The Malaysian Grand Prix - Practice 3 Formula 1

. Morning from a sweltering Sepang. It is almost time for the cars to

get out on track for the final practice session before qualifying.

Yesterday was a good day for Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton fastest in

practice 1. Rosberg took over to be fastest in practice two and it was

that pairing that dominated proceedings. Lewis Hamilton took

Poll position but reliability meant that he didn't see the checkered

flag. The race was won by rog rog. That is why he is at the top of the

driver's championship. The disqualification of Riccardo from

second after his if you will was found in breach of fuel flow

regulations means that Kevin Magnussen moves up to a place.

Jenson Button is third. Fernando Alonso is fourth. Vettel failed to

finish. In the constructors McClaren lead the way. Mercedes and Ferrari

are behind. Red Bull are still on zero after a character building

Sunday. In the pit lane we have Tom Clarkson and Jenny. This is sure to

be a friend tick one hour session. The tempo and the temperature is

rising. Ambient is in the early 30s and we are coping with humidity down

here - well, it is beyond 60. It is looking like it will get higher

wmplt the track temperature already at 50 degrees, we are going to see

the teams doing a few long runs at the start of the session, and then

the fuel will come out. We will start to see a pecking order ahead

of the qualifying session this afternoon. Good news for Lotus -

both teams struggled yesterday. One of the Lotuses is not going out in

this session at all. Neither team had to break curfew and both teams

are looking to have a much better start to today. Yeah that, is good

news. These guys are been working tirelessly. In the commentary we

have Ben Ed cars and Allan McNish. Yesterday it looks like Mercedes was

the ones to beat. Things seem to be closing up behind. That's right. The

times were certainly close. We had seven cars covered by just seven

10ths of a - 4-10ths of a second. Ferrari look stronger than they have

and Red Bull are also getting itting to. We will see the real pace today

a sort of qualifying simulation in the latter part. For sure. It is the

important - the important part is from the driver's point of view, the

mindset, in the last 15 minutes to get ready. It will friend tick.

Mercedes have been pegged back a little bit. I expect that the battle

for the second, third, fourth and fifth is going to be tight. We are

looking forward to this session? We certainly. Don't forget you can

share your views through the hash bag BBC 1 or leave a comment on the

sport Facebook page. Ben and Allan will be reading them out throughout

the session which is about to start. Back to you guys. Thank you very

much. No general yins fired up yet. We are waiting for the clock to tick

away to the start of this one hour session which does go quickly.

Looking into the Force India pit, Nico Hulkenberg, who put in a

reasonable job yesterday, he was 10th fastest. He scored points and

they sit fifth. One point was scored by his teammate. He had a more of a

difficult weekend, didn't do really any running in the first practice

yesterday, but did get oat in the second part but not ideal. It

wasn't. I have to say they seem to be struggling a bit in pure

performance to where they ended up last year. The points in Melbourne

were mostly down to Nico Hulkenberg as opposed to the way the car was.

Therefore, the loss of time for Perez yesterday was critical.

Benedict Cumberbach is a guest here. He was in the Mercedes garage a

little while ago talking to Rosberg. He had one of those access all areas

passes and can go anywhere. He is at Ferrari. He is a lucky one! He is -

right now he is looking at Alonso, a guy that will be prumpbed up for

this afternoon. This circuit is more in line with Ferrari's car. They

feel this is a better baseline for them than Melbourne. So, therefore,

Alonso and Raikkonen, who had a beater Friday, I have to say, and

looking confident around here, are definitely going to be one of the

forces this afternoon. As the session gets under way, let's remind

you what the order was yesterday afternoon in second practice. It was

Rosberg faster, Raikkonen second for Ferrari, and Vettel third. That was

encouraging for Red Bull. Hamilton was fourth, but he'd been quick nest

the morning. His best lap in the afternoon, one of the sectors was

down on time I looked as though he had more capability. Both Lotuses

there - good to see them out this morning. Just behind the Caterham

and the Toro Rosso. That is a good sign. Plenty of cars are coming out.

One of two are stopping. That is because they are doing a practice

start. You saw Alonso come out. He was fifth yesterday. Felipe Massa,

his former teammate finished sixth. There is Magnussen who is father of

Kevin, and who is going to be keeping a close eye on his son's

progress today. He is a very proud father. He did a fantastic interview

with BBC Ed. He is excited to get - Yan is a racer, he is still a racing

driver of a high calibre, and he started his F1 career with McLaren.

There is lot of sentiment in there Let's go down to the pits and go to

general joy. In front of Lewis Hamilton who is just about to put

his gloves on. A massive union jack flag there. News come through about

why Lewis Hamilton retired from the Australian Grand Prix. We knew it

was a very small problem that took him out, but it's been revealed it

was a tiny little hairline split in the side of one of the rubber tubes

that hold the spark plug. That was the cause of his retirement. A blue

rubber tube causing Cos for Lewis Hamilton! Whoa. That is interesting.

It is interesting how the stories from Melbourne are still coming out.

Ferrari also of pace in the first couple of laps was down to an

electronics problem that was out of their control, it was part of the

FIA and FOM electronic systems that allow the energy recovery system to

operate when it gets above 100 kilometres per hour. For some reason

it didn't register and that cost Ferrari a little bit of speed. It

did. They were having to reset it while the race was going on. At that

particular point they were struggling a bit. But they got it

reset and got it working. That eeghts actually when the pace

started to build up. They still had car troubles. It didn't solve all

their problems. We will get back down to the pits. Tom, I think you

are at Red Bull. I am. There's been a last minute front wing change on

Vettel's car. It has been interesting. In the last two

minutes, they were filing away - at the slot gap on the front wing and

they decided, I think, they couldn't the enough -- they couldn't do

enough so they changed the wing. They are still - no, they have put a

brand new front wing on. Sorry. The gap at the front of the wings are

much further apart. Interesting last minute change there. That is good to

hear. He is running the hard tyre with the orange writing on the side

wall. We have the hard and the medium compound tyres here this

weekend. Pastor Maldonado's car has done his lap. It hasn't stopped.

Those Lotus guys have had a tough time from testing through to

Melbourne and now here. Let's listen to Rosberg. New brake material on

manual race gearbox. A bit of information for Nichols as he set --

Niko as he sets off. This brake material is pads, you don't have to

bed them in, but you are aware of them. It is better to reblind the

driver of that. If something happens, then he's covered himself.

It is down to the driver's responsibility. Jenson Button in the

McLaren. We have seen they have an updates nose section. They are

hoping that will give them more down force. I don't know if he will - you

will get a glimpse. You there there as they push the car back. It is was

something that was planned for Melbourne but didn't arrive for

whatever reason. Visually it is different. It is more of a sloping

down nose, it gives a better air flow and more down force.

