The Spanish Grand Prix - Practice 3 Formula 1

Hello. A very warm and slightly blustery Welcome to Barcelona for

the third practice session before we get under way for the life

qualifying. Taking us through the next few minutes is David Coulthard.

Are you enjoying Spain? Yes, love it. Yesterday, the first session

was very difficult. It was raining and it never dried up. It is hard

to get any relevant data. They do a lot of testing pre-season.

Barcelona is the main proving ground for Formula One. Any race

session is about that date in history. This circuit is affected.

Looking through the weekend, it will be about tyres. All have free

practice sessions are about trying to understand how they will get the

best out of them. Yesterday in free practice, they were trying out

their upgrades and trying them out on longer runs. This happened for

Paul di Resta. Check out the rear late. This is the Pirelli Engineer

trying to cover it. Going back to the previous grand prix, this

happened with Lewis Hamilton on the Mercedes. In Bahrain, this is us on

board with Filipe Massa. Pirelli have a real concern. These issues

have been caused by actual damage. Cuts and debris. The curbs have

always been there. It is a standard one. It is looking like there is an

inherent weakness in the design Pirelli were not talking about the

issue yesterday until they had examined it. Is there any news or

anything you can therefore asked during this session? Her my first

job is to go and find the boss of I will do that very shortly. There

is a real buzz in the pit lane. Last night there was more freight

coming into Barcelona than usual. We will look out for all the

upgrades. A few of the teams have new wings on their cars. Thank you.

A pop up to the commentary box. What are you expecting in this

session? I guess we're going to see plenty of running in the first part.

Will they be out there for the whole session? We might get the odd

moment of paws and build up towards the end of the session. Most of

them were like to do a rang to check the car balance. Then they

will put on the softer tyres. -- will like to do a runner. They need

to be confident they have a reasonable set-up. It is the build-

up to qualifying really. Qualifying is so vital. We talk about Monaco

but to get on the front row it is really important. Overtaking here

is more difficult than some of the other circuits. Qualifying is

down to the end of the pit lane. The green light comes on. We have

Force India and Toro Rosso taking to the track. Paul di Resta has

moved over to the side to do a practice start. That is the only

area they are allowed to do that. It is an important date for Sauber

as well. We will be talking about McLaren and Williams. Sergio Perez

qualified 5th last year. They have been struggling with this stability

problems. That is another team we need to keep an eye on. You would

expect more from McLaren, Williams and Sauber. It is about the

stability on the rear end of the car on entry. If you do not have

rear end stability, you take it out a bit easier and turn it earlier.

You have a mid corner understeer and create traction problems. It is

very difficult to change your plan. Actually it is a rear end problem

on the way in. There is the staff for the fans in Spain - Fernando

Alonso. -- star. He comes from the northern part of Spain and has a

huge amount of support. It is quite a long time since he won in

Barcelona, it was back in 2006. He led here last year and led be the

before. We always know the Ferrari is quick off the line. Their

intention is to be that fraction more competitive in qualifying. We

have already seen a Ferrari on the front row. That has to be their aim.

Some drivers are saying that being in pole position is not that

important because you cannot drive the race as hard as you want. It

makes your life so much easier. You are not going to get involved in

the mid- grid half race. It is about letting them know you are

here. You get people behind you with that little bit of motivation.

You do not get the card damage so easily. You need to be at the front

to win races. Sometimes people can come from behind because they got

it wrong but it does not happen very often. He was talking about

the joy of driving in a home race. He said at the start of his career

it was a pressure to perform in front of your home fans but now he

revels in it. He has won a couple of times in Spain. That is

something that Nigel Mansell used to talk about all the time - the

extra energy and speed being in a home race gives you. Kimi Raikkonen

for Lotus, one Aberu Kebede to watch this weekend. They have been

competitive all year. -- one to watch. They have been very fast in

race trim. They did get onto the front row in China. Sebastian

Vettel was twice a pole winner. can see the car running. There is a

lot of luminous dust painted on the wing. What you are trying to do

with that is put it onto the front wing and see where it is going.

That Clwyd will land on parts of the car. -- that fluid. That is the

most important thing. You need to get air flow off the front wing. It

is understandable. You may have to tweak some stuff. Looking at the

Red Bull, as it comes into the pits, USA Inc yesterday at the front wing

is very sophisticated. -- you were saying. It is a hugely expensive

piece of kit. The area in front of the front tyre is very important.

You can see the yellow luminous paint. All these bits add up to

give inconsistent front downforce but it does not her the rest of the

car. -- giving consistent downforce. If you look where it says red,

there are four struts coming down. Normally they'd tried to put them

underneath. -- they try. They are trying to create a vortex to push

the air through. You can see the wing - it is multi- element.

