The Spanish Grand Prix - Practice 2 Formula 1

Hello and welcome to the Circuit de Catalunya. Practice is getting under

way. If you watched this morning, you will know Nico Rosberg only

managed nine laps and Sebastian Vettel had an electrical failure and

only managed four laps. It gets worse. He won't be taking part in

this session at all. Red Bull are changing the wiring loom, or will be

changing it on that car. They described the failure as a

catastrophic one. So a testing afternoon for Sebastian Vettel, who

has been reduced to a spectator. In the pit lane we will be updating you

with all the news. Now let's leave you with the commentary team. A

beautiful sunny day. The air temperature 23 degrees. We have 90

minutes of Formula One action ahead for the Grand Prix on Sunday. And

before that roughly half an hour in, we will see some qualifying

simulation runs as well. That will give us an indication of how quick

the relative cars are and Alan, this is an interesting time, we get

updates on the cars, we were hearing about that, who has brought what on

to the cars, a lot of development work in the wind tunnels has gone

on, but this year, because there is so much going on with the new power

units, the chance of bigger steps than normal being made by individual

teams is there and you could see some changes in the pecking order? I

think generally the most performance gapes are coming out of power units

as opposed to the aerodynamics and the chassis. Some people got it more

right than others. Some got it plain wrong and they're trying to recover.

Right now, there are a lot of changes, but it is all subtle stuff.

There is no major point where you can see a new front wing or rear

wing. Ferrari were doing a lot of back-to-backing

wing. Ferrari were doing a lot of Raikkonen. They have something that

produces more down force, but also more drag. They are trying to

balance that out. This afternoon is trying to make sure they have the

pace in the car and the long run pace, because as we saw last year,

this place is tough on tyres and you need to be able to manage that

through the course of a long afternoon on Sunday. Marcus Ericsson

goes through. Pole here last year was 1. 20 set by Nico Rosberg.

Mercedes were quick here last year. There was an indication that

Mercedes were on the march when There was an indication that

came here, but they had problems with chewing up the tyres. Lewis

Hamilton this morning on the radio saying he was struggling a bit with

tyre wear. So we will have to keep an eye on that. Kobayashi has a

lurid moment. I have never seen that. They came off the last lap and

went on to the power. We have an engine problem and we need to come

in slow. No full throttle. Engine power, there is a problem, he needs

to come in. Max Chilton in the Marussia has an issue. I have never

seen a car step United so aggressively -- step out so

aggressively and cause the driver to cut on to the grass. The Marussia is

into the pit lane and down there is Jenny Gou. In the foreground you can

make out Sebastian Vettel's car. You can can see it is almost like its

guts are spilling out on the side. That is the wiring loom that has

caused the problem. They said they have had a catastrophic electrical

fault. They had no pre-warning that would happen. Sebastian Vettel

switched the car off and then the car had to be pushed wack. -- back.

The wiring loom is the first thing that gets laid down when they start

building it up. So when they take it apart, it is the last thing they get

to. It will take all of the session to repair that. Sebastian Vettel

won't go out. He has been reduced to a spectator and it does sound like

he may go out on to the circuit and have a look at the other cars and

soak up some detail. That is an opportunity a driver rarely gets. He

will be out of the session. Nico Rosberg also had problems today. He

only managed nine laps. A problem with his cooling system. We will

look into the Mercedes garage in a moment. Jenson Button is now on

circuit in the McLaren. Daniel Ricciardo was third quickest this

morning, with Fernando Alonso fourth and Nico Rosberg fifth and Kimi

Raikkonen sixth. I was speaking to one of photographers who has an eye

for a car and a driver and he was saying that Raikkonen was seriously

overdriving the Ferrari and it was a real handful and he was pushing to

try and squeeze the lap time out of it. But it looked an

try and squeeze the lap time out of experience. Yes around here the

try and squeeze the lap time out of isn't nicely balanced and if you

don't have a isn't nicely balanced and if you

fast entries. If you go in too much on the brakes the rear can be less

stable. You have got to have a nice feel for it and a rhythm with this

track F you don't, it can be a pretty exciting experience and not

necessarily the best one. Jenson Button had the rhythm with it this

morning, I am not sure if this afternoon it will herald the pace he

had this morning. Button crosses the start/finish line at 195mph he heads

to turn one. Esteban Gutierrez also having a slide. These hard tyres

taking some time to come up to temperature. That is the second time

we have seen, we had Kobayashi having a big rear end slide. And

Pastor Maldonado into that long turn at three. He too is having the same

problem. Remember, last year there was a heck of a lot more down force

on the cars and that corner in qualifying was trim.

on the cars and that corner in in the race. They're getting to the

mid point of the corner where it starts to rise and the wind affects

the car and they're all getting an oversteer moment and having to steer

out of it and use the run off area to correct it. It will cause some

dramas this afternoon. I think we will see a lot or of oversphere and

dramas this afternoon. I think we slidy moments. It has everything

this course. It is got a big long straight as well. So it will throw

up a straight as well. So it will throw

the driver to get the best balance. Eight and a half minutes.

Magnussen has set the fastest time, but that has been beaten

Magnussen has set the fastest time, Button. -- beaten by Jenson Button.

Only 11 cars so far have gone out and set a time. No sign of Mercedes

cars yet. Sebastian Vettel will not take any part in this free practice

session after having a problem with if wiring loom on the replacement

chassis that he is using here. It is not a brand-new chassis for him. I

mentioned that there was a hair-raising moment by their

test-driver. He is talking to Tom. He had a brake failure at 200mph.

You're looking relaxed now. How was that moment? It was quite tough. If

you come 320 clicks towards turn one and you brake and nothing happens,

it was a bit scary. But I saved the car and in the end nothing happened.

Of course I had some flat spots for the last run and it was not ideal. I

think this morning the first run, the second one, we had some problem

with the brakes. It is tough on the brakes. I was looking here and there

and then suddenly the brake failure. Talk us to about the performance of

the car. It is a big weekend for Sauber. You have reduce #2d weight

-- reduced the weight of the car. Does it feel any different to when

you drove it in China? It feels in some parts good. It was the hard

compound tyre, which I never drove on, so it is hard to compare. The

issue I had, it is hard to see where the car is and what the problem is

and where the good points are. The last one I did. Even with the other

tyres, it was good and the car felt competitive. They still have to tune

it, because everything is stim new. -- still new. Lap times were not

very fast, are we going to see the track ramping up this afternoon?

Yes, for sure, the hard tyre here is very hard. Some people can make it

work. Of course this afternoon we will see the option. The medium tyre

and I guess the times will be quicker during the day. It is

getting hotter. There will be more rubber on track. Hopefully you can

start challenging, thanks for you time. He was of course the test and

development driver for Sauber. Daniel Ricciardo is on a quick line.

-- quick lap. The Red Bull driver on great form after some strong races

where, the team has had to ask him to, has had to ask his team mate to

move out of the way to let Daniel Ricciardo through and it is partly

in response to that that Red Bull have brought a different chassis for

Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton goes quickest. Then it is Daniel

Ricciardo. Tom was asking about the track

improvement and Toto Wolf talked about track evolution. Talk to us

about how that feels from a driver's point of view. This morning when the

cars came out into the pit lane, there was dust every where. It was

like being in the desert. It has been windy and it is quite sandy

around and about. That lies on the track and then sort of the circuit

first has to get cleaned and then it has to put the Pirelli rubber on to

the tarmac and then you have rubber on rubber, instead of at the moment

rubber against tarmac. Once you get that rubber on rubber, the car hooks

up, the tyres feel better, they last longer and you can attack the corner

better and get on the power earlier. If you get off it, like they do in

turn three, if they get off that line, you lose a heck of lot of grip

and slide wide. As a driver you prefer it when the track rubbers in

and it will get quicker. Rosberg is out on circuit and touring around

slowly. He is on a slow lap. He has been getting that car back in after

problems with the energy recovery system. You see the orange side tyre

on the tyre of Bottas. They're using the harder compound, because when

the circuit is green, you will burn up that softer one and with the

softer tyre you can put on later. But also later on in the race when

it is rubbered up. Bottas has another big side waz moment -- side

it is rubbered up. Bottas has ways moment. He is only going 55mph.