Performance wise it has been a gain. Kimi Raikkonen was much happier

yesterday and certainly putting in good laps. He was second fastest in

the afternoon. He was saying after Melbourne he wasn't happeny with the

response he was getting from the front of to car. He is a very

sensitive driver. We have seen that. When he was at Lotus he spend time

trying to get the steering feel right. They are power steering

systems in these cars, but the amount of feel that comes back to

the driver can be tuned carefully. He took a while to get that Lotus to

his looking -- liking. I don't know whether it is similar on the Ferrari

but he is a very sensitive driver when it comes to the front end. If I

remember back to Monaco, he actually sat out the first session. He just

did an installation, came in, and then they had to take the whole

front of the car off and basically replace the steering system. In

Melbourne, he struggled into the apex of the corner. He had a lot of

braking problems, locking problems. He drives the Cardiff rently to

Fernando Alonso who brakes in a frontline and needs a lot of front

grip. Raikkonen seems to role the car a bit more into the corner. So,

therefore, he has a tendency to have more brake pressure later. In this

car right now it has more of a problem for locking fronts. Lewis

Hamilton is on circuit. The track temperature just dropped. It was

about 50 degrees before the session began. It just has come down to 46.

A bit of cloud cover coming in. It is more humid than yesterday and

thunderstorms are planned for later on. I am sure that it's planned at

the appropriate time in qualifying. E with will see. It has -- we will

see. It has been around that time. Yesterday afternoon we had heavy

shower when qualifying would have been on if it had been on yesterday.

We will see. 4 o'clock local time is when qualifying begins. Hamilton is

straight back into the pits after his installation lap. The only two

cars that have not done an installation lap so Farah the two

Red Bulls. They are Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Riccardo. Let's go back

town the pit lane because Jenny managed to catch up with Benedict. I

have. We are having a look at Daniel Riccardo car. Are you a big F1 fan?

I am. Very much so. I went to Silver Stone. I remember the noise. It is

different now but still thrilling the inch you stand here when people

come in for any tyre change or what is going on now, these adjustments

in the pit, and it feels like you are on another planet with alien

spacecraft landing at your feet. The size - that is the extraordinary

thing, they are not that big. The drivers are small as well, even

though they are primed athletes. Yet they have such a presence because of

their speed and sound. It is magic. Lots have been made of the noise. We

can just hear Vettel go out at the moment. You are not too concerned

about that. When you are here - on TV it might not but here it is

brilliant. I am not -- it is loud and I am not wearing ear plugs. It

is shaken the sport up and I think that is what has been exciting about

F1. It never rested on its laurels. It is always something that

continued to evolve both in its character and mechanics. I think it

is a thrill for the rest of us that there is a new added element of how

to get this ratio between the two engines right. They are still

learning. It will be a much more open field which is exciting. Here,

what I understand to be exciting, is the conditions to change mid-race so

drastically because we have been having rain here about 4 o'clock

most afternoons. If that dumps tomorrow, all bets are off. They

have their dry and wet cars. I just saw a tyre garage for the first time

which I am sure you have shown the folks back home, I couldn't count

how many tyres. Hundreds of them. They are already for any kind of

change. That could be exciting tomorrow as well, just a bit of

rain. When it rains here it really rains. I love the fact you are a

complete petrolhead. I saw you talking to Nico Rosberg. What you

you chatting about? I was talking to him about prep, talking to him about

what he does physically and mentally. He has to concentrate on

talking about his dad, when everyone else was putting on cool packs and

sitting under um brel lays and people -- umbrellas - with fans, his

dad would be out there, shirt open, smoking a cigarette going, "What our

your problem?", sweat dripping down. He is trying to psych the ore

drivers out. Less of that going on these days. It's still amazing. Did

I just say... I wasn't going to pick you up. James hunt. When Mark Webber

speaks to us at 7 o'clock in the morning on BBC 1, Webber is joining

us to dot a packiage on drive fitness. He has retired but is still

doing presenting. It is fascinating to know how hard these guys are

trained. Do they do in acting? Sometimes, we do. We muck about and

fanny about and do silly things. No, no, seriously, it seems that every

field, whether it is sport or - it is more and more competitive,

sometimes as an actor you have to play something outside your physical

range, putting on weight or losing weight. I had to beef up for Star

Trek. Can you hear anything I am saying? Because I can't hear

anything? I am used to it. It is fine. That's why I just said James

Blunt. Your brain gets scrambled. The noise and the heat. It is

different. It is still very loud. And the heat. No - yeah, I have

trained for roles and lost weigh for others and put on weight for the

other ones. Yeah, it's interesting to meet athletes and understand what

their discipline is and it's exceptional, not just sitting in a

carbon fibre moulded seat so parts of their body don't get injured, it

is - they have to be fit with the connective tissue within their

skeleton and muscle work. They hit the gym and also on race days, which

I find interesting. Thank you very much for joining us. Enjoy the

weekend. Thank you. You too. Have a great day. Thank you very much. Yes,

definitely a fan of F1. Great to hear from him. I am sure he will

enjoy the weekend. Meanwhile, we are watching a bit more track activity,

which is good news. Maldonado out on circuit at the moment, so his is his

teammate. You are looking at Pastor Maldonado right now. So far, touch

wood, Lotus seems to be running away. A first flaying lap in for

Pastor Maldonado. He had to have - just looking at the steward's

report, they had to replace the internal combustion engine overnight

but they also had to change the Nguk, the energy recovery system

that derives its energy from the braking system and the Mguh, the

system that operates off the tour bow. There is an awful lot of

submits that have been replaced on that car. Significantly less than

they had on Friday in Melbourne where they changed five different

parts of the energy recovery system. This team is the one that is

struggling most to actually get it all working and functioning, just a

run, never mind to have any performance. Let's just see the

replay here. Did he run a wheel or two off? Yes. But kept it out of the

gravel. No major drama there. He's only done a few laps yesterday. He

is coming doubt the double right hander and comes in a bit too wide,

gets on to the kerb on the outside. Too fast, basically. He runs wide.

Nothing serious. He is learning the circuit. With just one hour before

qualifying, the only way to really do it is he can't billion up, you

have to get out there and it is a 1905% coming back down to 99 as

opposed to building up the limits. Something loose on the right-hand

side of the top cover. It looks more like a sticker than anything else. .

I think he isn't sounding too worried but something not 100%

right. Thanks for your comments which you are sharing with us using

the hashtag BBC F1 or using the fantastic page. Stephen duff is

asking do you see Red Bull coming back strong this weekend? I think we

do see Red Bull coming back pretty well. Vettel was third quickest yet.

