The Spanish Grand Prix - Practice 3 Formula 1

Good morning. Well, it is another gorgeous day here at the Circuit de

Catalunya. Not long now gorgeous day here at the Circuit de

final practise session gets underway for qualifying for the Spanish Grand

Prix. Yesterday, it was Lewis Hamilton who topped both practise

sessions. A tricky day for Nico Rosberg. Nico Rosberg remains at the

top of the drivers championship. You can see Rosberg at the top, but

Lewis Hamilton has won three out of the four races. He is in second,

Fernando Alonso, third, Hulkenberg has been impressive. Mercedes has

under a 100 point lead at the front after the four races. Red Bull are

second. Ferrari are in fourth and McLaren had a tough few races, but

they are looking to re-launch their championship here this weekend. In

pit lane we have Tom and Jennie. Tom, we mentioned a difficult day

for Nico Rosberg, but Sebastian Vettel had a difficult day. He only

managed four laps, what's the news from Red Bull? He is in his car.

They fired the car up from Red Bull? He is in his car.

ready to go. He has to condense the three hours of running he lost

yesterday into the one hour session this morning. I just had a quick

chat to his race engineer, this morning. I just had a quick

get used to the updates the team brought to this race particularly

the effects of the new front wing and then he is going to do long

running and then it is prepare for qualifying over short runs. A busy

session qualifying over short runs. A busy

been a busy night in the pit lane. Sauber had an incident. They broke

been a busy night in the pit lane. their curfew. Torro Rosso had an

issue. Jean-Eric Vergne was given a ten place grid penalty and the team

fined for a loose wheel coming off that car. They had to do work on

their car. It is the first of six jokers they can play, so there will

be no punishment, but there will be You can get in touch with us on

Twitter. And if you want to go to the BBC Sport page on Facebook, you

can leave a comment there. Maybe Ben Edwards or Allan McNish will read

them out. It will be a busy hour. It will be second time that we have had

a dry qualifying. The last dry qualifying Nico

a dry qualifying. The last dry over Lewis Hamilton, the only time

he was able to take poll position in Bahrain.

he was able to take poll position in two of them is really intense right

now. I would have to say it will be a tough one for Nico Rosberg today.

Lewis Hamilton has the upper hand and that's in the short runs in

qualifying pace, but it looked as if it was in the long runs as well.

Hamilton looked strong yesterday and to run you through the times from

the second practise session which is the most relevant in terms of pace

when they do their qualifying simulation on the softer tyre, it

was Hamilton fastest from Rosberg second, Daniel Ricciardo was third

and looked good on his long run as well. Alonso was fourth and

Raikkonen here was fifth. So Ferraris look to be stronger and for

Raikkonen he had one of the best Fridays he had so far this year.

Lewis Hamilton tweeted that he had a great day. One of the best Fridays

he had and he also said about the fans having been fantastic as well.

Jenson Button was seventh fastest. Eighth fastest, Felipe Massa, and

ninth Pastor Maldonado. We are in at the Caterham pit. They have made an

announcement in the the Caterham pit. They have made an

line-up. Mark Smith is out. He was the technical director there at

Caterham and they have formed a technical committee. Three members

of the committee John Isl ye, Jodie Egginton and Jodie Hughes. Of

course, that's a team that has under performed, you would have to say,

Allan over the last couple of years and they feel with the new

regulations they hoped to be stronger than they are? Since they

came in which is a few years ago now, they expected to be further up

the grid and challenging the mid-grid area, but they've struggled

in 2014 and seemed to have dropped in performance back behind Marussia.

We had hopes of them at the beginning, but it hasn't translated.

Let's see whether this new structure does help them or not. So we are

looking into the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. A few cars are out there.

The likes of Vergne and Chilton and Hulkenberg. Jennie, you are at

Caterham now? Yes, I spoke to the team this morning and they gave me a

briefing about what the plan was. They said it wasn't a case of Mark

leaving overnight. It was discussed with Mark Smith, now former

technical director for a while and they have been making plans for a

while as well. This is quite a big change for them. They are hoping,

because everything takes a while to filter down parts wise and design

wise, they are hoping around Silverstone they will start to see

this move coming to fruition, they want a dramatic and drastic change.