But it is enough to lift the car off the ground. Remember, last year we

had medium and hard compound Pirelli tyres. But they were the high

degradation variety and they endeded up getting changed after the dramas

after Silverstone. This time last year, Fernando Alonso won with

after Silverstone. This time last stops. Not expecting to see that on

Sunday. Again the back end of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes is stepping out.

This car is quite a handful to drive. Even the best car in the

field looks difficult at the rear end. He is trying to put a lot of

power down. The tyre's taking a lot of load. Now it is pure

acceleration, but the tyre is building that energy and at one

point it will give up and say no more. You get these oversteers is.

The thing from the driver's point of view he has to feel that and mod

late it before it happens. Once you're oversteering, you have lost

performance before you get to that point. It is being at 99% before you

start oversteering. Hamilton improves, the lap times coming down

all the time, everyone running the harder of the two tyre compounds.

Ricciardo second, Button third. Rosberg pops into second place,

Mercedes one and two, Ricciardo into third place. What kind of feedback

are you getting from drivers in the paddock about these cars? They have

had a chance to test them, race them four times, they are getting used to

them now. What are they saying to you? If you go to one end of the

grid or the other, you get completely different feedback. If

you are in a car at the front, you are pretty accenting of where it is.

At the back, it is a struggle, like anything else. Right now, they have

got used to the torque, they are not speaking about that as much as at

the beginning of the season - they are starting to understand systems,

the beginning of the season - they drives the driver's feel.

the beginning of the season - they morning during FB one, quite unusual

for him, he tends to turn up on Saturdays, but he is here to help,

as he put it, Matteo Mattiacci, who was running Ferrari in North

America, with record sales, was running Ferrari in North

good as a manager within that retail side of the road car business. But

he doesn't know anything at all about Formula One, so he is here to

give them a helping hand. We watch Ricciardo made his way around the

middle part Ricciardo made his way around the

always see lots of work on the steering wheel. That is where the

wind can catch you out, several points around the circuit, that is

one of them, and now he's heading towards another at the top where a

sudden gust can unsettle these cars. towards another at the top where a

It certainly can, and what is quite impressive, watching Ricciardo, as

soon as he gets to the middle of the corner and goes on the power, the

steering straightens, he does not sit into long understeer, which is

predominant around this circuit. They have got a pretty sharp front

end on that particular car. But that could be the detriment of the rear,

they have to be careful to keep that balance. Right now, they seem to

have a pretty good chassis. We have got Valtteri Bottas down in 13th

place for Williams. His team-mate, Felipe Massa, has just gone out on

the circuit. Tom Clarkson has some Williams news. I am in front of

Valtteri Bottas' car, shout if he is about to come out! If he is going to

run me down .Mac because you will not hear it! Good news for Williams

fans, they are confident they can challenge for the podium. The reason

for that is that they have come with some aerodynamic tweaks that are

really making a difference. They found that during

really making a difference. They session. The most noticeable, if you

can look at the sidepods, they are much tighter. They

can look at the sidepods, they are side of the sidepods. At the last

race, there was so much room. Now they have found a way of cooling the

engine which allows them to sculpt the sidepods to the engine much

better, giving them better performance. There is also a tweak

to the front wing and the floor, so they are seeing much better

performance. Valtteri Bottas is one of only four drivers to have

finished get the points in every race, every chance he will do it

again this weekend. Tell us why you are wearing that string vest with

all the writing on it, why have you got to wear that? I think it is very

fetching! If I don't, I get thrown out of the pit lane, it is the same

with Jenny. New regulations that came in after the Nuerburgrings,

when Mark Webber's rear tyre hit one of the FOM cameramen. As a result,

they have now limited the numbers that are allowed in the pit lane. I

am only allowed in with this, this is gold dust! Hamilton fastest,

Rosberg second, 1:27.61 is the benchmark time as we approach 20

minutes in FP2. Ricciardo was third, Alonso, Raikkonen, Button,

Magnussen. You can get in touch with us using the hashtag #bbcf1 or leave

a message on the BBC Sport Facebook page. Richard asks, what a Vettel

doesn't set a time in qualifying? Will he be able to race on Sunday?

Basically, the chances are that are pretty small in reality. He will be

out at some point, but it is part of the regulation that if you are not

able to set a representative time in qualifying, then you go to the

stewards, and they deem whether you have been able to do that before. In

this situation, as Richard suggested, that would not be the

case. The other side of it, you would suggest that Sebastian Vettel

should be on the grid and start from the back. That was put in place, the

stewards have a judgment for safety, someone who was not up to speed, and

it has been looked at in the past. There have been teams and drivers

who have not made it June to the 107% rule, but it is extremely

unlikely. -- due to. Extends to for rookie drivers in backmarker cars.

-- it tends. We are talking about a four-time world champion. Which

corners? Slightly earlier apex in turn one for speed in turn two, the

biggest difference is turn two. Rosberg asking what corners he needs

to work on. Obviously getting a fairly clear picture, three tenths

of a second down on team-mate Lewis Hamilton at the moment. More

questions that you have sent us to hashtag #bbcf1, downwards, you think

the lower teams will close the gap in this Grand Prix? -- Daniil Woods.

Sorry, I did not hear you. But everyone is moving, even the teams

at the front are all moving. Mercedes have 2.5 seconds, and they

have brought upgrades. They have got a lot of time in a pocket at this

particular circuit, it does to the Ferrari and the Red Bull

characteristics, better than China or Bahrain, clearly. But those

tracks, they had plenty of time in their pockets, they were cruising.

But they are even moving forward. I would not say there will be a big

shift in the order. The area I am interested in is the middle of the

grid, the fight between McLaren, Jenson Button there, whether they

can move forward. And also probably the standout team for me so far this

season, apart from Mercedes and their speed, is Force India, and

whether they will be able to maintain their fantastic start to

the year. Williams is another one that we have already heard about,

they have brought aero upgrades, a new wing... We still have an engine

problem, no full throttle, you need to come in now. Max Chilton still

having an engine problem, called back into the pits by his team. He

has not managed to complete a lap so far in almost 25 minutes of running,

so a frustrating time for Max Chilton. I guess he will be pleased

at the reliability is used affecting him in practice sessions, because he

is on an amazing run of race results. He has finished 23

consecutive Grands Prix, every race he has entered. And that is quite

something! Two 13th places already, some progress there, obviously

finishing races is not his only goal, he wants to finish

competitively, but to get a result you must finish. The other thing

that is very important is that you must finish. The other thing

building up milage in the car. If you are very fast but you go off

after ten laps, you don't build up that mental knowledge of the car and

Grand Prix racing and all of the circuits, but he has got that in

abundance. That is something that will help him through the second

part of this particular season. But now on board with Pastor Maldonado,

the first of the runners, as he comes into the last section of the

track, to go on to the medium compound tyre. Ericsson is doing the

same thing further back down the grid. Maldonado will give us an

indication, 1:27.25 on the harder compound. They do tend to take some

fuel out when they go for the qualifications in relation, and I

think Maldonado is on an out-lap, buying himself some space to the car

in front. He is fourth, in fact, he has already made that jump. Eight

tenths of a second off Hamilton, but he is using the harder compound, as

is Rosberg and Ricciardo in front. Max, we will be in now, in now. Max

Chilton's problems continue. We will get a sense of how much of a gain

the medium tyre gives you over the harder tyre as the drivers go

through their qualifying stimulations runs. Not too many cars

on circuit at the moment, we are in that changeover period between the

initial runs on the harder tyre and going out for quali simulator is.