Fast in the middle. I think if it rained this weekend in qualifying

and/or the race that would could help Red Bull -- that could help Red

Bull. Coming back Truong - they finished second in Melbourne with

Riccardo. You have to say they did a pretty good job in Melbourne. In

terms the of here, they have definitely had better performance. A

long run performance from Vettel was good yesterday. Little drop off,

which proves that the chassis is working well. If it rains, then the

power deficit that they have from the Renault engine and also the

recovery systems will be less of an issue and I would suspect that he

would be one of the front runners. We do know Sebastian Vettel's pretty

handy in the wet. Yes. Even in the dry. That second - third fastest

time yesterday afternoon is nothing to be sniffed out. They lost out a

bit in the straight line but it looked as though the chassis is as

good as we have seen before. What you pointed out while we were

listening to Benedict, we saw Red Bull come out. As ever, they seem to

be able to run a greater rake. What that means is the rear right height

is higher relate I have to the front right height than some of the other

cars. It is something they have achieved in the past through exhaust

blowing technology. They seem to be doing it again. The car looked a -

it had a lot of rake. The front of the car is low and the rear looks

high. That produces down force. It is one way of producing down force,

not an east way to produce down force in terms of its efficiency,

but Red Bull seem to be running it that way. In the past they have been

successful in achieving it. Yeah. It looks as though they could be quick

again in that middle sector. That is the one to watch out for. To be y

asked if Lotus's problems continue, will they race in 2015 due to big

financial issues? That is a question, but not really one we are

going to be able to answer. All of us are hoping that Lotus do begin to

get this together and show what they can do. We know how impressive they

can be. Interestingly, Pastor Maldonado has done a lap and he is

for the moment fastest. That is encouraging. Chilton and Ericsson

are the other ones that have completed a lap. Let's see what his

next lap is like for Maldonado. He crosses the line - 1:44:6. A slight

improvement. Low grip out here, especially the rear. Ericsson

reporting low grip. We had heaven read ympb -- yesterday afternoon.

Would that have made a difference? It was torrential. I was to the

point to where one of the support races was red flagging and stopped.

Cars were going off in the middle of the strait. It will have washed away

the rubber that the F1 cars put down T other thing is that the

temperatures are different to what they were in terms of #450u78dty --

humidity. Lit take a bit of time to get the grip pack. Looking at cob

cobble. He -- Kobayashi. He had a bit of a lock-up. He dealt with

that. Kobayashi was the one who locked up and crashed into Felipe

Massa at the start of the Australian Grand Prix. He was focussing on the

car but the car was going significantly slower because it was

building up to start the first lap. It took him a bit by surprise. Massa

who is about the cross the line. Let's see what he does. He

immediately goes fastest. 1:42:8. Nearly two seconds fastest than

Maldonado. But at least Maldonado is out there. A couple more of your

comments. Jess says, "Thank you so much for getting me through the last

hour of a 12 hour nightshift." You are welcome! I reckon we will see

these Mercedes fly today. Yes, you could be right. I think they will be

fast. Dan added, "Just got in from the club. Perfect timing for F1. I

anticipate the weekend will be different to the last grition." You

could be right. Let's wait and see. Big oversteer moment there for the

19-year-old who was so impressive scoring points on his debut last

time out in Melbourne. He came out of the corner, trying to put all the

the power in the torque on to the ground. As we heard, the circuit

hasn't got much deep. It looks to be tricky to ride. They are fighting

it. They are fighting it. They were 11th yesterday. They are having to

work hard in the cockpit. There is lot of steering connections. Let's

watch him. Doesn't quite tuck it in in the early part. No. He's backed

off with the car up ahead of them. No point in pushing too hard. He's

done a quick lap. He has gone - what is now second fastest to Felipe

Massa. He is currently third. Maldonado is fourth. That was a

little bit of a slide through that think cane. That is something you

need to be wear of -- wary of. Kimi Raikkonen we are watching now. Let's

see if he puts together a quick lap. Everybody has done a few laps. That

is good news. Nobody stuck in the pit garage. It is interesting, one

of the - took of the talk before Melbourne was that re might -- we

might not many cars do practice three. As it turned out, everybody

did, and today everyone is going for it again. It was only Mercedes who

were in good shape and prepared well and they stopped with - I think it

was 10 minutes to go just to give themselves an opportunity to prepare

for qualifying. The reliability has been significantly better than

expected. As we said before, there's been a couple of teams that have

struggled more than the others. Oh! Lock-up for Kimi Raikkonen. That is

one of the things he is struggling with. When he brakes, as soon as he

turns the spearing -- steering wheel he tends to lock up the inside wheel

which was one of the reasons he dropped back a couple of positions

when he was in Melbourne. Quite a squeal you get from the tyres. With

the quietest engine, you get to hear the squeal. Is this something you

have come across in other forms of racing? It isn't so common that you

hear that? A problem? It Magnussen had a problem yesterday. The engine

went into is a mode. I wonder if something similar had happened.

Yesterday it turned out to be a sensor that the reading that the

rest of the ESU was -- it didn't like. Let's hope it's nothing too

serious. In coming back to the noise, yes, you use your senses in a

different way. Instead of visually, as we see Magnussen going slowly and

then with the Massa a bit disgruntdal, it wasn't more off the

racing line -- groundaled, more off the racing line - this is an an

board replay. There is enough room for Massa to go through but he

wasn't sure what Magnussen was going to do. Coming back to you, you use

your senses in a different way. Instead of vifshly looking for it,

something you will use your eyes to see where you will go and take it in

by the ear. It is something that the drivers will get used to. We first

went with the sports car from a petrol engine to a diesel which was

significantly more quiet. We had to learn for the - they were so at

tonne mouse and silent and didn't feel them we didn't know if we

changed down gear -- gown gear. We sorted it out within one race. These

hybrid cars have so much torque, even out of relatively fast corner.

We mean accelerating force on the rear tyres. Lewis had to deal with

that. We also have to remember we have got slightly harder tifrs than

last year in compound. They produce less grip. They have less drop you

have. We also have less down force. Lewis is coming up to the left,

which was flat-out last year. If we see him coming through, there is a

slight lift. They are going a bit slower through the corners. They are

significantly faster down the straits. That's right. We are seeing

that 200 mile an hour mark being breached this time. In the past, it

has been about 195. Let's see what the speed trap says -- says. 316. I

am sure we will see higher figures than that as we go through the

weekend, particularly if you get the benefit of there tow. He goes

faster, it is some way off what we saw yesterday. It may be an

indicator of how that washing of the track made the surface different.

They have lost that useful layer of rubber they put down yesterday. He

does a 1:41 in comparison to the time he did yesterday of Rosberg,

1:39. The times are beginning to get quicker. Rosberg has gone fastest of

anybody. This might be a better lap by Lewis Hamilton's teammate, the

winner from Australia. Let's see whether he can staff the top spot

away. It could be about these two, the battle for pole position. That

was a clean and tidy lap. Starting to Stretch the legs. It was close

yesterday - maybe a little bit falsely. You could see in that

longer runs they had a 3-10th as of a --ths of an advantage over the

pursuers. They had more to show if they needed to do it, which they

will probably have to today. Let's get down to the pits. Mercedes are

going well. How well? Tom Clarkson is there. Let's ask that question.