Underneath it, you put stiffen us. When part of its stores, it does

not affect the rest of the wing. When the carp is neared the ground,

the airflow stalls. -- the car. It is a sophisticated part which makes

the rest of the car work. Paul di Resta suffered yesterday. You have

had a night to examine the tyres on the cup of Paul di Resta. Similar

to the other tyres we have seen this season. When you pick up

debris, it does not penetrate and the weak point becomes the trade.

You get a cat, the tread is overheated and it comes away. --

the cut. You could say it is safer but it looks more dramatic. I am

sure people watching would think it is coming away by chance. Just to

clarify, it was debris that caused it. Yes. We have used 10,000 tyres

and we have had four cuts of that type. You get a cat and it heats up

and comes away. -- a cut. Last season it would have deflated on

the rim. Is that worse or better? It begs the question, should the

tier be more resilient? When they put in a non- penetrable layer of

steel in there, you are going to get cuts on the tyre. It is a

difficult one. Whale-watching one of the Red Bulls. -- we are

watching. It is difficult to get the right thing. They use 616 slick

tyres in a weekend. This paint has washed off the front wing and gone

to areas of the car where it influences. Did you like that

pattern? Yes, that was OK. If it hits there and washes away like

water going down a glass, it is not working. There is no airflow on it.

It looked pretty good. What are you looking at? You can see this side

pods. The yellow hit that part of the car. You get a big bubble. It

was not getting influenced by air flow. The airflow was good on that

impact and attaches to the surface and goes backwards. It is about

keeping consistent airflow on the surface. That looks pretty good.

Formula One is a competitive world. They might be leading the

Championship but you can never stand still. Only a few times have

been set so far. Charles Pic is fastest in the Caterham. Lewis

Hamilton and Keke Rosberg have set times. Nothing very exciting. If

you want to get in touch you can use - tag. There may be a surprise

from Hamilton or Kimi Raikkonen. Is Romain Grosjean looking good?

best yesterday was Kimi Raikkonen. Fernando Alonso was good on both

types of tyres and Nico Rosberg. They have more than the rest of

them. Yesterday did not seem as consistent. Kimi Raikkonen tended

to drop away. I would suspect Romain Grosjean we pick up the pace

to that level but he did not show throttle. Why did you like to watch

their? The first corner is a right-hander, then you have to keep

the car in the middle of the road. The road drops away dramatically.

You have to keep the car in the middle of the road. It is easy to

see the car if they have got understeer. If they have, they run

wide. The last part of the corner is more or less flat-out, but you are

on the outside line of the track. You can see the car, whether it has

got good balance and grip. Lewis Hamilton on the hard compound tyre.

It is a big weekend for McLaren, they have put a lot of updates on

the car. What can you see, Tom? very much, neither driver is in the

car. Gary, they have got the old front wing on both cars. After a

night of looking at the data, the new front wing is not working, what

did you think? Yes, we will show some detail on that, but the area

they worked on, it is not the area that is causing the problem. For me,

there are three elements on the front wing, they are too big, they

do not control the airflow. We will explain that before qualifying. If I

were them, I would not be not driving now. You have got to try a

different set-up, you have got to get the best out of the car you have

got. They do not have a package that will win a race. RADIO: Look after

attraction. He is under instructions already. Once you start spreading

the rear wheels, the tyres overheat. Back to McLaren. You have got to get

the best out of your car at a race meeting to score as many points as

possible. They might not win, but you still have to get the best out

of the package. You do not do that by sitting in the garage.

qualifying programme starts at 12:10pm on BBC One, with more

information about McLaren and also looking at Williams in their

attempts to move up the grid. Esteban Gutierrez, the 21-year-old

Mexican, you youngest driver in Formula 1. The car has not been as

competitive as last year's Sauber. Nicole Holcombe vote is more

experienced, he has been getting the odd performance out of the car.

Still very early days. Jenny, you are at Lotus? Yes, they had a good

day yesterday, one of the best Fridays they have had, according to

them. A lot of work going on, so another team that will not get out

there much. Romain Grosjean yesterday, if you look at the times

from the second session, he was 18th or 19th, but actually, he did not do

a fast time because it looked like he had a cracked exhaust. It was a

centre row. It was misleading, occurs he is looking at an

incredible pace for today. Yes, you have got to get the lapse in,

because we will see who is who, because the track is decent, it is

warm, and we will see who has got what as far as pace is concerned.