Typically, they will go out and do a long run on that set of medium size

they used for the simulation, and that will replicate the opening part

of the Grand Prix. -- medium tyres. Then often they will move one of the

drivers onto the harder tyre at the same time to compare performance. I

am standing in front of Jenson Button's car, and until about five

seconds ago I was looking at a wall of mechanics, they were trying to

stop us from watching what they were doing. They were altering the amount

of ballast that Jenson is carrying in his front wing. If you look

underneath the droopy nose bit of the car, there are several little

compartments about the size of a 50 BP is which contain ballast. -- 50p

piece. It is very difficult to see what they were doing, but that is

why Jenson Button is out of the car. They have just finished this, so we

can expect to see him back on track quite shortly. A quick update about

this morning, Jenson was second fastest, team-mate Kevin Magnussen

was seventh, and my spies tell me they were not running light, which

suggests it might have been a representative

suggests it might have been a particular. OK, thank you very much

for that, approaching the half hour mark in this 90 minute FP2 session.

Hamilton from Rosberg from Ricciardo, I am delighted to say

that Red Bull team principal Christian Horner joins us now, as he

did earlier this morning, Sebastian Vettel taking no part in this

session, very frustrating, I imagine. Yeah, no, very frustrating

for Seb and the team, a lost opportunity to gather some more

data, but better to get the problem or belief it and take the time to

get to the root cause and fully address, rather than taking risks

tomorrow. An obvious question, can you rule out the chassis change in

any way being related to the wiring problems? Yeah, no, absolutely. The

wiring comes in and out all the time, it is nothing specific to a

chassis change. It is, unfortunately, an issue that has

happened that would have happened with either car. So what have you

managed to derive from Daniel Ricciardo? He has done quite a bit

of running this morning and now, currently in third place, what are

you learning? Obviously, we are working through a programme,

focusing on the different tyre compounds, and we have got a few

upgrades here to have a look at and analyse the data from. Obviously we

want to tune the car into the circuit, so far it looks reasonably

respectable. It is only you, me, Allan McNish and our closest friends

on BBC Two, perhaps you would like to share what the upgrades are!

Probably not! The usual stuff, to share what the upgrades are!

bits of aero, bodywork, to share what the upgrades are!

mechanical bits, the most important thing is we are trying to make

progress with the power unit. Some of the software upgrades that are

being introduced. of the software upgrades that are

talking about the software and things for the integration with the

engine and the hybrid system, where are you relative to 100% efficiency

from the hybrids? I think we have still got a little way to go,

because it is still quite crude. The integration of the three elements,

because it is still quite crude. The the combustion engine, the Turbo and

then the energy recovery system. It is getting all those elements in

tune together, not just under power but under braking, when it is

harvesting, without an settling the balance of the car. That

harvesting, without an settling the doing quite a lot of work. I

harvesting, without an settling the not had a chance to really analyse

what not had a chance to really analyse

Ricciardo is doing, but Jean-Eric Vergne is in the top six, in terms

of maximum Vergne is in the top six, in terms

top three, then Jean-Eric Vergne, obviously using the same Renault

power unit. Do we take it obviously using the same Renault

are running quite obviously using the same Renault

downforce than your car? Yeah, Toro Rosso tends to do that quite a bit,

they did the same in China and obviously the same here.

they did the same in China and at the size of their rear wing

compared to the Mercedes powered cars, it is quite a bit skinnier,

and with our car, it is not the quickest way to run it, because what

you gain on the straight you are more than compromising in the

corners. So it is a different philosophy that they are adapting.

Any indication of where you stand relative to Ferrari? I am not

worried so much about Ferrari, but we are Fife tenth off Mercedes at

the moment. Thank you, Christian. Cyst yarn horner there -- Christian

Horner there. 22 cars have set a time. Sebastian

Vettel will not be going out in this session. He is down in the garage

and Max Chilton has been out and in several times and has been having

problems with the Ferrari engine in that Marussia. Bianchi has moved on

to the medium compound tyre. A number of drivers are doing that at

this point. We have not seen them yet on the Mercedes of Lewis

Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. But Daniel Ricciardo is on the medium

tyre and Pastor Maldonado. While we are watching Bianchi, Jenny is in

the Marussia garage. Jules is out, but Max Chilton is in the garage and

he is watching his team mate go around the track. There is a problem

with the power unit. Poor Max, they're not sure what is wrong with

this Ferrari unit. But they're having a good look at to try and get

Max out as soon as he can. It is frustrating to sit out when they're

trying to get information. And they have a large up date package with a

new nose and they have added down force points. But it is not helping

Max Chilton now. It won't help Jules Bianchi, an accuse is Cesc -- an

access hatch seems to be coming off. That allows the mechanics to get

down into the car. The rear, there is two fasteners and the rear one

had come off. The faster he went, the more it came off. That is

against logic. He will never see it. It won't affect him. He won't know

until he comes into the pits. Daniel Ricciardo coming through, what h

this lap been like. This should take him to the top of the time sheets.

It does indeed. He goes ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who

have gettest yet to do -- who have yet to do their medium tyre run. The

margin is half a second using the medium tyre compared to the harder

tyres on the Mercedes. A lock up there for Pastor Maldonado down into

that tricky turn 10 at the end of the back straight. They're braking

from 190mph down to just 55mph. It is the big brake area, you want to

get on it and there is some ripples in the surface. The one thing the

Lotus has not been fantastic at is breaking over bumpy surfaces. He

locked up and the car locked up and slid wide. Here we have a picture of

the new lady in form one. E-- Formula One. She drove the Sauber

last week and she is going to be out again by te end of June. She has a

test programme with the two-year-old Sauber over the year. That is

potential preparation for Formula One in the future. Suzy Wolf the

other female driver is running here on Wednesday with the Williams. It

is her first chance to get behind the wheel of the 2014 car. She will

be having a day's running on Wednesday. As a prelude to her free

practice one appearances at Silverstone and Germany. Coming up

in July. That will be a real talking point. She is going to keep her head

down next week and just learn the car and the 2014 ways with this

hybrid turbo engines. But it will be one heck of a talking point when she

goes out on Friday. I have known her for a long time and she will be

thinking about it as a driver and will want to do the best job

possible. She has been doing a heck of lock in the simulator, preparing.

She has been at all the Grand Prixs absorbing it. So when she straps

herself in next week, she is ready for what will come. Raikkonen has

also moved op on to the medium tyre. He is one second slower than

Hamilton. I asked Christian Horner how he feels he is doing, well he

only wanted to think about how far he was behind the Mercedes cars.

Even then you get the sense that Mercedes have more in their pocket.

The battle between Ross erg and Hamilton is bringing out the best in

both of them. Qualifying three is when you see what the Mercedes can

do. Its not essential to be on pole any more in Barcelona. It used to

be. We started coming here in 1991. Since the adjustable rear wings were

introduced, we have had two winners who have not been on pole out of

three races. I would still prefer to be on pole position. It is the best

place to start a Grand Prix. be on pole position. It is the best

man, sorry his team mate, Fernando Alonso, wasn't on the front row last

year, but he did dominate. The car is more disconnected and quite a bit

initially and then I just loose the rear. A lot

initially and then I just loose the Daniel Ricciardo. That means the

front and rear are not working together. He

front and rear are not working at the front and something else on

the rear. That is at the rear. So it doesn't turn as he wants. That makes

it inconsistent. We talked about the wind in this circuit

it inconsistent. We talked about the characteristics with the long

corners and the track attempt that is 45 degrees. You need to have a

consistent car. With this type of characteristic, the corner is very

port for your lap -- important for your lap time. Things at the front

and rear are connected suspension systems are supposed to iron out.