Mercedes are going well but how well? It is practice 3 and not

qualifying. Going well now is good, but we will see how it pans out in

two hours. A lot of people are saying it is a lot closer here than

it was in Melbourne two tweaks -- weeks ago. Is that how you see it?

Yes. You don't know what weight people are running on and it is all

restrictive to make a judgement. Any bags of sand in your car? No, we are

running on normal program. Let's talk about the drivers. Do you see a

change in Rosberg this weekend, first time he lead the championship?

No. I have known him since a year and there is no change to him. He is

very professional and very humble and down to earth. Very diligent the

way he approaches his job. No change. How about Lewis? 25 points

behind his teammate? He doesn't change. He is very happy. He is

about to perform in the car, motivated. In a good place. There's

been a lot of talk about fuel flow sensors. We have this watershed case

coming up. What is your take on it? I have no real comment on this. It

is an FA - you have to comply with it. Everything else, the

international Court of Appeal will decide. Have you had reliable fuel

flow sensors in your cars? Yes. Absolutely. 100 not guilty all

through testing and racing? Very reliable. Good luck! Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks. Toto just sort of brushing away the - you can

understand that for the moment. He doesn't want to get too involved.

All that talk about Daniel Riccardo who was excluded from the results of

the Australian Grand Prix after finishing second on the road but Red

Bull did appeal that decision and it was all about using a higher rate

than the 100 kilograms per hour of fuel during the race itself. I am

sure that story will run for a while. Bottas just crossed the line.

He's fourth fastest. The Mercedes are one, two. Still at the

half-time, nobody done a qualifying simulation yet. They won't happen

for a few more minutes. There is more of your comments coming in.

Don't forget you can also - let's replay here -- see a reply here of

Hamilton. Let's see what happened down on turn 4. He is coming in to

turn 4, basically went into too fast, ran wide, missed the apex.

Back on the track. No damage done. He's able to pick it up. Mark asked,

"How much of a handful will these cars be if it rains heavy like it

can?" The problem is - which most people would think is with this

extra initial torque when you torch the thereling, that extra power it

would be a handful. When they tested it, they found that it was a lot

better and more drivable than expected. It can go up and extra

gear and use the torque the Powell them through instead of using the

engine refs. The big problem is the rain is torrential and you get a

lot. The car effectively lifts up when it hits a big puddle and it is

a like a lake. Once it is aqua plaining, you have no control. You

are a passenger and hoping. In that situation, we have seen in the past

the ring in comes out, they have to stop the race or the session and

wait for it to ease off. Nico Hulkenberg just crossed the line. He

is sixth fastest behind Alonso but ahead of Vergne. Massa complete the

top 10. On board here with Jenson Button - let's listen. Very poor.

Didn't even. Very poor... Very poor rear grip means that in the low

speeds - at the high speeds when the car has the down force it seems to

be working. When they go to the soft - the medium tyre that will work a

bit better. They need to get that fixed for the race. So, therefore,

they will need to try and stabilise it. Jenson is sensitive to that as

well. That's right. David asked if we think Maldonado's start at Lotus

caused him sleepless nights. I am sure, David, that Maldonado's not

been happy with the way things have started, but they have - there is

not much he can do about it. He has to wait for the team and the engine

supplier to make it happen. Jeremy asked what is the biggest change Red

Bull and Vettel face in defending their title. I guess that comes down

to a ham -- down to - Hamilton went biggest -- quickest there. It comes

down to the fact how their relationship with remember know is

over the -- Renault is over the next few months and how quickly Renault

can pick up. They admitted it coming into the season they were behind

other suppliers - both Ferrari and Mercedes. But they reach to is --

seem to have been catching up quickly. Just aside, the man there

in the white shirt was Jack, the legendary motorcycle racer. I have

to say he was my hero when I was growing up. High speed corner, like

yesterday, at the same time the rear is a touch weaker. They are all

reporting slow speed oversteer. Circuit dependent, I think, a bit

with the rubber being washed off in yesterday. Also on the hard tyre,

and they are struggling with that. What a driver doesn't like is when

you have understeer and high speed but the rear is still unable. It

isn't as if you can throw the front in to make it grip. You kind of have

to tease it in because if you throw it in the rear will come around.

This car is moving around. Just heard that Kevin Magnussen's problem

is a repeat of what he had yesterday. That sensor problem

shutting the car - the engine down into limp home mode. There isn't a

problem, they just need to cure that sensor reset it and send him on his

way. Another pig power steefr for Raikkonen -- big power steer for

Raikkonen. He is down in 10th but he has a green sector one and two. I

expect - a bit wide there. He heard the tyre skwel as he went across

that. Now on to the line. Let's see what the lap is like. Not bad but

not change to challenge Hamilton. She 10th faster. Slight improvement

on time but he stays in the same position. A big time loss in that

corner. It is a teasing corner. It is the last one. You need to brake

deep, go in fast, because you know the lap time is also there, but the

difference between going in the right pace, two -- too slow or too

fast is finite. The only other car here is BMW car. He is heading into

that corner fastest. He probably would have been doing 120 mile thes.

He is doing just under 200 in an F1 car. You can see the car snaking

around. She something he will have to try to work with the engineers to

get sorted out. That lost him a bit of grip. For a race to try to drive

a race like that, physically around here, mentally around here, it will

very exhausting. Hamilton is fastest. There is just over half an

hour to go in the third practice session leading up towards

qualifying. Williams are hoping for good things. Bottas is fourth. What

their test and development driver for the team make of it. We are

seeing Valtteri Bottas coming behind, a bit of a ref of the

engine. How are the team feeling. How confident are they going into

qualifying today? It is different situation. The heat is the main

thing that everyone works against here. Tyre decision day-to-day is

very big -- degradation is big. As they showed in Australia, they still

have a good car. I think today they are working in those spaces to get -

to maximise and qualify. Hopefully they have not a good, strong

qualifying. I think the pace in Australia was good, it was just the

qualifying and that penalty that held the team back and the crash at

the beginning of the race against Kobayashi. This week it needs to be

cleaner from the team, presumably. Yeah. I mean, that is the thing.

They had the opportunity in Australia to score points with both

cars and they were unlucky with everything that happened there.