Because Kimi Raikkonen was up there, I would expect Romain

Grosjean to be up there as well. Yes, and Kimi Raikkonen is right

back on top form. For those of you who did not catch up with yesterday,

the fastest time was set by Sebastian Vettel. Fernando Alonso

was .017 slower than that. Mark Webber was third, Kimi Raikkonen was

fourth, Felipe Massa was fifth. Jean-Eric Vergne was in ninth, and

Paul di Resta was 10th. I wanted to mention Jean-Eric Vergne, Gus Toro

Rosso seemed happy yesterday. It went well for them in China. They

did not have a good time in Bahrain, but here, both drivers have

got a spring in their step. They are going well. They have quite a few

updates. They have pressed a button on getting developments for this

race. It is the right time, you need to make sure you do not overreact,

you want to get the best out of the package you had during the first

races, and then press the button for developments to take it forward.

They did the right thing, because they understand this track. They

have got a better car. They are up and down a bit. You have to reserve

judgement. Nico Hulkenberg is attacking the track a bit more. His

team-mate is fastest so far, but only five cars have established a

time. Nicole Holcombe Berg looking pretty rapid at the moment. Not the

fastest in the first sector so far. Using quite a lot of road. This is

where a second DRS zone has been introduced. That is different for

this year, we are used to it the ink on the finishing straight here.

because they have taken it away from qualifying, and put it onto the same

positions in the race, they have created the second one. But the back

straight is short. It is very difficult to keep within a second

off the car in front of you without understeer in, so it will be tough

to pass. We saw Nico Hulkenberg back off. That time is not

representative, he will go for another lap. On board with Sebastian

Vettel. Mark Webber is also out on track. We are beginning to see some

of the front runners coming out. Up through the gears again on the X it.

He did not lock up. Down the hill, this is down to the seventh corner,

seven and eight. Then, the blind approach into number nine. I call

that a man's corner, you cannot see the apex or exit. Difficult

breaking, because it is bumpy. This corner has changed a bit over the

years. It is tight, and then opens up. Then you are into the twisty

stuff at the end of the lap. This was introduced later on. Number 14

and 15, trying to get the traction out of the corner, get the power

down, and then into the flat-out final turn. This will be a good lap.

He goes fastest. But we are not quite down to what we had yesterday.

It was interesting, looking at how much the tyres were worth. The

Ferrari's only gained 0.2 seconds by going to the medium tyre. But other

teams found more. If you go for a softer tyre, you end up getting more

understeer. The balance was to have a bit of understeer on the harder

tyres, and then you get more understeer with the softer tyre.

They only had one shot at it yesterday. Overnight, they try to

get the balance of the car to suit the softer tyre, to get the best lap

time out of the soft tyre, which will compromise the harder tyre a

bit, but that does not matter for the grid. Kimi Raikkonen also on the

harder compound. RADIO: Still rear stability and understeer. Not a

great mixture. Presumably, the car is nervous into the corners, but

once he has got it into the corner, the car does not want to turn.

Because the rear end is not stable, breaking and turning, he will be

asking more from the front tire in the mid-corner, which is where the

understeer comes from. I would try to fix the stability first, knowing

that the understeer will diminish. Not looking at all nervous, Kimi

Raikkonen, the car is looking stable. He is setting quick sector

times. This will go ahead of Sebastian Vettel's pace. He goes

quickest. That looked very smooth. He enjoyed the wet conditions

yesterday morning. We had a heavy shower before the session, he was

flicking the car around and enjoying himself. Up through the night turn,

this is where they attack the corner. All four wheels over the

edge... He just about kept inside the white line. We talk about the

rear of the car touching the ground. We need to deal with the suspension

that they have, a front and rear interconnected suspension. You can

start to lower the rear of the car from the fact that, instead of

displacing the front suspension, you can move the load to the rear of the

car. It reduces the rear end instability. Lotus have it working

the best. It is hydraulic suspension. They are playing the

best chew on it. It is clever stuff. Hydraulic suspension systems go a

long way back, Sichuan run them around the Second World War. But it

is different on a racing car. We are on board with Adrian Sutil. He has

been a bit out of luck in races, but he has shown great pace, he and Paul

di Resta are a good combination. You know the team well, it has evolved

from its Jordan days when you were the technical boss, but they have

brought improvements, despite being on the pace in Bahrain. Yes, they

are in -- identified problems and small changes. They are moving it

along quite well. Every team needs to find .1 seconds per race to keep

in touch with everybody else, so you need to make sure... This might be

something falling off Romain Grosjean's car. That is sort of what

I was talking about. They can make the rear of the car sit lower. They

move the loads around the car to make the rear of the car sit lower.