They're talking of getting rid of those, along with other discussion

like going to active suspension to introduce low-profile tyres. I can't

see how that is a cost effective measure. Raikkonen is making his way

around. He is not looking as Leary as he was this morning but there is

still a bit of work going on. Some of her corner exits in the McLaren

back in the day, they were mighty coming out of that turn. He is third

fastest. But Daniel Ricciardo is fastest and Hamilton has set the new

fastest first sector. Rosberg fastest and Hamilton has set the new

done a fast middle secondest sector, sorry first sector. He is on target

to go sorry first sector. He is on target

These are the decisive qualifying simulation runs. Rosberg coming to

the end of the lap. He turns in at 90mph and picks up the throttle and

a job on it and down into the 55mph section. He is on the rumble strip

outside turn 16. Up to 200mph. He is five seconds slower than last year's

poll time. Hamilton has had the upper hand in the last three,

poll time. Hamilton has had the he starp his authority again on his

team mate? Yes he does. Hamilton is in that Championship

mode mentality. We have got Jenson Button, where is he now? He is down

in ninth place. Kevin Magnussen is in tenth. So a good showing from

McLaren this morning. Burr Tom is there now. What is going on. They're

firing up there now. What is going on. They're

warmers are coming out and there now. What is going on. They're

Button is going out on the medium tyre. They have changed the balance

in the front wing and off he goes. In the last five minutes, I have

been discussing with some of the guys here in the team about the

changes they have made to the car and they have made quite a few

changes they have made to the car upgrateds -- upgrades for the race

with a new diffuser and tweaks to the wing. Was

with a new diffuser and tweaks to something to get excited about?

Well, they seemed pretty relaxed here. It begs the question, what do

you need from your car, if they're getting more rear grip, from the

diffuser, how will that help the car and if he has changed the ballast?

If you take it as a package. It is not just one thing that you can

throw on and not have it interact with everything else. The diffuser

makes the aerodynamics work better and will suck the car down on to the

circuit and give the driver confidence coming into the corner.

Daniel Ricciardo said about the inconsistency of car. It should put

more push into the front. If you put the weight to the front that,

counter acts that. So it is a case of building the package, not just

necessarily throw one part in. It is constant evolution and something

that will adapt. The teams know in principle, but in theory is what you

want. They have tested before. And you have to see whether it is right

for these current cars and tyres. That is a shot of Fernando Alonso,

the local hero, last year's Grand Prix winner. A lot of people hoping

he can get a challenge for the victory here. But yesterday in the

press conference the drivers' press conference, he was pouring doled

water on -- cold water after that last result in Shanghai. You can see

the work going on with the steering wheel. The back and the front not

always going where he wants to. Just seeing it coming through the long

uphill right hander as he accelerating, he is fighting into an

oversteer. The car looks as if it does not have the grip. The lap time

suggests the car is sliding too much. He needs to hook an edge on

the tyre and then go around. Lewis Hamilton from Rosberg from Daniel

Ricciardo from Fernando Alonso. The question I asked Christian Horner,

where are you relative to Ferrari, quite a way ahead is the answer.

Sebastian Vettel taking no part in this free practice two session after

a wiring loom failure after just four laps of this morning's free

practice. So four laps all that Sebastian Vettel has done so far

this weekend. He will go into free practice three tomorrow and

qualifying fairly blind in cam Parson to everyone -- comparison to

everyone else. He has not turned a wheel yet in 2014, all the

pretesting did not happen here, most happened in Bahrain, with a test

elsewhere. Button is into sixth place. We were hear b about the

updates on that McLaren, but not putting them ahead at this point of

the Ferraris. But he is ahead of Felipe Massa. Here is Bottas in

11th. Nico Hulkenberg is on the medium

compound tyre. He is the other driver that you would expect to see

further up to the front in the Mercedes Force India. Yes on

previous form, but this circuit is quite different. It is something

that has not historically suited the Force Indias as much as China or

Bahrain. That is where that middle grid is interesting, where the

McLarens will end up and the Force Indias and whether Sauber with their

new lighter chassis and 15 kilograms around here is a difference and to

see whether that can leapfrog them up. The Lotus is worth keeping an

eye on, they have a lot of updates on that car. There is 11th. He has

been quicker in qualifying. Verne has had the lion's share of the

reliability problems. I was speaking to them yesterday as they were

practicing their pit stops, and asked if he could surprise us.

practicing their pit stops, and smiled and said the kid's good! They

can see someone that is fresh for the future and they can develop them

in the way they want. He doesn't come with any baggage. He has done a

good and consistent job over the first four Grand Prix of the year.

He has had three point-scoring finishing and the one he didn't

score, he finished 11th. That is one position outside the points. I like

the look of him, watching him in GP3 last year...

I want to apologise, we are connecting now, we will go again.

Apparently after charging the battery in the garage, we were too

quick to go. A procedure issue. It is good that Romain Grosjean as

that, because I was about to ask the same thing! They have to wait a

little bit of time, and plugging the battery, and then they are allowed

to go. -- unplugging. Frustrating and annoying. Yes, indeed, and that

is the emotion that Sebastian Vettel is undergoing at the moment, only

four laps on the board in practice, none of them this afternoon. He is

sitting it out after a wiring loom problem. We are past the halfway

stage of this session, starting to get into the long runs now. We have

had qualifying simulator and from most people, certainly the people

who will be fighting for pole position. -- qualifying

simulations. We will analyse their race preparation as it goes through,

get an idea of who is looking good in terms of race conditions, but in

terms of outright raw pace of a single lap, the Mercedes still have

their noses in front. Hamilton is one second faster than the next

non-Mercedes car. Daniel Ricciardo, Hamilton has four tense over his

team-mate as well. -- ball attempts. -- four tenths. That is the real

battle, because on paper this is a Rosberg type of circuit, and the

thing that Lewis Hamilton has been thinking about is how to improve

himself not thinking about is how to improve

already good at, but the tracks where his

already good at, but the tracks advantage. All of these

psychological battles, it is one of the things that we are licking our

lips about this year. We will watch lips about this year. We will watch

this Grosjean lap, but why is Barcelona more of a Rosberg circuit?

this Grosjean lap, but why is What are the characteristics of this

place and Bahrain compares to China, which does not suit him

well? But let's focus on Romain Grosjean and give you an idea about

this circuit, into the long right-hander at turn three, about

eight seconds at 4 G. They are not quite as fast in this corner as they

were in the past, down towards turn four, down-to-earth turn five, the

left-hander downhill. -- down towards. You plunge down

significantly, trying to get the car straight, then flick left and right

up the hill, using all the kerb. There is a big bag get kerb on the

inside, you cannot hit that now. Onto the Astroturf with a bit of

oversteer on the exit. DRS closes, he runs a bit wide, just overshoots

the corner, dust is thrown up anti-aborts the lap. A driver

mistake? Yes, he was an attack mode, we know Romain Grosjean has an

attack mode. A little frustration there.

I wonder if that is engine braking problems continuing on another lap.