Hopefully they can have a normal qualifying situation here. Going

through the race, we know we have a good car, a good pace, and

persistent car, the drivers, they always are the saying it is easy to

predict the car. Hopefully we can score some good points here. Quite a

few of the guys in Mercedes car, I think Jenson Button included, said

about the degradation it was higher than expected. It is going to be

hard to look after tyres in the race. Yes. It is just - it is just -

you know, the characteristic of the circuit here. A lot of - more high

speed corners and - you know, the weather condition, you know, is a

lot hotter than we had in Australia. It's all those bit may makes the

tyre degradation go higher. Sit down to the teams and drives to look

after that. I am -- drivers to look after that. You must be chomping in

the bit. I know you are in the car and you get to GP 2 and then a tire

test after that. A busy weekend in bar ramp. -- Bahrain. It will busy

but I am looking forward to it. I have to enjoy the moment. It is a

great opportunity for myself and - you know, it is going to be busy,

but I look forward to doing a good job. We will see. Alright. Thank you

very much. We will see that next week. Thanks. We just saw the

Lotuses both putting in laps, Grosjean. There is work going on at

Mercedes. Tom, you are there? I am. They are playing around with Lewis's

seat. They took his original one out. They put a new one back in and

Lewis is coming to get back in. He was complaining he wasn't

comfortable in the car. You have to assume there is through the fast

corners. They have put a new one in. It is - that is going to support him

in a different way. Maybe Allen could yen lighten us more. You need

to be tight and secure in the car batz's not just about being held in

the seat, it's is -- it is about being in tune with the car. If you

are sort of not comfortable or alternatively moving a bit,

especially the high sped, then you don't have total control. Also the

feedback system between what the car is telling you - that is a critical

part of it. The time spent on making the seat is time very well spent.

Maldonado ran wide there. We are yet to see what McHarden can do. We saw

Magnussen had a glitch and Button hasn't done much yet. The Lotus pace

- look at them - 15th and 16th. They will be in danger if they are

lapping at that sort of pace. We are yet to put the softer tyre on.

Looking at the general order, they are in danger still of going out in

the first part of qualifying. Their straight line speed is down too,

isn't it? It is about 20 kilometres down. About 12 miles per hour down

on some of the faster runners. With two huge long straights, including

the - also the one there as well - then it is a big time loss. If you

run wide - they are struggling. They are trying to find the limits. They

have done little laps T most laps they did was partly in the beginning

of the race in Melbourne. Here this is just like a test session for

them. That is -- let's take a look at one of those lock-ups. Up to turn

1. Yeah. Just over a couple of bumps. He was changing things on

rotary switches. Is the car is harsh. You will see it here on the

front. It locks up as it comes off. It doesn't seem tot absorb bumps

well. The Williams is good at absorbing pumps. Same for Grosjean,

the same bumps and pretty much the same response from the car. Yep.

They have straight line speed issues but they don't have a fantastic

handling car now. It is very early for them because they haven't done

the running. They haven't done any performance work on the car, set-up

work, they are just trying to make it run. Riccardo, that is a good

lap. He is fourth. Interesting, when Riccardo and Vettel were Beth out at

about the same time, Riccardo went quicker than Vettel by about three

or four 10th of a second. Down there in the Williams pit, that is the car

of Valtteri Bottas. He's been pushed down to fifth by that improvement by

Riccardo. Massa is down in 11th. Now we are into that pause before we see

the softer tyre, the medium compound tyre being fitted. That is probably

what we will see in the next five minutes or so. Further down, just to

keep and update on other teams, we have got Gutierrez, 15th for Sutil,

and then chilt chilt is -- Chilton is faster than Bianchi, the two are

evenly matched. Then Kobayashi, the faster of the two, despite having

done very few laps. May raw is -- Marussa seem to have the edge. They

have. They have better performance and reliability. We thought that

Australia was going to be a Grand Prix where they scored their first

points if reliability hit more cars. For them, unfortunately it didn't.

Chilton finished another Grand Prix - I think he's finished every one he

started. With Riccardo's exclusion, he got a 13th which ultimately last

year was what Bianchi got to score. Bianchi did it at this track last

year but Chilton now had a 13th place. It could prove crucial. It

depends as we go through the season. There will be quote races where we

get more retirements. Is remarkable how quickly the teams have improved

reliable of these cars already. They are doing a tremendous job. Here you

get a fantastic view of turn 1 and then a long right hander. That is a

hauj dune hill section. I ran the circuit yesterday this is a long

qlup hill -- upchill, which is you stop the car, turn it in, get out.

Stop, turn go. Now through the fast turn 5. Then you have to keep it

nipped in, because immediately you flick it right into this right

hander. Careful not to run too far wide because immediately you are

lining up for the double right handers that follow. Keeping eye en

masse Massa. You can go to the BBC F1 website as well. Turn 4, we think

you are applying too much brake pressure. Too much brake pressure in

turn 4. Yes. Understood. Got a bit carried away. (LAUGHTER)

. Nice comment from Riccardo. That is a mark of him. He seems to be an

open, honest driver. I think he's - came in and he's of that era where

the engineers actually coach the driver through the race. Never

looking at data, trying to maximise all the time. It's not a case of

telling him off or doing anything, they are trying to help him on his

way. He realises that is performance, lap time performance.

You can go to the BBC F1 website. You can follow what's going on

during each of the sessions through the life text and Lewis Hamilton's

latest column is on the website as well. A few more of your comments at

hashtag BBC. Owen says what style of drivers do you think these cars are

favouring, is it the Hamilton aggression or Jenson? I think

Jenson's style. Before the season it would fit with this format. It is a

thinking driver's format someone that roll Oscar in, trying to just

be on the edge of the grip. You have still got the drive it hard and

fast. You saw that by not making a comparison between Lewis and Jenson

Button, but Hamilton was still able to throw the car on - we didn't get

to see what he could do in the race. The driver had to think about what

he is doing in a different way to what he did before. That was a big

old lock-up. That was Sergio Perez in the force India. That would have

put flat spots I would have thought on those flat tyres. This is the

uphill into turn 4. It is a bit bumpy. Immediately he hits the

brakes. That's when it comes - you see the dark patch just as it is

going around. That is the flat spots. It might clean itself up. It

is probably too much - a bit of vibration there. Not pleasant for

him. We have softer tyres, the white marking on the side wall. Fernando

Alonso, Nico Rosberg are both out. We begin to see just what the

qualifying is likely to be in terms of pace and certainly we are going

to keep eye on Alonso because Ferrari have been looking stranger

this weekend. Yeah, they have. Of the -- with 20 minutes to go, Alonso

has just done his first best sector. You need to have a good car balance.

As you see, he is 100th away from 2 fastest now. He gained a bit of time

in that sector, gone quicker than anyone else. You expect that on the

softer tire -- softer tyre. He wasn't quicker than some of the

other cars that used a hard tyre. You would expect him to be setting

circles around the traj. Raikkonen had gone fast e. He is also on the

softer of the two. Let's watch him in the final corner. Does he get the

braking right? He seems to. A bit of a lock-up. A lot of them are doing

that as they get towards the apex. He is using the kerb and the exit.