It reduces the drag of the car considerably. Back to force in the,

small changes to keep in touch with the other teams, you find that .1

seconds per race, you keep in touch, you find another .1 seconds,

you move ahead. Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen setting the pace for

notice. It is very close between them. Jean-Eric Vergne again showing

Corazon in good shape. Thank you for your comments on twitter. Billy

says, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso on the front row, come on,

Lewis Hamilton! We will see if he can do that. One person says Spanish

home advantage will throw Fernando Alonso on the front row, but a Lewis

Hamilton pole position and Felipe Massa third. Oliver asks, how do you

solve a problem like McLaren? Are the updates working? The jury is out

at the moment, Gary. When they spoke to Tom yesterday... Let's speak to

Tom. Tom, you spoke to both McLaren drivers, you did not say they

less competitive than he was in Bahrain last time out. The fact

they are not running the new front wing this morning. Sam Michael

mentioned this when I spoke to hint a little bit earlier that they

might run the front wing but they would not race it. It seems they

are a little bit without a rudder at that team. You kind of think,

would last year's car had been quicker? I am up at a Red Bull as

Mark Webber comes in. When Sebastian Vettel came in earlier, a

wonder if they had met at the left of that car. -- I wonder if they

had it at the left of that car. McLaren is still struggling. Sam

Michael said yesterday, they are working on every area of the car.

We do not expect this kind of performance from McLaren. Last year,

let's not forget that Lewis Hamilton was on pole in qualifying.

He was light on fuel but he was on pole by about half a second. Last

year the car was tremendous. They cannot wheel that car at from last

season. It is too late to do that. Should they not have continued to

develop the car? You try to improve on a car. I went to the press

release and I thought it was a better step. They thought it was.

Whenever the car hit the ground, it was a shock to them. Up it is a

situation where I have an opinion and I am not too frightened to

voice it. I do not think the changes have fixed the problems.

Some of them have created problems. They have new rear wings on the car

and the small modification on the front wing. Martin is busy covering

his mouth. It seems to be taking a couple of laps for the tyres to

cumin. -- come in. Do not push too hard in the first lap. Fernando

Alonso has gone fastest. He is still on a pretty good lap. It was

a good first sector. Faster than the two Lotus's. He lost a bit on

the middle and by now sectors. He stays ahead of Romain Grosjean,

Kimi Raikkonen and Filipe Massa earth. We were talking about Force

India being so close to getting a podium last time out will -- last

time out. There is a monkey seat, which is a new. It is a triple

element monkey seat. That is helping this team. Fernando Alonso

in the Ferrari team said these are one of the people who could be a

threat to them this weekend. But then to say they are looking out

for Force India is quite amazing. - - for them. They are punching above

their weight at the moment. What is a monkey seat? Everything gets a

name. The area between the upper wing and the bottom wing. In the

McLaren, they also have a monkey seat. It is an area by you can put

stuff and it creates downforce. The airflow at the top wing reacts with

the shape of the monkeys seat wing which reacts with the diffuser. It

connects the car up together. That is one of the areas, the middle

part of the wing. It is difficult to keep the air flow in the middle

part of the car working consistently. It helps a little bit

by making the air flow work together. A bit of testing stuff

going on. They are still dealing data analysis at this stage. We are

on board with Jenson Button. -- doing data analysis. The rear wing

is no longer allowed. The only reason that could be there is you

are allowed to mount the wing on two central pillars. On the

outboard part of the wing, and nobody uses that potential. It was

not data gathering, it was a problem with front suspension. He

has a lot of the lap to do before he comes back. A few more of tweets

coming in. Thank you for your company for the third practice

session before the serious business of qualifying gets under way.

Surely it is time to bring the old car back for McLaren? Hoping that

Paul di Resta has a good race like last time at in Spain. How to the

side pods improve performance? They are there to store the radiators

are primarily. How do you use the shape to improve performance?

all about airflow. It goes through there and through the air radiator.

-- the radiator. It is about getting airflow down into the back

of the car, in between the rear wheels. The more airflow you can

get attached to that surface, it means the rear wing works better.

The diffuser works better and more consistently. The front wing is one

of these things. It does the job. The rest of the car is about

managing the airflow to try to get to the back of the car. That is

certainly the aim. We will have to see which teams get that sorted out

best of all. Sergio Perez is coming into the pit lane. We are having a

good look at the car to see if there is anything we can

identifiable stuck not much frantic activity going on. -- we can

identify. Let's see if there is anything untoward. Can you see

anything? I can see nothing broken. Nothing broken at the moment will

stump it might be inside of the chassis. -- at the moment.

Yesterday there was some debris which got inside the front wheel.