Tony Ferdinand des said unless he saw an improvement, he was likely to

pull out of the team. They are still battling with Marussia. They are

battling to get into Q2 to get through the first hurdle of

qualifying and it is difficult for them? Well, it is

qualifying and it is difficult for have to say that that middle part of

the grid where they are trying to get into is full of teams that have

got a heck of a lot more experience have and have much more of a

structure and it is by tenths afsecond. The thing about them is

they have gone backwards as opposed to creeping forward. Personally,

though, I have always got a little bit of a question mark about design

by committee structures. You need one leader, somebody to carry the

flag and say, "Right, we're going this way." In the past it has never

been the more successful, but we'll wait and see. Well, Sebastian Vettel

is on track. We're riding on board with Jenson Button as he comes out

of turn nine. Down the other DRS section on this track, but it is a

difficult place to overtake. We can see it occasionally down into turn

ten. Under braking and using the DRS on the approach and then we're in

into the left and right of turns 11 and 12. Big grandstands up on the

outside. Hopefully those will be full come race day. The supporters

for this man turn up, full come race day. The supporters

Alonso is very much the Formula One national hero. The only Spaniard

ever to win the Spanish Grand Prix. There have been 11 pan Spaniards

over the years. There is no doubt th Alonso is the most successful. He is

in Spain, he has pulled some superb performances out as you said about

the Spanish Grand Prix, but in the European Grand Prix, you remember

that fantastic charge through the grid to win in Valencia. It will be

tough for him around here. The Ferrari has got some small updates

on the car, but little and when you haven't had the performance. Luca di

Montezemolo is on site and adding pressure into the Ferrari pot and

you expect results, he wants results and there is no question that

Ferrari are under performing. Sauber have a lighter car and Adrian Sutil

seemed happy with the way things were going yesterday. Yes, it is a

lighter car, overall, but not a lighter chassis. The chassis is the

same. It is 15 kilogrammes lighter which brings them down towards the

weight limit. Gutierrez is under the weight limit, but Sutil is heavier

than Gutierrez. He is 12 kilos overweight. 10 kilo graps around

here is -- kilogrammes around here is four tenths of a second per lap.

It is a big disadvantage. For the Sauber fans, you might want to see

what the gap is if Gutierrez is three tenths quicker than Sutil then

they have done the same lap time according to the laps difference of

the Romain Grosjean had a few little problems, niggling little problems

that never allowed him to deliver what he could show the car can do

now. Pastor Maldonado was an impressive ninth fastest. There is a

chance of one or both of the Lotus cars getting into the top ten in

qualifying here today. Maldonado had some success here before.

TEAM RADIO: Not working. OK. Copy. Copy.

Rosberg, a little problem already. He started the day with problems

yesterday with the overheating energy recovery system. That cost

him lap in the first prak practise session. Coming back to Lotus,

Maldonado and Grosjean both hoping to get in the top ten and Maldonado

with his victory here a couple of years ago, when he was driving for

Williams, he led more laps here at this Spanish circuit than Nico

Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton combined which is a nice statistic. It is a

statistic which I presume tomorrow afternoon will be changed! Without

doubt, they are on the catch-up at Lotus.

TEAM RADIO: I have serious steering. When he is going down the straight

into turn ten, his right-hand is a little bit down. The car is steering

to the left and he is having to counter steer that. That's

infuriating. It might only be by a couple of millimetres, but you are

central and you need to have the balance left and right and it is

always been something that drivers hang on to and mechanics struggle to

get perfect. Yes, psychologicalically important, with

the amounts of settings changes they are making on the wheel, around a

lap, it has more bearing in a way. Just talking to one or two of the

drivers, it is interesting hearing how much they are having to do. On

the pit radio in China, there was a point at which Jenson Button was

asked to adopt a certain settings, X1 and he asked for a reminder and

they said one push on the left-hand Button and 13 pushes on the he

right-hand Button. That's a lot to think about when you are driving.

When you have one think about when you are driving.

is about maximising your performance and when you add in, you have not

only got to change the switches, but and when you add in, you have not

you have to receive that piece of information and that piece of

information very often, they are in the middle of a corner right now and

so you've got to concentrate going through the corner and receive the

information, hold it, store it and activate on it when you go down the

next straight. When it is multiple things, it means that sometimes, the

drivers are just basically brain saturated with the information.

Well, it is fairly quiet on track. Nobody has set a lap time yet.

Jenson Button is out of the car and looking relaxed. Thanks for your

comments and questions. Allan Taylor saying do we think the times will be

closer at the track today as the track rubbers in? Not only are the

Formula One cars doing more laps, but the Pirelli GP 2 cars and there

is a British guy on poll position. Does all that rubber going down from

the other cars make a big difference? It makes

the other cars make a big It also cleans up the circuit. It

hovers up the dust and the pollen that's been blown around overnight.