He goes across the line. He is second. Not quicker than Hamilton.

We reckon there is nearly a second between the hard and the medium

compound tyre. It's not enough for Alonso to displace Hamilton. It

shows you that Mercedes look to have an advantage. We have Raikkonen on

an even quicker lap at the moment. Let's just watch the end. This is

Raikkonen coming through the back. He was on form yesterday, he was the

quicker of the Ferraris. He had all these problems in Melbourne, fell he

got most of them sorted out, but he was on it. As you can see it is all

starting to pick up. You have Rosberg who is fastest in the first,

but Raikkonen is still fastest in the middle. Rosberg took a whole

four-10th out of him. We will see a quick lap coming up from Rosberg.

Let's see what Raikkonen does. Is it enough to go quickest? Yes, it is.

By just under 4-10 #ths of a second. We are still down not to the times

we saw yesterday which is interesting. The track has lost

performance. This is the lap to watch here, because this is a flying

lap by Rosberg. With quickest first and second sector, this is going to

determine what the actual pace of the circuit is. It is interesting to

note, as Rosberg comes through the second last corner nice and neat, no

big oversteers - still Kimi Raikkonen wasn't quicker than Lewis

Hamilton on a different tyre, the harder tyre in the first sectionof

the race. Over the 200 mile an hour mark, 3:21. 2 kilometres an hour.

This will be a quick lap. How fast is it going to be for Nico Rosberg

crossing the line? It is a 139:0. A full 1:1 second faster than Kimi

Raikkonen in the Ferrari. That is a big gap. Is anybody going to be able

to fill that gap or are meers meers going to have that second advantage?

Mack alreadien is the -- McHarden is team you think would be up there. No

time set by Magnussen and no real time by Button. They are last in the

order. I wonder what is going on. We know there was an enyin issue

earlier. Look how Nico Rosberg runs so much more speed - sorry, Lewis

Hamilton runs more speed. A lightly different line to Kimi Raikkonen.

Yep. The Mercedes isn't got amount of power but it has great grip.

Rosberg is fastest. We are waiting for Hamilton to do his. He is on

track now. He will - across the line to start his flying lap. We will

keep eye on him. Right now we are seeing Felipe Massa. Williams, good

things expected of Williams. Let's see whether his pace will be enough

to get somewhere up near the front of the grid. First couple of

sectors, not that quick at the moment. So, whether tyre is he --

which tyre is he on? The hard tyre. We won't expect to see a quick lap.

Williams is leaving their run until later in the session. Alonso has

beaten his first lap in the first sector. He is a bit quicker. He's

dropped off in the middle. He is struggling to be able to keep that

medium tyre. We are hearing that Kobayashi isn't going to be doing

any more running. She has been short of laps, but still managed to do a

good jab of qualifying -- job of qualifying in Melbourne. Tom, you

have updates? I wanted to add a bit about Williams. I'm not surprised to

see them still running the hard tyre. They were struggling with

degradation during yesterday's second practice. They are plain for

the session was to do a bit more long running and then come to the

qualifying just in the last 10 minutes. This is as they were

planning prior to the start of the session. There is no change to their

plan. Thanks for that. Fernando Alonso, fourth fastest with his lap

from earlier. That last lap - he was quicker on the first but slower on

the latter part. He's done a 1 minute 40. 7. Still waiting for more

to show us what they can do. Hard tyres are it is on Sutil. I think we

will -- we will see more coming out on the medium compound tyre to give

us a display of what they they think their pace will be. I don't know if

they have a problem with their car. He was just letting Massa pass. Yes.

The - he is going slowly actually. They had a stronger day yesterday,

struggling a lot in Melbourne. We are on board with Hamilton. He is

definitely on the medium compound tyre. You can see from the narcings

on the side walls. Let's keep eye on this. He's done the first sectors.

His time is about a 10th slower than Rosberg. Middle sector, this is the

twisty bit. There is oversteer. Bit of steering lock. Light understeer.

He went on the power of the torque built up. He missed the apex there.

That is a bit of time loss. He tried to carry too much speed. Yeah. He is

still quick, been very quick in that middle sector, even though he had

that. This lap time will just drift away, maybe lose a bit of a 10th

coming out. . Tyres double-check it, because there must be something

wrong . He isn't something -- isn't happy with something on the car. I

couldn't gather that. This could be the fastest time of the session so

far. It is around the mark that Rosberg has set. But will it be

quicker or slower? We will see if the car slides. That was neat and

tidy. Up towards the start/finish line. It is slower than Rosberg.

139:2. Mercedes advance -- Mercedes's advantage is confirmed.

They have about a second over the Ferraris. We are waiting to see if

anyone else can get in that - within that second. The team that I

expected to be fighting up there is actually not even out of the pits.