They got some debris in there. I cut a big group in the wheel. The

driver can also feel that. He sees the outcome. It could be anything.

I would imagine it is inside the chassis. They will be having a good

look at set full dug how far off the Grand is the average Formula

One car? -- good look at it. front right height is between 20

and 25 mm. The rear right height, probably as low as 60. With the Red

Bulls, it is higher. A lot of teams cannot get that better but Red Bull

can. The car would probably be five millimetres here but it will not

touch the ground at the front. The Rea is bouncing more and it will

touch the ground. Not very high. You get a stone underneath it and

you definitely feel it on your bottom. Interestingly, Sergio Perez

is not out of the car. They might feel it is not a major problem.

They have something telling them deposition of the front shock

absorbers. They have lowered it sells on the pushrods of the car.

They would know if there was a structural failure. Just talk us

through the hierarchy of the guys who would be available at this

point. You could not see anything there. Something flew off - a bit

of carbon fibre. This is the on- board. He rumbles it over the kerb.

That was a big chunk of something. It looked like it was under the

front wing. Maybe it was a turning will under the side pot. I do not

think you could hit it on the ground. He would not really feel

that. He would see it but not feel it. Hopefully they can get that

back out without too many dramas. This is only a 1 and practice

session. It seems to run away with you. -- ate one hour. Everybody is

still using the hard compound tyre. We are waiting to see who will be

first at. Medium tyres will likely to be the ones used in qualifying

on the fastest laps. What the top teams will be looking for is

perhaps trying to get through Q1. Red Bull usually use it as gently

as possible to start with. I think it is good enough to do two

competitive laps. The harder tyre is a better, more stable race tier.

People will be trying to keep those. I would not be surprised to see Red

Bull using a softer tyre. Fernando Alonso has done a Netani Talei

23.20. -- 8 1:23.20. In this area, you can see the black rubber, which

is not on the grid. To measure of the attraction availability is a

buried -- a very deceptive thing. The cars are run down that side all

the way through practice. They are busy cleaning up the left-hand side

of the straight. You want to be an odd number ideally when you qualify

will stop you do not think about that or planet. You just go as fast

as possible. -- plant it. Of the ENG teams at the moment, Charles

Pic is currently the quickest. -- young teams. Nico Hulkenberg says

that the rear tyres have gone. It is early for him to be struggling

after 10 laps. It is. You're going to have to go further in the race.

If the attraction is not good, he was talking about the weird being

nervous and the understeer. -- at the rear. An unbalanced card does

not look after the tyres. -- car. Jules Bianchi has impressed many

people. It is his first season. The Fernando Alonso is still fastest.

Let's get back down to the pits. just want to comment on how calm

everybody is in Mercedes will -- Mercedes. They have been doing some

long running this morning. They have a very good cart over one lap.

We know that. I was talking to an engineer yesterday and he was

waxing lyrical about Lewis Hamilton, saying what a motivational force he

is. Not as technical as Michael Schumacher but, as a motivational

force for all the mechanics and everybody, they said they have

never experienced anything like it. That is very interesting. Every

time he gets into make-up, he drives it flat out. It is good to

hear. You have to say, they are looking pretty good in qualifying

pace. It is about race pace. Nico Rosberg will go out with these

softer tyre. He will go for a lap time. Going back to drivers and

engineers and Michael Schumacher being very involved in engineering,

sometimes a driver can become too involved in engineering. If you

click a couple of buttons on a car, Lewis Hamilton will bring at home.

As an engineer, that is what you want. You want a good driver and a

the medium tyre. We will begin to get more of a picture now on

qualifying pace. They will not run as light as qualifying later, they

run a bit more fuel when they do these runs in the morning.

kilograms of fuel is just over .3 seconds, so most teams will run 20

kilos of fuel. You do not have to go down to low fuel, you just want to

see the balance is good for fairly low fuel, and do a couple of laps to

make sure the tyres last. While Fernando Alonso is building up, that

get back to the pits. I am at Williams, watching Pastor Maldonado

come in. He will do a quick break test. The team are happier this

morning, Pastor Maldonado has said he feels the balance of the car is

better. Valtteri Bottas is still not happy with the grip, so they have

been doing tweaks and changes, but both drivers are having a better

day. Pastor Maldonado is 10th at the moment. Much better from Williams.

We will not know the full story Intel qualifying. Valtteri Bottas is

12. Their aim has got to be to get into the second session of

qualifying. They have not run the softer tyre yet either. Jenson

Button in ninth place, on the same tyre as Fernando Alonso was on. That

is what we would expect. The Williams drivers have closed up.