The wind isn't blowing as much as it did yesterday which did affect the

cars a lot in this circuit with did yesterday which did affect the

altitude differences. The bger effect will come from the track

temperature changes. Yesterday, it was at 46 Celsius, track temperature

and that's what the rubber contacts with the ground and that combination

between tyre and grouped is key. Right now, it is 22 Celsius. You are

going to see a difference Right now, it is 22 Celsius. You are

morning to this afternoon and that for me, is going to be a bigger

factor. Let's get down to the pits and news from Tom. Yes, Ben, I'm in

front of the Red Bull garage and I have been talking to guys here

front of the Red Bull garage and I straight line speeds. At the last

race in China, Sebastian Vettel straight line speeds. At the last

during qualifying lost 1.2 seconds on the one kilometre back straight

at the on the one kilometre back straight

Circuit. Renault are turning up with software upgrades that should

improve drivability and we found out that Total have introduced a new

fuel for this race which is going to give a few more horses as well.

Let's keep an eye on the straight line speeds. Yes, Magnussen is

fastest on the straight line speed. 315, 315 kilometres an hour. We will

see speeds higher as they begin to pick up the pace. We did see 330

yesterday. He is doing three timed laps here, Magnussen. He is on the

hard tyre. You can see that from the orange markings on the side walls of

the tyre. Talk us through it, Allan? That was nearly flat in the old days

with more downforce, but with the new regulation, there was a big

oversteer moment, a lift in the middle around the hairpin now trying

to get the power down. This is an uphill section. Flat out left and

this long, long right where you are always fighting to get on to the

throttle. The rears are always fish tailing. It is a horrible tyre. He

has just run wide and then the acceleration on to the start and

finish line. We saw some lured slides there

yesterday as the tyres were degrading. That is not the case for

him, he just pushed too hard. Our first lap time on the board compared

to Lewis Hamilton's fastest time yesterday. That was the moment Kevin

Magnussen ran too wide. I would not be surprised if it was tyre

temperature related. There were a few people struggling to make the

harder tyre work, because it is quite hard. 12 months ago Pirelli

had a shocker of a race here because degradation was so big, and they

have come here on the more conservative side, and some people

are struggling to make it work. That could be one of the problems for

Magnussen. We saw a four-stop race for quite a lot of the drivers last

year. Looking at two or three starts this weekend, Daniel Ricciardo

yesterday suggested that would be possible. One or two of the other

teams are not confident they can get through on two stops, so we may see

split strategies. The cars that are kind to their tyres will be looking

at two stops, the others will have to go to three. Three is not the

desired way to do it. Down to the pits, Jennie has caught up with an

important guest in the pit lane. Felipe Massa just walking down, you

have got yourself wait, a nice relaxed start to the morning today.

Yes, relaxed start this morning, we don't do so many laps, but we will

get in the car. What the track conditions like? We don't have so

many laps that we can do, so we wait. What are you hoping to find

out today? Competitive car, that we can be there fighting, and I hope we

can have a great race tomorrow. How important is it? The team are very

happy with the upgrades, what they are doing back at base being

developed into the car. Yeah, for sure, the upgrades are working, it

gives what we expected, but they are also working as well, new pieces,

better car as well, so we need to fight as always. Thank you very

much, Felipe Massa. Olivier Massa returns to the

Williams bit, thanks for that, Jennie, great to hear from him. --

Felipe Massa. Williams are hopeful of getting both cars in the top ten.

I think they feel their car is slightly more powerful in qualifying

than in race trim, so they need to be up there in qualifying,

challenging the Ferraris. A question from William Thomson... He wrote in,

asking, do we think the Red Bulls will be able to tackle the Mercedes

for pole? It does not look likely. I do not think it is likely in the

slightest. The fight for pole position is going to be as it has

been up until now between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. That is

where the excitement is, but there is huge excitement about who will be

on the second row of the grid. At the moment, Ricciardo looked the

strongest, but having said that, I am very interested to see how Vettel

recovers. This is a circuit he knows very well, the updates are quite

small, so therefore it is more a case of just him getting into the

rhythm of the circuit, and that is something that Sebastian Vettel is

usually pretty good at. Finally enough, he has been outqualified a

couple of times by Mark Webber on this track. One year was down to a

problem with the car, a slight DRS problem, but he has not always have

the best of runs. He is currently second-fastest. You can see

Magnussen has gone slightly quicker than earlier, 1:28.7. The only other

driver to have recorded a flying lap is Marcus Ericsson, not really a

representative time from him. We are watching the Red Bull here, a very

good chassis, aerodynamically very strong, delivers a great deal of

downforce. Watching the behaviour of the car, Vettel has struggled with

the handling of it. It has not been doing what he is used to, because

the configuration is so different, the amount of rear downforce is

massively reduced. It has changed the feel of the car. He is now

having to adapt to style a bit. He has been used to a certain

configuration for quite a long time, in fact all of his Formula One

career. He has tuned it and hold it extremely well, but right now he is

working with the setup of the car to make it do what he wants it to do.