Discussion problems continuing on another lap.

engineering team there. Certainly something was not right in the

retardation of that car something was not right in the

the left-hander at turn ten. Coming out of nine, he has a DRS wing

open. Something very unusual about the way

the car got into the corner, we wondered whether it was a driver

error or some sort of problem on the engine. They recharge the battery

under braking, of course, in corners like that. It is a heavy braking

area, we have seen other people go wide in this session. We will wait

and see. Let's drill down into that Rosberg-Hamilton thing, Bahrain,

always a great Rosberg circuit, Barcelona, he was on pole last

year, terrific circuit for him. What is it about this

year, terrific circuit for him. What Hamilton having the edge over him in

places like China? I think this particular circuit is one

places like China? I think this have got to really have a lot of

finesse, a lot of feel. Nico Rosberg has got very minimal input on

steering wheel. Lewis Hamilton, just by the nature of the make-up of the

driver, throws it into turns, and that suits the track in China. This

one, it is all about the tiny little movements all the way through from

the start to the end of the corners, long corners, and that

affects the tyre, the energy that goes into the tyre, the heat in the

tyre, and it is a hard circuit for tyres anyway. If you drive it on the

edge, you can push it over its limits and then you lose grip and go

slower. That is what happened to Lewis Hamilton last year, when he

started on the front row and dropped like a stone by

started on the front row and dropped thought it had a technical problem,

but his tyres had gone. They are much more durable now, and he has

thought about the process of how he drives, and I don't expect the same

as we had last year, but on paper it is a circuit that Nico Rosberg has

always gone well at, Lewis Hamilton a little bit less so. I find this

stuff fascinating, because another comparison is Vettel, this has never

been a fantastic Vettel circuit. He has won here but never been on pole,

a bit of a bogey track for him. Mark Webber was always faster, or this is

one of the circuit where he would tend to challenge him. You have

always got circuits that you like. You have got characteristics in a

car that you like and you get on with, or in a particular type of

tyre philosophy, and in the track. And you get to a track that you

like, and you smile as soon as you drive through the gate, and you feel

you understand it, you know where the important parts are to get the

time out of it, you know when not to compromise. On the other side, there

are circuits where you are scratching your head. You might only

be a fraction of, but that is the difference between winning and

losing. -- a fraction of a second off. If there is a circuit where you

win, there is a bit of levity. What are the Allan McNish circuits? I

like big circuits, even though I have not had a lot of success here,

like big circuits, even though I I really enjoyed this circuit. You

have to have the balance between aggression and finesse in the long

runs. In qualifying, it was about chucking it into the corners and

sorting it out, but in long runs you have to think about it.

sorting it out, but in long runs you circuits for you? All the rest?! Not

all the rest! My bogey circuit was China, that was one. It's just never

clicked with me there. China, that was one. It's just never

performances, but it was not one that I came away thinking, yeah,

that was fantastic. Apart from Australia, which is a complete

one-off as far as Formula One is concerned, a smooth surfaced streets

track around a park in the centre of Melbourne, so very different from

anything else in Formula One, but Malaysia, Bahrain and China, those

other three races we have been to, all modern circuits designed by

Formula One architect Hermann Tilke. He always features long straights,

and in China it is over one kilometre long. That is a difference

with Barcelona, there is no long straight. There is the pit straight,

but in comparison to the modern Hermann Tilke circuits, it is short,

relatively speaking. A bit of bodywork on the middle of the

circuit, the marshals will want to clear that way. Race director

Charlie Whiting will want that moved, it is not in a good place,

right in the middle of the circuit. A replay of Max Chilton coming up

the hill, cresting at the corner, turn nine, and as we saw with Romain

Grosjean, getting a little bit wide. That is actually the component

coming off the car, a big chicane, and they have got big bouncing

kerbs on both sides, and that has clicked off, probably caught the

edge of a kerb. Max Chilton's mum and dad, his father is a big wheel

in the insurance business, they very wealthy man indeed. He comes with

his wife, who supports their Sir Max wealthy man indeed. He comes with

actually. -- who supports their son Max. 35 minutes remaining on the

clock, we are in the long run phase, although robbery only half of the

cars in the field are out on circuit at the moment. -- probably. Keep

your comments coming in using the hashtag #bbcf1. From Matt Webster,

can the teams change or try different body panels during

practice? Yes, certainly, no problem with that. This is not an official

session. It is timed, but not meaningfully like qualifying. You

can try whatever you want, if you want to change front wings, as we

saw Ferrari doing, different front wings between the two cars, you can

do that, perfectly fine. It is like a test session, essentially, and not

only can they change body panels, they can use infrared cameras to

measure temperatures and look at air flow. You can attach all sorts of

measurement devices to your car during Friday free practice which

you are not allowed to do from Saturday morning onwards, and you

see quite a lot of those when you see new upgrades. If you look at the

camera mounts on Rosberg's car, you will see that they are not the same

size, one is a lot bigger than the other. That is not a standard TV

camera, it is one that is measuring airflow, I think, coming out of the

exhaust at the back and looking at the flow at the back of the engine

cowl. Yes, but the car does still have to configure to regulations.

You have to run within the parameters of that. As we see the

marshal not 100% sure, he has not got the conviction of Usain Bolt to

come across and grab that piece of bodywork. Certainly a job that we

should be very thankful that they do, but I am not sure I would enjoy

that myself. They are the unsung heroes of motorsport, not just

Formula One, but motorsport all over the world. Most of those people of

volunteers, and you couldn't put a race one without something like 5000

volunteers doing everything from running out on track to create

broken -- to collect broken bodywork, to volunteering in medical

facilities and other jobs. There is an enormous voluntary sector in

motorsport generally, without which the whole thing simply would not

happen. It is also quite a good way of getting close to the sport if you

are an enthusiasts and want to get closer than buying a ticket and

sitting in the grandstand. Training up as a marshal is one way. You are

a big part of the sport, not just sitting on the sideline, actively

making it happen, and there are a lot of British marshals, and they

are some of the best in the world. They go around to other big events,

like a big ensemble arriving and setting up the structure for the

rest of the groups. It goes further than that, because underneath the

RAC MSA they actually go out to emerging motorsport nations and

train up their marshals and clerks of the course so that they can raise

standards in countries that have never even had a racetrack before.

That is a big part of what they do, that is part of what the McLaren

fine in 2007 was spent on, training motorsport around the world. Daniel

Ricciardo, down the straight, we heard a little

of the car skipping the ground, that is the ride height downed two

absolutely zero is the ride height downed two

the ride height downed to absolutely zero at that point. You can see on

the front suspension of his car that the car is moving up and down a bit,

but the travel of the suspension is not great, and some of the

suspension is actually in the flexing of the tyre sidewall, isn't

it? If the car is bottoming out, it is because of the aerodynamic load

pushing it down. It certainly is, but most of the deflection is in the

tyre, and the difficulty is controlling that. You can doubt it

quite easily, but that is an damp spring, the tyre, and that is one of

the things they have to do, make sure the car works in conjunction

with the tyre. Daniel Ricciardo now coming through the last couple of

corners, the new chicane that was introduced a few years ago, they

lost a bit of the feel of the track for me. It used to be two flat-out

right-handers. This is not going to be one of his quick collapse, it is

the start of his long run. -- his quick laps. He has just done a

1:31.9, so no real quick laps. He has just done a

tyre over three laps. You can get in touch

tyre over three laps. You can get in will win a race in the first half of

the season? On a similar theme, Tony says, is his championship over? A

bit early to say that after four Grands Prix, particularly if you

look at Ricciardo in Grands Prix, particularly if you

of the rest, the way it looks at the moment, but

of the rest, the way it looks at the in the first half of the season?

of the rest, the way it looks at the think it is going to be very, very

unlikely. You and I had a bet think it is going to be very, very

the season, and we thought Red Bull would be back in the fight for the

world championship, and it was not a foregone conclusion.

was wrong on this occasion, I think this is a critical weekend for them.

was wrong on this occasion, I think get in amongst it, a lot closer than

they are at the moment, it is going to be really hard to see anyone

fighting to be really hard to see anyone

victories in the first part of the year. Mercedes are almost

victories in the first part of the points clear in the constructors'