That's McHarden. We know that Magnussen's problem - I'm not 100%

what Button's problem is. But they need to be running now. This is

valuable time being lost. They did struggle yesterday for grip. Jenson

Button wasn't particularly happy with the performance of the car

yesterday. Maldonado crosses the line. He's down in 14th position at

the moment. He is still on the - he is on the medium tyre. That was a

medium tyre run. Ericsson is on the medium tyre as well. He's gone 17th,

144:4. That is his quickest but not much of an improvement as he would

have liked. Men the Harussias are due to come out and do their softer

tyre run in a moment. Just under 14 minutes to go, a bit of debris out

on the circuit. Hopefully that won't cause problems. One of the things we

are seeing this year - a bit less of the marbles that the tyres are

throwing off. You can see some there. That isn't marbles... That is

a cover. An air cover for something. A bit of carbon fibre. I don't think

it will cause too much problem. It is often line and they will - the

race director may leave the session running there and not worry too much

about that. Let's see if we can spot which car it came off. I wonder if

that is what the replay about. This is Marcus Ericsson. It just flipped

off the top. It's actually the coaling -- cowling for the TV

camera. This was Maldonado a moment ago. Another lock-up on that left

front. Did he make the corner? Just about. He could almost have come

into the pits but he decided to complete the lap. Yeah. They are

fighting a rear guard action to some extent here. They have done a lot

more laps than what they had done yesterday. Yeah. We will see whether

they make it through Q1. Rosberg, meanwhile, decided to come back into

the pits. He put the harder tyre back on. He's done a little run and

is doing a pit stop simulation. Done the charging lap into the pits to

get a feel for it. Coming back to Kimi Raikkonen, he is the guy that's

up there in third at the moment. There is a big difference between

the two of six-10ths of a second. In rebelty it is probable about 4-10ths

of a second. I can't remember the time that Alonso struggled with pace

which he has consistently through this whole weekend. That's right. He

did outqualify him. Not for the whole weekend. It's been pretty much

in every second that Raikkonen has looked like he's the one with the

upper hand. Interesting. We will get to hear more about that. What is

going on at McHarden? There isn't much activity in terms of getting

them out in circuit. They are running out of time. I hope to see

both cars up. Prepredz predz is on the softer tyre. Let's see where he

puts the force India. His best lap to date has been a 1:42:7. This --

his is going on to his timed lap. We will watch the rest of the lap. The

clock starts at other. Down towards turn 1. Again, building up to just

about 200 miles an hour here. It might not look it on screen but they

are going quickly. Over the bumps the car didn't look too bad. It is

OK. He keeps it nice, neat and tidy. The important part is getting out of

here to get on is the throttle. He straightens the corner off, just to

make Mount Isa his accessration, and then up the hill -- Mack Mount Isa

the acceleration. He flicks the car in. Doesn't want to one the car too

wide. If this was a track on Sergio Perezed a one of his best ever Grand

Prix drives when he chased Fernando Alonso in 2012 to finish in second

place when he was driving for Sauber. At one stage, it looked like

he could win it. That was would be of the porms that -- performances

that persuaded McLaren to sign him up. Now he is at Force India. He is

trying to pick his career up again. This is a good team for that. It is

a team that sort of nurtured quite a few drivers and he definitely needs

a confidence boost after his year at McLaren where he struggle. . Jenson

Button had the upper hand I don't think he felt comfortable. He's got

the two corners to go. A big straight. Bit of oversteer. The back

end of the car just looked like as his teammate Nico Hulkenberg said,

struggling, it is light on the rear. We know the car doesn't have the

down force of the reel true front runners -- real true front runners.

That's right. They are not the fastest of the Mercedes. For

whatever reason, the compromise - 41. 0, he does. That moves him up to

fifth. But with a big gap. If you look in terms of the performance

between him and the Mercedes, it's a two second gap in one lap. That is a

big, big margin. I think force and Iia will be hoping they can improve

on that a little bit. We have seen McHarden, stuff going on. What can

you tell us? I am at the front. There is very little action going

on. The problem with both cars, neither of them has done a timed

lap. The problem is that both cars have gone into limp home mode. It's

safety -- a safety mechanism where the there is sensor that if things

get too hot, it shuts the engines off. They are trying to rectify the

problem. I was hoping to get hold of the chief operating officer but he

is up to his armpits trying to solve the problem. They didn't do any

qualifying simulations yesterday. As they said they haven't turned a lap.

If they can't get it solved in the next eight minutes, they are going

to go into qualifying blind which is obviously far from ideal. That is

worrying. It will very hard for them to... Just watching Nico Hulkenberg.

Esteban Gutierrez just completed his run. He is a second slower than

Perez. Although Sauber made some progress they will be disappointed

to see there is a one-second gap between them and there rifles ult

have to say -- rivals. They are mid-grip teams. Looking tore getting

the edge over each other. It started well for Force India. In the latter

part of the season, the balance swung the way of Sauber and Nico

Hulkenberg, who was then at Sauber, managed to sort of pick it up. They

are well matched teams. Let's seize what this lap is. There is a little

lock-up for Nico Hulkenberg. Sort of gets it back into the apex. Little

bit piecemeal on the exit. Watch the lap time. It isn't bad - 14 oh. 5.

That puts him up there between the two Ferraris. Still a gap to the

Mercedes. But that is a good lap from Nico Hulkenberg. I think that

was a great lap from Hulkenberg. Hamilton just going around one of

the Ferraris, it looks as if he isn't going so fast. You watch it

from the I don't know burden of Hamilton coming in. The Ferrari goes

slow. That is still officially part of the circuit. Until they get to

the 60 - sorry, the speed limit line, it is still officially part of

the circuit so you can overtake. However, I think Fernando Alonso was

aware that Lewis Hamilton was behind him and moved. We are watching

Daniel Riccardo. Here's Jenny for an update about Red Bull. Sebastian

Vettel is removing that pouch of dry ice from his lap. They have been

doing a lot of set-up work on the front suspension. You can see they

are pinning on the panel, replacing the access point before they like

tot fiddle around with lot. A lot of scratching of the heads as well.

Vettel is not happy with the front end of the car at the moment. We

will see whether he gets out to do his timed run. Let's hope he does.

We have Riccardo out there. We will give us some times to look at. His

first sector, he is about a second lower -- second lower. The one

second he lost in the first sector is no difference from the middle.

That is what we saw yesterday. The Red Bull is quick in the middle. It

is more about the chassis and the heir dynamics. It is losing out

where it's horse -- it is horsepower that counts. The middle sector has

always been strong, even in previous years. They have never been the

fastest in the straights. Unlike the Mercedes team who have been the

quickest. Beth of those guys are out of the cars now. 304 kilometres per

hour and so that's quite a - quite down in comparison to the others -

front runners who were at least 12 kilometres an hour faster. It is at

140:6. He is behind Hulkenberg with that time. Remember - Riccardo was

faster in Melbourne in the dry and wet. They are going to struggle more

on the nature of this circuit pd with the extra down force. He did

have a good speed on the middle sector speed trap which is what you

were saying. There is a speed trap out of turn 9 he was fastest of

anybody on that lap, just coming out of the hairpin and accelerating up

the hill showing you the chassis is working. It is the top speed where

they have weak and not been the best. They were at 310 km/h so that

is about 195 miles per hour yesterday. They have dropped off a

bit, maybe stuck a bit more down force on. They are expecting a wet

qualifying. The temperature is 45 degrees. It remained reasonably

consistent. Humidity, which had climbed up to 63% is back down to -

well, I was going to say 61, it is now 61. Watching Max Chilton now.

Can he get himself ahead of Caterham? Bianchi qualified in

Australia, although to be fair to the Frenchman he did have technical

problems. It has been a promising start to his second season here for

Max Chilton. Going into your second year at this top level, it gives you

that little bit of extra confidence. You know what to expect each time.

You know the circuits, you have been to the tracks. A lot of them he

would never have driven before. You also know the team better if you

stay with the team. Everything is a bit more like your armchair at home

as opposed to something fresh. He's been using to that to his advantage.

He was quick in testing relative to people around him. He is definitely

getting more of a feel for F1. Sebastian Vettel is out there too,

getting ready to do his quick run. We have under four minutes of the

final session to go. Let's see what the lap time for Chilton is like.