It is not as if it is flowing, it has not flowed perfectly. It did in

Malaysia, he was strong and good there, but the last couple of races

have not gone his way. At the same time, it has gone his team-mate's

away. That is right, stepping up from the Toro Rosso, which problem

we had a fair bit less downforce, Daniel Ricciardo, it probably feels

wonderful for him to be in the Red Bull, even though it has been robbed

of some of that downforce because of regulations. Christian Horner, team

principal for Red Bull, joins us from the pit wall. Tell us about the

amount of work that has to be done to Sebastian's car to see him out

there this morning. Yeah, an enormous amount of work for the boys

to replace the whole wiring loom on the car. It is like a ball of

spaghetti that you have got to climb into all areas of the car, so a big

job. But they have done it without braking the curfew, which is

massively impressive. Excellent job, no doubt. How about Sebastian's

mood? Presumably was quite keen to get laps under his belt yesterday,

it seems he is having to reset insult, get used to these different

specifications. -- reset himself. Yes, very much so, but he has turned

up in a very positive frame of mind, he wanted a laps yesterday,

but he followed what Daniel was doing, the progress we had in the

afternoon in particular. So he is just out feeling his way in, this is

is first proper run of the weekend. Is the

is first proper run of the weekend. this year? He has been so used to

the exhaust blundered user that you develop so brilliantly around his

driving style. -- exhaust alone diffuser. It reminds me of the big

change in rules and 2012 over the blown diffusers. Sebastian is very

demanding in what he wants from the cars. He has obviously been pushing

to try to recreate that, but with the maturity of these engines,

particularly how the engine behaves on the corners, we have not been

able on the corners, we have not been

now it is about finding a happy medium, I guess, meeting somewhere

in the middle. That is Sebastian, Daniel Ricciardo put in some

impressive laps yesterday, a long race run on the medium compound,

where you impressed with the way the tyre held at? Yeah, very much so,

and Daniel is carrying on the form he has shown in the first four races

this year. The gap to Mercedes is still quite significant, but we have

definitely put a bit of performance on the car this weekend, and they

are working hard to on the car this weekend, and they

that gap down. It is Allan here. What

that gap down. It is Allan here. it, it is about eight tenths, bigger

to Lewis than it is to need go, there was quite an offset between

them yesterday, to the fastest Mercedes about eight tenths. What

you think in terms of the Mercedes about eight tenths. What

competitiveness of Ferrari this weekend? Do you feel you are a step

ahead of them at the moment? Difficult to say. It is difficult to

draw too much from a Friday, but I think, hopefully, you know,

hopefully we will be able to raise them hard. Alonso, with the home

support, he always lived himself for this event, so he will

support, he always lived himself for beat, but we have set

support, he always lived himself for joining us, hopefully we

more from you later on. Thanks. Romain Grosjean had a lock-up after

he got on the radio to esteem and said, please

he got on the radio to esteem and the hill which we were talking about

earlier. Not a good time for the team to be giving him instructions.

It is a difficult compromise, the driver is doing his job, the team

are trying to give him all the assistance possible, and that is the

hard part of the modern era of Formula One. There are points

hard part of the modern era of you are totally absorbed into

keeping the car on the track. On board with Daniil Kvyat in the

keeping the car on the track. On Rosso, he has a chance to be well

ahead of his team-mate on the grid. Jean-Eric Vergne picking up a ten

place penalty, the team picking up a 30,000 euros fine because of the

wheel which came off the car during the practice session yesterday.

wheel which came off the car during team feel that the wheel had not

seated properly, so the retention device had not clicked in properly.

But still, it is going to be tough for Jean-Eric Vergne this weekend.

He's going seventh fastest for the moment, but we saw when Daniel

Ricciardo had a penalty for a very similar incident earlier in the

season, it is difficult to come back from. It is, it basically ruins the

weekend. The financial side of it is one thing, but when you get a grid

penalty, it is not as if they are qualifying first or second. They are

down in 11 or 12, and they will probably be qualifying, at best,

tenth or 11th, and that is then right at the back. So this weekend

is basically a write-off for them. Thank you for your Cameron Stewart

is a harsh -- your comments using the hashtag #bbcf1, some of them

will make it onto the website as well. Just some comments on Lewis

Hamilton, Hardy saying, we keep talking about his sublime form...