Their developments are working, it looks like. McLaren's have not taken

them anywhere. Sauber will pay the price, a cosmic Hulk and Berg is in

14th and Esteban Gutierrez in 15th. This will be the new benchmark. That

was quite a gain over the hard tyre run. A decent game between the two

compounds. Nico Rosberg did not set a benchmark time, so we cannot gauge

his performance. How does it compare with the Ferrari? Not quite as

fast. Lewis Hamilton is on a lap as well. He is on the medium compound.

Nicole Mossberg not as quick as the Ferrari on this occasion. Perhaps

Mercedes are focused on race pace rather than qualifying pace. They

need to look after qualifying, you have to be at the front to win the

race. We saw Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton write down the bottom, so

they were running with race fuel, but Fernando Alonso was not. His

pluck up -- pick-up of performance was a lot less relatively because he

did not have the change of fuel load as well. It is difficult if you are

taking out fuel at the same time. Fernando Alonso is quickest, could

this be the weekend for Ferrari? Tom is with the Ferrari development

driver. Could this be the weekend for Ferrari? We hope so, we have

been working flat out since Bahrain. A Formula 1 race is never easy, we

faced of competitors. But this is a special grand prix, and if we have

to win a race, let's hope it is this one. But there are so many things

that can happen. Red Bull, Lotus, Mercedes, they are so strong here,

we do not know. But we have done a good testing on Friday, a good

comparison between the compounds, we have a good understanding, and after

that, it is about the drivers. good is Fernando Alonso? Can he put

it on pole position? I have no idea. We are looking strong for the race,

but I am not concerned about qualifying. The amount of

degradation we have, it is more important to think about the race,

saving enough tyres for the race. Then, we will see. But this is one

of the strongest circuits for Fernando Alonso, it is one of his

favourites. He will fight hard. The important thing is that the points

are given on a Sunday and not on the Saturday. Does Fernando get extra

energy from the crowd? Of course, we all do when you race in your home

grand prix. The crowd makes you feel very special, it is a unique

sensation. But it does not give you any added time. In fact, it is an

added pressure for all of us to be in Spain. But we will do our best,

we will try to help Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, and the team has

done a very good development in the past two or three weeks. 20 of the

22 races here have been won from the front row, do you see that happening

again tomorrow? You have a higher chance from pole position, this is

maths, but it is not as important as it yesterday. It is not about being

at the front, you have to save enough sets of tyres for the race.

We are looking at a race with plenty of stops. You have to think about

how many sets of tyres you need. not go crazy, thank you for talking

to us! Very intelligent and says from Pedro Deller racer, a veteran

of 100 races, but many years of test driving. I bet he has done 80

kilometres around the circuit in his time! More than anybody else,

probably. The official website said Jenson Button has done over 21,000

miles of testing here in his career. It is a lot of mileage, but that can

be a bad thing, because you do not experiment with the track. Every car

attacks it differently, every time you come to a track, you have to go

with a fresh approach, see how the car works over the bumps. Every car

has its own characteristics, and sometimes you have to exploit it a

bit more. Esteban Gutierrez has improved on the medium tyre. If you

compare that with the 22.2 that Fernando Alonso has done, where will

Sauber end up? Is it too big a gap? It is a tough one. Last year in the

first qualifying session, Lewis Hamilton was the quickest, and 16th

place was Sergio Perez, 1.7 seconds away. It is going to be close. It

will be in that margin. Let's keep an eye on Kimi Raikkonen on the

medium compound. Let's talk quickly add a team that is showing that a

good pace at the moment, Jean-Eric Vergne is 11th fastest, Daniel

Ricciardo is 15th fastest. What can you see at Toro Rosso? They said

they had their best Friday ever, especially for Daniel Ricciardo.

They have a relatively large upgrade, a new floor, side pods,

rear wing and exhaust, so this fits into their new exhaust system. Both

guys say they are much happier. The car needed a push, that is what they

have got. They had a brilliant seventh place for Daniel Ricciardo

in China. They finished seventh. A real boost to the team. We will have

to see what they can do. The second checkpoint, Kimi Raikkonen is up on

the time of Fernando Alonso, the fastest of anybody in the middle

sector. What are you looking for from the car on each sector? The

final sector is about traction. first two are about aerodynamics.

The third section is about mechanics. That is a good time, he

will be happy about that. He only does what he needs to do when he

needs to do it. In qualifying, he knows he has to be at the front. But

in practice, he does what he needs to do. RADIO: There has been

something in the power stealing that is causing inconsistent steering.