Championship. So I can't see them surrounding -- surrendering 100

points. That is already close to a foregone conclusion. The

points. That is already close to a Championship is more open and t

final Grand Prix does pay double points. A lot of fans

final Grand Prix does pay double and a lot of people who work in

Formula One don't like it, but it is still in place. The winner of the

final race will get 50 points so the drivers' Championship will not be a

foregone conclusion for a long time. Certainly not until, at the earliest

the final couple of rounds. A couple of cars out on circuit now. McLaren

and Massa in the Williams. Circulating around. Here is another

update with half an hour remaining from Barcelona with Tom Clarkson in

the pit lane. I'm at Ferrari. Both of the Ferrari drivers have come

past twice in the pit lane in the last five minutes and done practice

starts at the end of the pit lane. It is worth commenting on that. This

is the longest run of the year from pole to the apex of turn one. A lot

can happen during that time at the start of the race. It is crucial to

get a good getaway on Sunday. Ferrari focussing on that and both

of the Williams drivers have been doing that. That is probably the

influence of Felipe Massa and Rob Smedley. That is something Ferrari

have done for a long time and Williams are starting to do it and

they're starting to make good starts. I don't think this a a

coincidence. And it is one of the longest runs to turn one of the

season. Getting off the line well is crucial. And it suggests that

Ferrari are clear they are going to need a good start and won't be able

to keep everyone behind. It has been Fernando Alonso's trick over the

last few years. We know they have struggled with qualifying pace. By

the time he gets around the first lap he is in a decrepit position.

But to get a sniff of it at turn one you need to get off the line. You

might as well practice those parts that maybe some of the other teams

don't think about so much. It was here in 2010 or 2012 he made a

blistering start from fourth on the grid and he led into turn one,

having started fourth. It was 2011 I think it was. It was a stunning

start by Fernando Alonso in Barcelona. Here we have Daniel

Ricciardo and you can see the tyres on 32.1. So just under a second drop

in the medium tyre. If we remember back, I don't know if you can,

Fernando Alonso struggling and fish-tailing and working at the

wheel coming through that long right-hander. By contrast we have

Daniel Ricciardo and it looks like it is a Sunday afternoon drive.

Although the tyre is going off, it seems to be going off in a more

logical fashion. Looking at that final section, that that is an

important indicator, it is a sl speed sector and important for form

for Monaco. Generally the cars that are quick here during this weekend

in sector three, the slow 55mph chicane at turns 14 and 15 and the

corners that lead into it, the cars that go well in that sector tend to

go well in Monaco. Hamilton is the fastest man through that sector, but

he is the fastest through every sector. But that Red Bull looked

nicely hooked up. Red Bull will go into Monaco feeling reasonable about

things. But it will suit the Mercedes as well. It is not just

about brute power, but it is about the balance of the chassis. Mercedes

have been working well. They have been strong in Monaco. Michael

Schumacher took pole there. Of course coming after that Canada,

which is the ultimate Lewis Hamilton circuit. He is almost unbeatable

around there, as long as his car performs. I think Rosberg won't see

him for dust that weekend. But Monaco will be a massive fight

between the two Mercedes drivers. I think it will be a heck of a fight

any way. The circuit is all prepared, they have the historic

Grand Prix on this weekend and every thing is ready to rock for Monaco.

Before that we have this Spanish Grand Prix and Pastor Maldonado we

are now running with. Lotus has been struggling and right now with this

tyre life as well, he has got a big drop off. He looks like he has hit

the end of his tyre. It had done 19 laps it said and he was at 34s and

two seconds drop between the beginning and end. That is when you

have to think about a pit stop. He is running the medium tyre. Massa

has been doing work on the harder compound tyre on his long runs. That

is interesting. Most people are focussing their long runs on the

medium tyre. This morning they saw the hard tyre and they had an extra

set in the first 30 minutes and the tyre looked OK. There was a bit of

graining where it is like you have got a rubber and you rub it across

the desk and you get that rolling effect. Bup it wasn't a lot. So I

think they're sure of the hard tyre and the performance is more on the

medium tyre. So therefore you try to see where the medium can go and how

long it can go and your safety net is that harder tyre. Did

long it can go and your safety net positive the steer was on that

Mercedes as he came out of that 55mph chicane? It just went exactly

where he wanted it to. The whole car pivoted on the the front wheel. That

is exactly what you want. Such a struggle for a lot of the other

teams to achieve that. Trust me, there is a few drivers that will be

watching replays of this going to their designers, seeing, do you see

the positivity of that Mercedes. They have got it hooked up and

everything on a high level. They have not got one weakness right now.

That is why they're so far ahead. Every other teemest team has an --

every other team has an area of weakness. But they have got a very

fast car and a consistent management structure. Watch this. Oh, he is not

pushing! He is on a a cruise run. There is not a long run with Lewis

Hamilton that we can call a cruise. He was not attacking the chicane. He

was trying to be smooth. He has got to try to manage the tyres over the

course of time. But he is coming back down into some very good lap

times in comparison to Nico Rosberg. He has been able to manage the

expectation of the tyre pretty well so far. An excursion for Max

Chilton, already left some Marussia so far. An excursion for Max

bodywork out that one so far. An excursion for Max

went to get. We have some more questions.

think will be on the podium this weekend? I think it is going to be

Kirsty, a Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg somewhere there. The

question is who is third. I have to say I'm going go with this man,

Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari. Because he is -- because he has

managed to pull so much out of that car this year. You can see by Kimi

Raikkonen's struggles how much he has been able to extract out of it.

And he is on home soil. A Spaniard on home soil in Barcelona, that is a

potent combination. He pulls out from behind the Caterham of

Kobayashi. I will go for Daniel Ricciardo. But even the heroics

inspired by his local crowd of Fernando Alonso, I think it will a

struggle to get in front of Red Bull. It will be interesting to see

if Daniel Ricciardo can get in front of Vettel. Now here is the pit lane

with Tom. I wanted to add to the conversation about Kimi Raikkonen

and Fernando Alonso and it reminded me of a conversation I had with

Fernando in Bahrain before the season started. I said to him, you

haven't worked under the same roof as Kimi Raikkonen, because there

only one car as Kimi Raikkonen, because there

anything that Kimi has been doing with your car that has made you sort

of sit up and take notice? He just, long sigh sense and, an Ayrton

Senna-esque silence and then nothing! We are see that, the

difference between the two drivers. Yes, two world champions driving,

but very different way of going about their business. Kimi Raikkonen

has not be on the pace of Fernando Alonso. He

place in the Championship and six points scored in the first round and

only one point in Bahrain. Nothing in Malaysia and four in China.

Fernando Alonso is on 12, 12, two in Malaysia and four in China.

and 15. Bahrain was a difficult time. Their president was away

furious at the state of competitiveness of Ferrari. It was a

shame he didn't turn up in China to see Fernando Alonso on the podium.

But he has energised everyone. The team boss has come in

But he has energised everyone. The Bahrain Grand Prix weekend and he

will have to get hold of his team and set a course forwards for the

future I was having a look around and meeting some people and went

future I was having a look around see the new building they're moving

future I was having a look around into, it will be a new Formula One

factory that is into, it will be a new Formula One

It looks like a building site, into, it will be a new Formula One

they're going to try and move into it over the close season. So a lot

of work to do. But it is an impressive facility that will raise

their game. When impressive facility that will raise

race and engine bays, it is fantastic and the walls just

race and engine bays, it is the history of Ferrari. But they are

race action for decade and they're not,

when you compare that with the race bays at McLaren for example, the

technology centre in Woking, it is like being at NASA, compared to

Ferrari. So Ferrari gearing up for the future and there is a lot of

investment going into the facilities. But now the management

group have to got to galvanise and build a fast car and hold on to

Fernando Alonso. He is one of the keys. But if Fernando Alonso does

go, I think there is a few guys out there that might be interested in

sniffing around that seat. But this is speculation for the future. The

fact is that Ferrari have underperformed by their standards.