The car does not go straight when I brake. That sounds uncomfortable,

the car does not go straight when he breaks. It is brake by wire at the

moment. We will just finish off the comment about Hamilton, it is more

to do with the car than his driving, look at Vettel for proved. Nigel

says he is proud of Lewis, he has grown stronger, Mercedes seem like

real champions. Mixed feelings about Hamilton's performances, but back to

Grosjean's comments on the braking, what did you make of that? We saw

something very similar yesterday into turn ten where he basically

went into the corner, locked up the left front, ran wide and immediately

came on the radio talking about the same thing. A thermal imaging camera

on one of the cars right now, you can see the tyre, how it heats up

and cools down. He had exactly that type of problem, something that they

have not got on top of overnight. The braking is the first thing the

driver does coming into the corner, the most critical part. If you set

the braking up correctly, the rest of the corner seems to glow. If you

have not got the stability and confidence in braking, you do not

load the tyre directly, and the rest of the corn is a real struggle. We

are watching the Caterham of Kobayashi, Alonso quickest in this

final practice session ahead of qualifying. The Ferraris are one and

two at the moment, although we have not seen much from Mercedes yet. Now

we are on board with Rosberg as he goes into a lap. This is the man who

took pole position earlier this year in Bahrain, and of course very much

still the championship leader. Some words from Tom. You were just

commenting about not much action from Mercedes, I can tell you that

Lewis Hamilton is about to go out. They have just corrected the wheel

alignment problem he reported on his first run, and they have taken the

tyre warmers off now. Isn't it extraordinary how Formula One is so

full of anachronisms? Watching them do this wheel alignment, bits of

string connecting the wheels front and back, it seems weird that they

are not using things like lasers for that, but there we go! String can be

just as quick when you need to do the job fast. Yeah, and there is

accuracy in the way that the teams do things, transporting things all

the way around the world, various other factors go into it. But yes,

the modern-day, it is quite incredible to see that sort of 1970s

approach coming out, that is not to say the 1970s approach was not good,

it seems to be working for Mercedes. Yes, they are still using it.

Rosberg has been fastest of anybody in the first sector, fastest of

anybody in the second sector, so quickest overall as long as he does

not decide to back off in the final sector. Pole position winner here

last year, but a car did not perform well in the race, he dropped back

down the field. The Ghostbusters, 1:27.0, but this is on the hard

tyre. -- he goes fastest. Alonso is also on the hard tyre, so it just

tyre. -- he goes fastest. Alonso is shows... Kvyat

tyre. -- he goes fastest. Alonso is oversteer moment in turn nine, the

uphill right-hander, throwing it into the corner. That upsets the

reader a little bit, it pitch tales out and runs wide. -- the rear.

Vergne actually ran wide coming out of turn four, not helping his entry

into turn five. He backed off, it was not as if it was a qualifying

lap. Daniil Kvyat has completed, coming into this weekend, completed

more mileage than anyone else, including all the free practice,

qualifying and race is, he has done 1915 miles coming into this event.

That will change as we go through the free practice sessions, but

still a pretty impressive mileage for the Russian, who has been

impressive with the team as well. The team boss was talking about him

yesterday, saying he is doing everything right, he is very

focused, and they are extremely impressed with him. There is an

opportunity for Sauber to move up a bit. The updates may help them a bit

drag them away from Marussia and Caterham, but it won't be easy

getting into the second part of qualifying.

Let's go on board with Hamilton. The number 44 car crosses the line.

Let's see what Hamilton's lap looks like. Down into turn 1. Trying to

hug into the kerb. A little bit of a lift and squeezing on the throttle

using a couple of millimetres of the exit road. This is where we saw

Jean-Eric Vergne running wide, but there won be much of a problem.

Already two tenths of a second quicker than his team team-mate,

Nico Rosberg. These are corners, Allan, where you are running the

brake a long way into some of them? Yeah, they are and the other thing

is they are long corners. They are not short, sharp run ones and --

sharp ones and you have to squeeze on the throttle. Not much steering

action. It was nice and precise. He knew where the car was going to go.

It wasn't an adventure and that's where the three tenths of a second.

Now he has run wide at turn ten. Probably the tyre wasn't up to

temperature. A lot of people have been complaining about that on the

radio as we've got Gutierrez's radio.