Does it put him ahead of Ericsson? 145. 2. Didn't seem to register

there. It hasn't got the last sector. Just looking out the window,

one of the Ferrari's come past, both the Mercedes, like they did in

Melbourne, packed up the final F P3 a bit early. With 10 minutes to go,

they are in and new preparing. They must be confident with what they

have done. Looking at the lap times, you have to say that that one second

advantage, they should be. It looks as though it is all over for

McLaren. It might be already for Mercedes to stop but not McLaren

because neither drive did more than five laps. Neither set a

representative time. The only time was set was Button at two minutes

05. Kobayashi had problems. You can can see the work going on. These

power units aren't sorted yet. We are only in the second event of this

new cars. You are going to expect problems. It has afflicted McLaren

this time which didn't happen in Australia. What we have seen is that

some of the teams have gone to bed with the car in working order and

woken up and it's not for whatever reason. They will get on top of it

quickly without doubt. They are going to obviously have an intensity

at McLaren because it is before qualifying, and it is both cars. It

is something that is common in that respect. If they solve one they

should solve the other. Let's see what the time is here. Riccardo is

on his second lamb. What about Vettel? 4. 3. He goes fourth.

Quicker than Riccardo managed. Just a few laps ago. Very consistent

times. He is about 3-10ths quicker than his teammate. Vettel pops up to

fourth. He is just behind Raikkonen, but he is ahead of Hulkenberg, ahead

of Riccardo, also old Alonso. Ericsson is giving us a new waif.

Off goss one of the Lotuses. It is Grosjean. He is taking a trip

through the gravel. Hopefully he will stay off the barrier and make

his way back on to the circuit. It just shows you the car is not easy

to drive. They have had so little chance to do any real running. The

good news is at least they have done a decent number of laps. 20 laps for

Maldonado. 16 laps for Grosjean. Let's's talk a look at what

happened. He got on the kerb coming into the right hander there at turn

11. Felipe Massa also did it yesterday. You come into the

hairpin, you are turning right, and it is easy, as we see a front-on

shot, you are always turning at this point. If you get the left hand

wheels on that kerb you can get off it. Then you have to sort of abort

the mission of the corner. Yes. That is what he did. Thankfully he got

through the gravel OK and hopefully that doesn't done damage. At the

moment we have Valtteri Bottas, he is on a lap, the first sector - 253,

is not bad in that first sector. We will keep and eye on the rest of

this lap. He is into the section where the second sector just here so

there is a speed trap there. Let's see what that is. He is second down

on Mercedes. This will put him in the ball-park depending on the final

sector of the lap. When I saw "ball pack" I mean in the battle for third

rather than a front row. We know that Mercedes will be fighting for

pole position here today. Yes. It will be a reflection of what it was

in Melbourne. We knew they had an advantage. It was exactly as it was

a couple of weeks ago. The fight for the second row of the grid, from

second to eighth, is going to be pretty close. It is still within

10ths now. Bottas came through the last corner Nase and neat. You don't

necessarily have to hit the apex. You let rolling coming through. That

is put him -- has put him in ninth. That is dointing. They were hoping

for more. Massa and Bottas are evenly matched. Eighth and ninth for

the two Williams. They will be wary that McLaren didn't manage to show

what they will do. They will be is a threat using the same power.

Williams may have hoped for more. They will have to settle for eighth.

Nick,. There is no performance issue. No the rear end. Understand.

It was just lack of it. There is no performance from the defuser. In

other words, agree grow is say -- Grosjean is saying I have no rear

down force. If you look at the lap times, there are three seconds off.

If you remember, that was - it was a race-winning car last year at the

Australian Grand Prix with Kimi Raikkonen at the wheel. They have

suddenly gone from the front to the back. They are on the back foot.

Well, certainly interesting times there. We have the Toro Rosso's up

again. Interesting they are a fraction faster than Vergne, so once

again the rookie is showing well. If it does rain and if it were to rain

like yesterday, we would probably raining in qualifying session two or

three. Then you have to say it might help the likes of Red Bull, Toro

Rosso, but there is no doubt that Mercedes will be in good shape.

Hamilton put it in pole position in the wet in Australia. So I don't

think lit make a massive difference in front of the -- in terms of the

front runners but it could allow Toro Rosso to get in the front 10.

Daniel Riccardo, sixth fastest so far. Doing another solid

professional job at Red Bull. He. He's been - not a revelation,

because I think people watched him rast year realised at the end of the

season when they in the fight for this particular seat he lifted his

game and did a strong job. He's continuing on with that high level

of performance that we saw a couple of weeks ago. Mefrs Messrs pack up

armly but they have done the job well. One and two. Rosberg is a

fraction ahead of Hamilton. It looks as though the battle for pole will

be between those two because they have about a second advantage over

the next best which is Kimi Raikkonen in the the Ferrari. He's

been looking good all weekend. Vettel is up there as ever. Red Bull

again are showing that that testing form they had did get reversed. We

saw it in Australia. They are potentially going to challenge for

the second row of the dbrid. Hulkenberg is up there with Riccardo

and Alonso is seventh. He seemed to have a few problems. The two

Williams are up there in the top 10. Force India seem to be going better

this time. Then the Toro Rossos, followed by the Sauber, team

formation down there as you can see, the two Lotuses men the Marussia.

But at the bottom is Jenson Button and star of the first race, Kevin

Magnussen, are unable to show us what they could do here today. They

are going into qualifying as a result somewhat blind. They haven't

had a chance to run the medium tyre, so they will have to get a feel for

it when they get out in the first part of qualifying the. That is

going to be testing. Jenson Button had the experience and it will be

harder for Kevin Magnussen but we have seen how he's responded already

to the pressure and he seems to deal with it effectively. Button will be

disgruntled by that. He's been through many ups and downs in F1 but

he won't have enjoyed the fact that he didn't manage to get many laps

in. An inteeging session but it's McLaren that verdict -- that have

work to do. Indeed, both of them went into limp home mode. David is

alongside with me. An interesting session but Mercedes still look the

people to beat. I wonder if they have shown too much of their hand.

The drivers when they are given full engine mode and a full set of tyres

will go out and deliver have fun. You don't want to show that you have

that much speed until when it comes to qualifying. Even that is only

part of the story, it is about race day. It looks like behind Mercedes

things are closing up. Red Bull have been impressive but so have Ferrari.

They have found something for this track. It is a different track, more

of a traditional circuit than Australia. What upsets things is the

high temperatures that we are seeing here. That said, the middle sector

is telling. There Mercedes don't have any advantage at all. They are

taking a massive half a second in the first and last sector, which is

pretty much about point and score, also of efficiency. What about a

team like Mc -- McLaren who have had an am #235u89less -- facilitiless

weekend in Australia. No running in pretrack advertise at all - they

have strength and depth, bit more difficult for Kevin but Jenson

Button will know how to do that. Lotus's mechanics are having to work

so hard. Romain Grosjean says no performance from the defuser, the

rear grip - rear is terrible. There is hardly - very little running in

Australia and through prepractice so they haven't had a chance to

optimise their package. Qualifying - you can join us in just under an

hour on BBC 1. We have Mark Webber's first television feature for the

BBC. It is a fascinating insight into how driver's cope with these

conditions. Share your shoes on the Facebook page. Join Zeussy, this man

and the rest at 7 o'clock. Press 1. Bye-bye.