That is interesting. You cannot read that very easily. It is a hydraulic

steering system, it gives you 60% of the steering glowed in the

hydraulics, so you are driving 40% of it. There is a valve that works

the steering, and as you turn the wheel, it will offset fluid at

pressure. If the valve has got a small amount of dirt in it, it can

offset it and the fluid can leak slightly to one side. It will tend

to feel as though the car is pulling. It is not the safest thing

in the world. If the power steering fails and the car turns one way, you

will never captured. RADIO: Stick some fuel, we can have a look at the

first few laps of tyre management. That is exactly what I would do.

This is what you are going to start to race with. He needs to see what

his first few laps are like. This message is about getting three or

four laps in, but they are important. The boss of Ferrari is

here, waiting to be found. Will this be a great weekend for them?

Fernando Alonso needs it after a couple of finishers which have not

gone his way. Bahrain was affected by the wink failure, but he still

got some points. No points in Malaysia, when he looked as though

he had a front-running car, but he ran into the back of Sebastian

Vettel and was not called into the pits. The car could not be

recovered. Kimi Raikkonen is the fastest, then Fernando Alonso, Lewis

Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. We saw Esteban Gutierrez go slightly

quicker on his second lap, which encourages the thought that some of

these teams will try to do two runs on the medium compound tyre will

stop Esteban Gutierrez could get a second quick lap out of them. That

has not always been the case here. He either. The tyre to last or he

made a mistake on the first lap. You would want to keep the harder tyre

for the race if you can. If you go out in the first qualifying session

with a medium set and do a controlled lap, you can use them

again for the second session. If you had to put on the second set, so be

it. You can go out again in the third session. If you have to put on

the third set, you will have to use that for the race, but the will have

three sets of harder tyres. Mark Webber has moved up, it is looking

close at the top, which is what we love to say. We are riding with Paul

di Resta. He is out of the final corner. DRS in operation. Another

encouraging performance by Paul di Resta. Williams in 11th, that should

be a boost for them. We are waiting for everybody to set a lap on these

tyres. Felipe Massa attacking the track this weekend, as ever. Good

performances from him so far this year, he beat Fernando Alonso in

qualifying at the start of this season, he was on the front row in

Malaysian. We know that his qualifying pace is as good as he can

do. Let's see if he can keep this tidy through the chicane. That was

pretty neat. He runs it through the final turn. This should put him up

in the ballpark somewhere. Yes, he is quickest. Kimi Raikkonen pushed

down to second, Adrian Sutil goes sixth. What about McLaren? Is there

an improvement? Not really. The aim is to get the cars in the top ten in

qualifying. Ferrari fans are happy enough with Felipe Massa going

lap time Sergio Perez will do. We are waiting for him to get on to a

flying lap. Jean-Eric Vergne has not done a time on the soft tyre.

Interesting. Sebastian Vettel has just gone out. He will be the

interesting candidate, to see how good the Red Bull is. Valtteri

Bottas has just completed his lap. Their performance was not quite as

good on the soft tyre. We do have to wait and see in qualifying.

Daniel Ricciardo is getting a bit of traffic with Hamilton. That will

not help. That is difficult for him. He may not get a fully

representative lap time. Sergio Perez getting past Lewis Hamilton

as well. Sebastian Vettel behind that group, as he heads to 1010. --

turn macro 10. This will put him slow were than Mark Webber. --

slower. He goes force behind Mark Webber and ahead of Fernando Alonso.