TEAM RADIO: You are use ago gear lower than Adrian. Maybe try a

higher gear. As we cross the line now, out of the last corner, nice

and clean, but it is quickest with that time loss at turn 10. There is

a little bit of time in Lewis Hamilton's pocket. How much do you

have to look after the tyres in the early part of

quickest second lap. That's interesting. On the hard tyres, they

are holding up for another quick lap which is impressive. Do you have to

look after a tyre in the early part of the lap to have it underneath

you? You do on the medium tyre more than the hard tyre. This is an area

that Lewis Hamilton has really started to understand over the

course of this season. It is how to make these new tyres work. How to

protect them. Maybe not necessarily charge on to it in the first laps,

in a long run, but to build them in gently and it seems to be bearing

fruit. With the hard tyre, he can lean on it reasonably hard without

over stressing it until the temperature comes into it. You have

to be careful you don't over stress it until the tyre is at the optimum

temperature. We haven't seen lap times from Hulkenberg, Valtteri

Bottas, Ricciardo. Coming back to the comment in Sauber made to

Gutierrez. Are you surprised they are making those comments during

Gutierrez. Are you surprised they practise session? Not really, it is

feedback. It is a little bit of information. They are looked at it

in comparison to his team-mate in comparison to his team-mate

behind the garage and realised there was a difference. I would have

requested which corners, not a general, is that

requested which corners, not a ones is it

requested which corners, not a specific and then he can tune it

from there. Wi these new cars and acceleration then sometimes you can

be a gear higher which doesn't feel correct, but in reality, just puts a

little bit less stress through the rear tyre and allows a more

consistent acceleration out of a corner. Pastor Maldonado is

currently eighth fastest. His team-mate tenth fastest. All of them

still having used the hard tyre. Sebastian Vettel is out there on the

medium compound tyre. He is perhaps a little bit earlier

medium compound tyre. He is perhaps everybody else is doing. Well, after

missing yesterday, he needs to get the lap ins. He needs to get the

experience and the lap ins. He needs to get the

different as the lap ins. He needs to get the

radio. The track temperature is beginning to build. It is up to 28

Celsius already. It was over 40 Celsius when we were in the second

session yesterday. Yeah, but this is McLaren's problem.

session yesterday. Yeah, but this is have enough downforce and when the

temperature rises then you tend have enough downforce and when the

sort of, you need a lot of downforce at that point to get the grip and

sort of, you need a lot of downforce keep the tyre in the working range.

If not, McLaren are going to be struggling. If he is struggling this

morning, it suggests this afternoon can be a bit of a problem for him.

We are riding with Jenson Button. You can see he is down on time and

struggling to get the car turned in. Not a great lap for Jenson Button.

Hamilton has done a fast first sector, but he backed it off in the

middle sector, I don't think he will improve on Rosberg's time. It looked

as if he had the potential to improve. Alonso third, Button fourth

and Raikkonen fifth. A question from Petrol Head Jack, any idea why

Raikkonen has been struggling so much this season? Well, on the

evidence we have seen this weekend, he has been on a par with what

Alonso has been doing. Yeah, he has. As we have got an on board of

Sebastian Vettel coming through the long turn four running wide as we

Sebastian Vettel coming through the saw Jean-Eric Vergne. Not the ideal

line. Once you are on the kerb, you can't get off it. You have got to

ride it out until the end. But coming back to Kimi Raikkonen, his

driving style different to Alonso's. Alonso's is very different. He can

maintain it. He goes into the corner, throws the front in and

Raikkonen goes in a little bit more conventional on to the brake and

holds the brake very late which destable identitieses the --

destabilises the rear of the Ferrari. This weekend, he has been

much more on form. We also must remember one other thing...

TEAM RADIO: The rear tyres are overheating. Hulkenberg reporting

the same as Button. Alonso is one of the best out there. So you know, it

is a hard fight to come into Alonso's living room and sit down

and get his feet underneath the table. That's right. The car has

been designed around Alonso and not around Kimi Raikkonen and it is

taking time for Raikkonen to get the war the way he -- car the way he

wants it. A viewer saying what should Sebastian Vettel do to turn

his season around? He has not had much luck, but it is about Red Bull

and Renault getting more horsepower from the engine and for Vettel to

get the car to his liking. Danny saying the cars have different front

noses. Do teams have advantages with the shape they have gone for? With

the updates, it is not as if we are seeing a team that's run one shape

change and copy another car. We have seen that once this year and that

was McLaren when they turned up with a different front nose. It is detail

right now. The concepts are fixed and the detail evolution that is

coming out of the updates and will come out of the updates. I

understand that Ferrari has a bigger update later on in the season. But

so far, around here, it has been small changes that have made the

differences. Vettel has gone third, but that's nothing particularly

impressive because he is on the softer tyre. The medium compound

tyre which I think Rosberg will be coming out in a moment. But of

course, he maybe running more fuel in that car, mightn't he? The fuel,

that's one thing we don't know the levels, the teams are very reluctant

to tell us, but the fuel in the car, you would expect, Sebastian Vettel

because. Of the lack of running yesterday to maybe have more in the

tank than what he normally would in free practise three.