They still have been fighting for race victories and been fighting for

Championships, but that is not quite acceptable for the Italians. At some

point there had to be a change. It surprised me it came so early in

this season, but I think they're building towards 2015 as opposed to

trying to rescue 2014. The problem with the new technology, the lead

times on some of the items are so long, in engines you're talk about

six to nine months. How are the ty Completely finished is the response

from Pastor Maldonado. How many laps do we think he has done? He says he

has done 21. We spoke about him rlier and he was down in the 34s.

I'm not surprised it is finished. He looked to be struggling between his

quickest lap that was a couple of looked to be struggling between his

seconds. Ehas done 1.33.09. But he will be burning off a lot of fuel. T

weight of car will have come down. So that is the over two seconds, the

car should be going two seconds quicker in term of the fuel it has

burned off. One guy that is going very quick is Lewis Hamilton. Just

looking at his long runs now. He is down about ten lap and still running

at 31.0. Lewis Hamilton fastest on the

qualifying simulations. Four tenth of a second quicker than Nico

Rosberg and a full second faster than Daniel Ricciardo, the next

non-Mercedes car in third. But the long run performance as well is

looking very strong for Lewis Hamilton. He has got control and has

not got control of the drivers' World Championship, because of that

reliability issue in Melbourne, he still trails Rosberg, who has a win

and two second places. Even after this hat trick of victories, Lewis

Hamilton is still not in control of drivers' Championship. Four points

behind he is going into this weekend. So victory would put him at

the top of the drivers' table. It would, but it is going to be a tough

fight. There is no question about it. You know, Kimi Raikkonen is now

out as he crosses this start/finish line to start another lap. He is on

lap nine of this stint, where the tyres are older. He is down 32.4s on

the medium tyre. His team mate is on the the harder tyre. It

the medium tyre. His team mate is on run, if you take the tyre effect

into account it is probably the second best right now. The tyre is

15 laps old, this particular stint is just nine laps long, so giving

something away to Hamilton, but relatively consistent from

Raikkonen. That is one of the things that some drivers do, give the tyre

is a bit of a breather during a long run, but you can't do that in a

Grand Prix, so it is a bit strange, I never quite understand that. It is

quite up round here as well, because it is all corners, they all

interlinked into everything else, and the other factor is that Kimi

Raikkonen came across a little bit of traffic as well, which will have

had a small effect. But you are trying to keep as much energy out of

the tyre as you can while going quickly, a balancing act. This is

one of the tricky corners, big oversteer as he comes into hot, and

he will have two combat that through the next corners. -- he comes in too

hard. We are starting to get used to the noise of the hybrid engines, not

loud enough, according to most people who work in Formula One and a

lot of fans around the world, and there will be a test next week, and

Mercedes is going to try out a sort of megaphone device that will sit on

the back of the exhaust. Most of the manufacturers have refused to even

countenance the idea of fiddling with the exhaust themselves, or the

combustion or anything in the engine to try and change the sound of these

Formula One cars, because it would affect the competitive picture as

well. But they are prepared to put some sort of application on it which

will be tested next week. Hamilton, 16 laps on the tyre, 12 in this

stint, look at that for consistency of pace, an amazing performance by

Hamilton and Mercedes, well and truly in the groove year. And look

how gentle his inputs are as he comes in, but on the throttle, winds

off a little bit of lock. A bit of movement on the rear, but he caught

it quite easily, progressive, small lock on the left front. You don't

have to hits the apex there, you can use the camber. All nice and

progressive and consistent, and the times are phenomenally quick. Jay

contrast to last year, where he chewed his tyres, describing it as

one of the worst races of his career. -- such a contrast. And here

he is, obviously the car is much better, better balanced on the four

tyres, but he is obviously learned a lot from his experiences last year,

and he is driving to achieve a goal. It is not everybody's idea of

Formula One, is it? Christian Horner was saying to Ben Edwards that

Formula One should be a sprint race from start to finish, pushing to the

limit all the way through, rather than managing fuel and tyres. Where

do you stand on that? We all like the flat-out attack, but every

driver in the modern age has got the same set of regulations, and they

abide by the same rules. At the end of the year, the world champion is

the world champion. He has done a better job than everybody else to

achieve that goal, and so you can never detract away from somebody who

might win this particular year. Lewis Hamilton has said his stall

out, it is not his natural characteristic to try to

conserve... I think we should come in, it is not safe. A Grosjean radio

message from his engineer, problem with the brakes,

message from his engineer, problem After Giedo van der Garde's issue,

probably a completely different scenario, that is a very

probably a completely different thing, because this is a very fast

circuit. If you have a brake problem, the run-off areas become

very small. Daniil Kvyat down at turn seven, what happened to him?

Just running a bit wide, up on the grass on the outside of turn eight,

climbing up towards turn nine. There he is, a few spectators down there,

not a huge crowd for a Friday. Plenty of Spanish Formula One fans,

they will be on Sunday, they love watching Fernando Alonso driving a

Ferrari around here, but they don't love it so much on a Friday as they

do at Silverstone or Montreal, where you get an absolutely packed full

house even on a Friday, just because they love the whole experience of

watching Formula One. The Lotus of Romain Grosjean in the pits after

being told that the brakes system is not safe, they called him in. A

couple of final comments on the hashtag #bbcf1, thank you very much

for coming in sending us messages, we like to make this an interactive

experience - a quick look at Bottas before we get on to these questions.

On the medium tyre, 19 laps, a stint of 12 laps, pretty consistent, in

the low 1.33s. We do not know the fuel load is concerned, but it looks

a couple of seconds slower than Mercedes is doing at the moment.

Again, as I Mercedes is doing at the moment.

much fuel that Williams is carrying. Alexander Allan, do you think

Hamilton can keep up this level for the rest of the season? Or will

Rosberg steal it? It is a level of intensity that takes a lot of energy

out of you, 19 races, and when you have got so much emotional and

mental energy going into it, it is tiring. But when you are fighting

for a world championship, the adrenaline keeps you going. Those

two are going to battle it out to the end. Lewis Hamilton has won

three races on the bounce, but the fact that Nico Rosberg is finishing

second, the championship is never going to go one way or the other,

the gap. It is going to be nip and tuck between the two of them, I

think. Susie Wolff I mentioned earlier, the development

think. Susie Wolff I mentioned Williams, is going to get a run in

the car on Wednesday here in Barcelona, in the test that follows

this Grand Prix, and she is in the pit lane with Jennie Gow. You have

just been out on track having a look at the cars, the first thing I'm

going to say, did at the cars, the first thing I'm

Vettel at there? What other cars telling you? I was not really

looking for him, I am not sure if I saw him or not, I was looking mainly

at the Williams cars, because I could not hear what was happening,

and it is really interesting to look at them on track and see it

Driving next week, it gives me a chance to look at the different

racing lines. Do you know what the plan is for you when you get in the

car on Wednesday? Sorry? Do you know what the plan is? Yeah, we have

quite a lot of things to test, part of the programme will depend on the

leave a's day on Tuesday, quite a few things for me to do. -- Felipe.

