.

Loving all the pictures and videos you are sending us from Barcelona. Please keep them coming, via #bbcf1 on Twitter, and we will post them in this page throughout the day.

Kubica then does better a couple of minutes later, trimming his time now down to 1:20.600, nine tenths slower than the man in eighth - Romain Grosjean of Haas.

A little bit of good news for Williams, as Robert Kubica has at least put in a respectable time of 1:21.164, faster than Daniel Ricciardo has managed in his 53 laps of data gathering, but still only ninth out of the 10 drivers.

At one stage earlier on, Kubica had been a full 20 seconds slower than anyone else.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Charles Coates

Russian Sergey Sirotkin has been given a Formula 1 lifeline after losing his seat at Williams.

The 23-year-old was dropped after his debut season last year in favour of Robert Kubica, but has been named as Renault's third and reserve driver.

The French team also announced that British Formula 2 driver Jack Aitken will be their test driver. Aitken, 23, has been on Renault's young driver programme since 2016 and will do two tests for the team this year.

Aitken will also do a second season in F2, where he won one race last year, for the Spanish Campos team.

And this is why...

After a 40-minute delay, we have a few cars looking for some more information.

Carlos Sainz, a full second faster than anyone else, is back out there after an earlier stop, with Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo also on the track.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Two-time champion Fernando Alonso has become an ambassador for McLaren, a role that will include him testing their Formula 1 car this year. The team said Alonso would "help advise the team's drivers and engineers and drive at selected tests to support the development" of the 2019 and 2020 cars.

The Spaniard, 37, left F1 last year and is competing at the Indianapolis 500 this season for a McLaren team. Alonso said the role was "a true honour" and "just the beginning".

He added: "McLaren is a special team, and despite the challenges we have endured recently, it remains so. I said before I stopped racing in Formula 1 last year that I see myself with McLaren for a long time to come, so I am delighted at this new role and the ability to stay closely involved with the team I feel is my spiritual home.

"We have the Indianapolis 500 in May of course, which I am looking forward to immensely, but this is just the beginning of many things we can do together. I am particularly passionate about nurturing young talent, whether that's with my own team or helping the new generation of Formula 1 drivers at McLaren unlock their true potential.

"This is important to both the team and myself, so will be an especially rewarding part of my role."

Alonso? Retired you say?

Maybe not.

Tom: Would be typical that as soon as Fernando Alonso retires and leaves McLaren, they produce a car potentially worthy of podiums... the ‘perfect’ end to a list of unfortunate career choices!

We're back under way, with McLaren's Carlos Sainz leading the way with just over an hour left of the morning session remaining.

Ferrari say that Vettel is now going back to the Ferrari garage now after being released from the medical centre.

RaceProUK: Vettel's just getting the crashes out of the way now so they don't happen at the German and Singaporean GPs again.

Jeroen Demmendaal: Vettel is in German Grand Prix simulation mode, it seems. Flawless execution so far.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Ferrari say Sebastian Vettel is being taken to the medical centre but Ferrari say he's fine. Almost certainly a precautionary check because the accident data recorder registered above the regulation impact limit.

Image source, AFP

Ferrari say that "a mechanical problem" caused Seb’s off, but don't give us any more details just yet.

Image source, Getty Images

1. Carlos Sainz (McLaren, 1:17.144, 25 laps)
2. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari, 1:18.195, 40 laps)
3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull, 1:18.395, 41 laps)
4. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes, 1:19.080, 36 laps)
5. Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso, 1:19.234, 24 laps)
6. Sergio Perez (Racing Point, 1:19.704, 16 laps)
7. Romain Grosjean (Haas, 1:19.717, 24 laps)
8. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo, 1:19.758, 23 laps)
9. Daniel Ricciardo (Renault, 1:24.122, 17 laps)
10. Robert Kubica (Williams, 1:41.622, 13 laps)

Tyres

Sainz and Kubica C4 (second softest)

Bottas, Grosjean, Ricciardo C2 (second hardest)

Everyone else C3 (medium)

Craig: Very odd place to crash for Vettel. I would imagine that’s a mechanical failure which could mean we won’t see the red car back on track for quite some time. Perhaps Ferrari aren’t as bulletproof as we all thought.

Alex Thomson: How can you tell F1's back? Because Vettel and Ferrari are crashing again.

Alex not holding back there!

The good news is that Sebastian Vettel seems OK. A number of vehicles and marshals help Vettel's Ferrari back to the pits to assess what damage he has done.