Kevin Magnussen looks like his dad is here again this weekend. Keeping

an eye on Kevin. We saw him in the McLaren pit. He does know this track

well from the junior category, it gives him that little bit of extra

confidence going into this weekend. Comes up through turn nine and wide

there. He got two wheels on to the gravel. It looks like he backed out

of this lamb. Kevin Magnussen -- lap. Kevin Magnussen had a fantastic

start. Australia was incredible. Now, it is the hard work. It is when

you have got to dig deep. He has got to get his head down and keep on

working. The McLaren team from back to front, they have got to do it. It

is a while since they had a victory here, 2005 was the last time that

McLaren won on this circuit, that was Kimi Raikkonen. Kimi Raikkonen

had the honour of having the most win for McLaren and Ferrari. Kimi

had good results and Alonso can drag a result like he did last year. A

brilliant performance of the so Ferrari have two Spain specialists

at the wheel of their car if you like. Watching the replay of the

oversteer moment for Kevin Magnussen, but he dealt with it

effectively. He did, but the car is bouncing up and down a lot. There is

small bumps around the circuit and the car seems to be springing. They

need to think about the damping. That's not a bad thing because it is

a factor of this track, That's not a bad thing because it is

mean there is inconsistent loads on the tyre. It is caristic of McLaren

to run the car stiff. Maybe an attempt to get the aero platform

nice and stable. The car does seem to bounce around. Just riding on

board with Felipe Massa, but let's get down to Tom. I am at Sauber

where Esteban Gutierrez has come in and had a front nose change. They

have got the old and the new front wing right herl. Pete, if I can show

you, this is the new front wing. It is very clean. The old front wing,

which is the one Gutierrez put on is this, it has this old flip up here.

He is working flat out on, he is not sure which of these two is the

better of the two front wings going ahead into the qualifying session

this afternoon. Thank you very much. These are amazing pieces of work.

Probably over ?200,000 worth of work in the front wings. It is amazing

the amount of research of time that's gone into each little flick

up and each little section of the front wing and getting it out on

track to determine which one is better. Well there, is the last

chance as well. Once they go into qualifying, in the parc ferme

situation when they can't change the car apart from the things, well

set-up wise they can't change the car without any penalty. This is his

last opportunity now, with 20 minutes to go, he has to make a

decision. Most people running on the hard tyre. It is only Vettel that's

been out on the medium tyre, but we will see plenty of cars out on the

softer tyre and that will give us a good int indicator of performance

going into qualifying. There is no doubt about it that Mercedes look

strong. Valtteri Bottas' team-mate working hard here.

strong. Valtteri Bottas' team-mate confidence, I think, going towards

qualifying. We have seen this car has delivered on several occasions

this year. Yes, it delivered, but we haven't got the result they probably

thought they could get. Especially in the first Grand Prix, Valtteri

Bottas had a brush with the wall. He is dragging the time out of the car

at the moment. He is going hard for it. He is. He qualified third in

Bahrain in the dry. Williams it. He is. He qualified third in

sessions -- qualifying sessions we have had. A chunk of oversteer in

the final turn. That looked painful. That's harsh on the car, but it is

harsh on the body as well as he gets sprung up there and it lands

aggressively. Let's look at a replay of part of that lap. Turn three

coming through, long turn three, huge oversteer. There it broke away.