Do you have to address this test quite differently, knowing you will

be out in the one as other stone and in Germany? Not really, it is

important for the team, and you need to give good feedback every time you

are in the car. -- you will be out in FP1 at Silverstone and in

Germany? In between the two sessions, I had a chat with IndyCar

driver and F1 driver Simoni Dace of Astra, and she is confident that she

would like to be driving in 2015, do you see this as another female

competition coming into the sport? I think it is very positive that there

is another female there. She was doing a great job in America, so if

she gets a chance, that would be fantastic, I will be the first one

rooting for her. How difficult will it be for her? She is just tried to

brake in, she has not got it be for her? She is just tried to

licence, all the steps you need to take. Without a doubt, and I have

taken a slightly different approach. I took one step at a time, I have to

prove myself, because getting on the grid is not easy, and getting my

super licence was not easy. The FIA look that every lap I had done on

the track and in the simulator before they made a judgment on

whether to give me a super licence. We all have to have goals, we have

to keep pushing and trying to achieve things, and she has set a

clear goal, and she has got to go for it. For me it is different, we

have set goals every step of the way, it is just importance to do a

good job in free practice one and keep racing. Thanks very much for

joining us, good luck on Wednesday. Jennie Gow in the pit lane with

Susie Wolff, development driver for Williams, and she will be running on

Wednesday and hopefully getting some mileage, and then free practice one

at Silverstone and Hockenheim, she will get 90 minutes in the car, it

will be a real talking point. It certainly will, no question about

it, she will do the best job she can. She has been working very hard

for this for a long time, and she has already driven at Silverstone,

as we know, but she is really looking forward to this next part of

her career. A final question, hashtag #bbcf1, I am a Hamilton fan,

but don't you think his abilities are being overshadowed by the car? I

don't think that, Rosberg's radio. Slightly more wear on the left front

and left rear, 50% on the front, 60% remaining on the left rear. That is

basically the where, how much depth of rubber is still left on the tyre,

and so he's getting that information. What you have to do is

be a little bit more careful on the way you attack on the throttle so

that you try to conserve it. You may be used the front tyre to turn the

car a little bit more, just let it front through the apex of the corner

a little bit more, try to keep the momentum. All of this is about

management, but this is where the engineers are coaching the driver,

giving them information - be careful of that, what's this, this is the

percentage. And you need numbers, you cannot just say, conserve a

little bit more, you need a number, some relationship you can work to.

OK, we may have a gearbox problem, we need to box this lap, please. Oh

no, Lotus had a gearbox problem with Grosjean. We have a right rear wheel

no, Lotus had a gearbox problem with off Jean-Eric Vergne's car, I wonder

what has happened there. The hard seems to be intact, it does not look

like an accident. It was the first lap on a medium tyre, he had done

his long run on the hard, he just came out of the pits, it looks like

it has not attached correctly, and that is going to be a naughty boy,

that will be a big problem with the stewards, because that is something

they have been so strict on. I think I lost a wheel. You did, yeah! No

two ways about it. Straight out of the pits, he has turned right and

left, and immediately on the first time he has turned left, the right

rear wheel has disappeared. Something the FIA take very

seriously after the wheel came off Mark Webber's car in Germany last

year, hitting one of the cameramen in the plane. Tom Clarkson was

explaining that is why any media down there have to wear these

special babes. We have had it once this season already, was it

Williams? They were fined? That was last year in Japan, they were fined

50,000 roubles for an unsafe relief. That was into Spoon: ,

something that, you know, there is a lot of momentum behind it. -- Spoon

corner. As he turns left, sorry, it is the second car, it has already

came off by this point. The wheel runs behind him. Someone has had it

this year, though. The driver got points on their licence as well as a

result of it. Looking at the replay of Rosberg, he is looking...

Rosberg was not particularly close, but he was close enough to see the

incident. Ricciardo Haddad, Daniel Ricciardo. It was a double whammy

for him. Releasing in an unsafe condition, plus he got a drop of ten

grid positions as well. That is it, the wheel did not come off, he

stopped halfway down the pit lane. That was enough for him to get that

heavy duty penalty. No wonder the Toro Rosso mechanics look a bit

glum, because they are going to be having some very angry stewards

wanting to talk to them. That is Jean-Eric Vergne's race engineer,

who joined from Williams at the end of last year. He was a senior

operations engineer at Williams. Rob Smedley came in, Jacob Andreasen, a

very experienced track engineer, and he is also working in management,

linking up between the operational side of the racing team and the

design side. That is what Rob Smedley is doing, something he is

extremely well suited to as an operations engineer, having worked

with Massa for many years, knowing what it is like at the sharp end of

the racetrack, but also being able to speak the same language as the

boffins in the wind tunnel and make sure there is a throughput of new

parts. Certainly, he seems to have been very well received already at

Williams, are very pleased to have got him - he is already making a

difference in terms of parts coming through to the car. Into the final

minute of free practice, the story is not hard to discern - Lewis

Hamilton, winner of the last three Grands Prix on the bounce, is the

fastest man on the qualifying simulationss, and he has a stunning

race pace. He is going to take some beating this this weekend.

groove, in championship mode, thinking about notching

groove, in championship mode, putting the championship out of

reach of his team-mate, Rosberg, and anyone else for that

reach of his team-mate, Rosberg, and seconds left on

reach of his team-mate, Rosberg, and fastest from Rosberg. He

reach of his team-mate, Rosberg, and to the harder of the two

reach of his team-mate, Rosberg, and as he goes through, 1:30.8 on the

hard tyre. The superbly quick long run he did was on the medium, but

now both he and Rosberg have pitted quickly, as has Ricciardo, and gone

on to the heart. Alonso, who was on the medium, Surrey, on the hard, has

gone on to the medium. Lewis Hamilton has gone to the top

of the sheet of the fastest speed, 335 an hour. That is about 206mph.

Max Chilton was struggling when he passed him. I don't know what the

problem is. But we think he has gone off in turn four. At the top of the

hill he has gone through the long right-hander and has gone on for

whatever Royal Bank. -- raefrest right-hander and has gone on for

whatever reason. Everything is OK. He had engine problems earlier on.

whatever reason. Everything is OK. He was in and out of the

whatever reason. Everything is OK. orders of the race engineers as his

parents watch on. They have taken down force and taken some wing out

of the Mercedes to increase the straight line speed. But they're

getting 335 kilometres an hour on the straight. That

getting 335 kilometres an hour on speed around here. It certainly is.

It is no question at all that the cars have been very quick on

It is no question at all that the speeds, but it proves again that

there is not a weak area speeds, but it proves again that

sort of organisation structure, team, drivers. The long

sort of organisation structure, summarise, it is all about Mercedes,

Lewis Hamilton was fantastically quick. He had an advantage over Nico

Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo rick was very good. He had a good run.

You can expect Sebastian Vettel to be up there tomorrow as well.

Fernando Alonso was probably be up there tomorrow as well.

Raikkonen, but this is be up there tomorrow as well.

Raikkonen has been to Fernando Alonso all season. So he

Raikkonen has been to Fernando that a bit of a gap. Half a second

to the McLarens of Magnussen and Button. Massa was eighth for

Williams. They seem to have lost ground. But you can't tell based on

fuel loads. Pastor Maldonado is in ninth, although he had a gear box

problem. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India lost ground with the updates

that have been brought to the race. We will find out tomorrow.

Chilton had all kinds of problems and ended up in the gravel track.

Kobayashi was 20th with Ericsson in 21st and Sebastian Vettel, who has

only done four laps on the first day of practice in Barcelona, where the

story is if anybody came here thinking Mercedes may have lost a

little ground and there was a chance to get closer to them. Judging by

the performance of Lewis Hamilton in qualifying simulation, long runs and

straight line speed, they have moved further ahead. Lewis Hamilton

dominates. Two practice sessions and twice Lewis Hamilton tops the time

sheet, Red Bull have another strong performance by Daniel Ricciardo but

Sebastian Vettel reduced to being a spectator. We now the Ferrari boss

is in the building here, pushing on Ferrari and trying to appease

Fernando Alonso. You would have to say that Mercedes are looking

strong. I'm back tomorrow with Inside F1. Free practice is live on

BBC1 tomorrow. And we have live for qualifying.

Thank you for your company today. Goodbye.

Does anybody know exactly what they're eating?

When these birds are gone, what happens to this place?