The track is still cleaning up. Let's just see the replay. He gets

blocked. At the end of the day, Lewis Hamilton is trying to do what

he is doing. They've will look at the date set in the car and see

what the lap time will have been without the blockage. -- they will

look at the data set in the car. Romain Grosjean and Lotus. He has

been looking pretty good this weekend. We did not get a chance to

see his pace yesterday because he had to abandon the lap. It is

looking impressive from the Frenchman. The track suits his

style. He tends to drive off the back end of the car, more than Kimi

Raikkonen. It is close. He lasted all in the last section. In the

last chicane, you can lose a hell of a lot. Is this a practice start

or a problem for Ben Ando Alonso? - - Fernando Alonso? It is just a

practice start. No problem for him. 1.5 minutes of this session

remaining. Filipe Massa is currently quickest from Kimi

Raikkonen. Sergio Perez is on a set of tyres. It is not a bad first

sector. We will keep an eye on the second sector and see if there is

an improvement. He qualified well last chip in the Sauber. He was

helped by the fact that Lewis Hamilton got demoted from pole

position. There was one of his best qualifying positions. Look how much

he has lost in the middle sector. That is a lot. That is where the

ergo dynamic performance of the car stands out. It is about mechanical

and not making a mistake. You are sort of a passenger to the car. You

cannot influence it to match. He looked neat and tidy but lost a lot

in the middle. Too much. Jenson Button is 12th and Sergio Perez his

14th. No indication they have made a great stride. It will be close in

the grid. You have Sergio Perez, Pastor Maldonado he had done a

1:dot 30 trade. -- 1:33. I do not know if Jenny has more information

on that. Slightly surprising to see that. The chequered flag is out on

this session. All the cars are finishing off their laps and

heading back in towards pit lane. Looking at the times, we had quite

Grosjean been a Lotus. You have the other Red Bull. Fernando Alonso did

do his time earlier on. That would have been worth a few tenths of a

second. Paul di Resta air and Adrian Sutil showing they are

capable of getting a top 10. The qualifying pace may not be as

strong. Back in 9th, 11th position, they did run the medium tyre fairly

early. Three-tenths of a second for 10 kilograms of fuel, it means so

many positions - seven or eight positions on the grid. We have to

go to qualify before we know the true performance. Coming into the

pits is Sergio Perez after the minute Macro 23.3 balls but that is

not what they are looking for. -- 1:23.3. The battle will be to get

out of the qualifying. Williams and Sauber are both in danger territory.

I think Toro Rosso might be in better shape but we will have to

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 68 seconds

wait and see. A bit of a debrief. the GP2 race last year. Esteban

Gutierrez is the gangster. I do think he has the ability to show

what he can do. -- the youngster. He has a very good team-mate, Nico

Hulkenberg, to learn from. He is very quick and very consistent.

When you do not have a very good car, it is difficult to find your

level. Esteban Gutierrez needs to keep his head down and exploit it a

bit more. His best grid position has been 14th so far this year.

Over at Mercedes, will we see a hat-trick of Mercedes propositions?

The evidence is not that at the moment unless they are running a

very different race. Having seen Hamilton and Nico Rosberg taking

pole in the last few events, it would be an achievement to get that

hat trick. Filipe Massa is faster us at the moment. We have to go all

the way back to 2008 for the last time he had a pole. You would have

to say that crowd power could well be worth something to Fernando

Alonso. It is going to be exciting. Thanks for your input. Let's get

Third and 5th after final practice. Your thoughts? An interesting

session. The wind is critical. It is getting all sectors together. We

need to find some pace in the first sector. Still a bit of work to do

between now and qualifying. important is pole position? It is

important. You always want to start in clean air. As long as you are in

the first two, maximum three rows, that is OK. It is about having the

right tyre strategy for the race. How many pit-stops do you think we

will see? I have no idea. Less than six and more than one. Mark Webber

has done very well this weekend. He has had a difficult last couple of

races. Your thoughts? He is the king of the last sector. He has the

last sector absolutely beautifully timed and always has. We are

expecting him to perform very strongly here. Hopefully we can get

both cars right up there. A what about the threat from Ferrari?

look strong. Ben Ando in Monza in front of his home crowd is giving

it everything. -- Fernando Alonso. We would do our best to try to stay

All the big cheeses will be here. Thank you. Christian Horner taking

things one session at a time. the ultimate politician. He was

waving at nobody waving back which I thought was funny. He has the

great passion and a great history with the Ferrari team. People stand

This is an important race. It is the first of the European with a

lot of upgrades here this weekend. We have not seen what we thought we

would with McLaren in terms of moving forward. Everyone is moving

forward because they are all bringing upgrades. That is what

Sergio Perez said in an interview. There are up braids all the time.

McLaren are having to make bigger steps. -- upgrades. It has to be

the talking point. They do seem to be struggling to understand where

they are with this car. It is still relatively early in the season in

terms of winning races. It is well into the season in terms of them

having any chance of winning the The Championship is quite tight at

the moment. It is difficult to include anything from that session

with different levels of fuel, etc. It does seem to bode very well for

qualifying this afternoon. You are right in saying it is difficult to

include anything from that session. Even if everyone ran their

qualifying levels of fuel, we would probably get a slightly different

result. This track is affected by the wind. Track temperature has a

huge bearing on the overall balance. There are small differences and

there is nothing the same in Formula One. We will have a great

shoot-out between Ferrari and Lotus. Filipe Massa was the fastest. Is

that half a metre of track? I will take your word for that. It does

not matter how much quicker you are. If you are ahead, even if you do

the same time but it is one that ahead of your competitor, that will

give you pull. We are back at 12:10pm on BBC One and BBC One HD

for qualifying. What are you expecting to see in a qualifying

session? Lots of cars and drivers pushing to the absolute limit and

giving us their best shot at it. A highly motivated Fernando Alonso.

It is a home race for him. Is it a help or hindrance? Does it give the

pressure or a beast? Definitely a boost. I was never that passed so