coming through, long turn three, That's the rear tyre losing the grip

in the three-quarters way through the corner. There is no real

indication that was happening. It wasn't a small increase, the rear

tyre lost the grip and the oversteer and he had to get off the circuit to

get it back into line. Williams have been struggling with rear end

downforce. Of course, all the cars have less downforce at the back

because of the regulation changes, the lack of exhaust blowing, but

other changes around the rear section which reduced the downforce

on the back of the car and that's they are having to try and catch

back up with. There is a lot of changes with the aerodynamic

regulations. The downforce level dictates how quick you can go

through the corner. The balance between the front and the rear is

important and the rear looks too snappy in the Williams on the harder

of the two compounds of tyre. It will have its effect

of the two compounds of tyre. It the rear tyres are working hard

through the race then you could struggle with getting the stint

length you need. But struggle with getting the stint

driver has to lift awe the throt -- lift off the throttle. If there is

understeer, he lifts front to bring back into line. The time lap of an

oversteery car is more than an understeery car. So a bit of cutting

going on all Vettel's car. We have seen quite a lot of that from Red

Bull, where they have got in with the grinder and various other

things. It is not what we would expect from Adrian Newey, but he is

always pushing the development. I do not know what that was, the thing

they were cutting off. Still development going on, clearly! Kimi

Raikkonen on a lap, he is on the medium tyre, you can see the white

writing on the side wall, one of the first of the frontrunners to go for

the medium compound, and first of the frontrunners to go for

a light fuel load. You can see the first of the frontrunners to go for

car moving through turn three, but not the big slice of oversteer we

saw from the Williams. No, but when he did oversteer, the rear tyre bit

into the tarmac and he could keep his foot in it. The car is moving

around a little bit more, not as if it is smooth and precise, as from

Rosberg and Hamilton. He is having to work to get the lap time-out. A

lock of the left front through turns six, seven and eight. Looking

at the thermal camera from Kimi Raikkonen's car, the difference

between the two tyres seems to be about one second. A little lock-up,

a black spot as it rotates around, and then the tyre will generate

temperature. This is a long corner, look how hot it is across the

complete tyre, now cooling down to purple, then increasing. For the

left hand side, you can see he went in a bit too deep, bounced over the

kerb. The time has gone on this one. You can see how hard it is for the

left-hand tyre on this track. A little scrappy, 1:28.4, only a tenth

quicker than the other tyre. He has backed off for the moment. He may

try to do a slow lap and then go again. Kobayashi running wide at

turn four, likely did not go into the gravel trap. Max Chilton had a

little visit during one of the sessions, it does happen here. Jules

Bianchi getting ready to go out on his qualifying simulation. I would

expect that to be the medium tyre under the blankets. Marussia have

brought several updates to the car this weekend. Currently, he is three

tenths quicker than Kobayashi, Max Chilton is splitting the Caterhams.

The team were impressed with Bianchi yesterday, some quick laps, a decent

race run. A big slide from Max Chilton, wow! Fantastic save! That

was beautiful to watch, straight out of the Gilles Villeneuve school of

driving. That was turn nine. TEAM RADIO: Something is wrong with

the car. It is completely different to yesterday. Whether we have a tyre

temperature problem or something else. It is so unstable. A different

car. That was Adrian Sutil commenting back, a different car.

This was a message from earlier on the radio, very much over steering,

brakes worse than yesterday. It looks like the updates and changes

to the Sauber has not helped much. Let's look at this again, Allan, Max

Chilton. Once again, just right at the moment when the rear tyre was

overloaded and gave up. It is not as if it gave much feedback, it just

suddenly gave up. A stunning recovery to get it back. But Adrian

Sutil is sitting down in 18th position, so he is not getting into

Q2 as we speak. That is right, that is where they have been struggling,

and I thought they had made a step forward yesterday, but the evidence

from today is that they will be fighting just as hard to

from today is that they will be Q1 and into Q2, and neither driver

really looking very happy. You can see the car squirming as it comes

out of the final chicane, not looking that stable through the last

corner. He crosses the line 16. Still on the hard tyre, we will wait

to see him do a medium tyre run at the end of the session. Still very

obvious they are not happy with things. Monisha Kaltenborn's

birthday today, they were celebrating that Elliott, a big

cake, the drivers turned up for a photo opportunity. -- earlier. I'm

not sure she will get the gift of the car is challenging for a top-ten

start, which is what she would like more than anything. They will be

happy to get into the top 15, never mind the top ten. That is a long way

from where Sauber are aiming this afternoon. Sadly, I think that is

correct. Hamilton getting ready for his run, the tyre blankets will stay

on until the last moment, whipped away, brand-new set of gleaming

Pirelli medium tyres. And Lewis Hamilton, who was on a roll at the

moment, he is driving absolutely superbly with a victory last time

out in China, a dominant win. superbly with a victory last time

used less fuel than virtually anybody else on the way to winning

the race, and so far this weekend he has looked brilliant. But Rosberg,

don't forget, did take pole position and beat Hamilton last year. The

difference in qualifying last year was about a second, just over two

tenths. They had the front row together last year, so that was a

season where we didn't always see that kind of pace from them, but it

was impressive in qualifying, if not in the race itself. Watching Jules

Bianchi, then, on the hard tyre, interestingly, not on the medium

compound, which I thought he was going to be. 1:30.9, maybe they are

saving up their run for the very end of the session. I think what is

going to be importance later in qualifying today, as we go on board

with Rosberg, he is on the medium compound, and this will give us a

good indication, let's watch the lap and see how hard he attacks the

first section. Very late on the brakes into turn

one, into turn three, very close to the kerb. The fact he can keep it to

the kerb tells me the car is pretty hooped up. We have seen the other

cars sliding a little bit wide, they cannot keep the apex. He is

effectively equalling his time from earlier in the session. The first

sector is closest to the fastest we have seen so far, Hamilton had the

fastest first sector time earlier. We're coming up to the tricky

right-hander where Max Chilton had the slide. It turns in positively.

It does, but it looks slow, it does not look as if he is working with

the car. The time, three tenths of a second, by the time he comes into

the second sector, that is just evidence of the fact that the car is

pretty hooked up, as we said. A little bit of oversteer, but with a

couple of corners to go, it is in control for Rosberg to keep his

quickest time and extend the gap to Lewis Hamilton, who was also out on

the medium tyre. Will he gain as much as a second? He has done a 26.5

on the hard tyre, he does 25.8, not as much as a second, about seven

tenths of a second on the softer tyre. Not as big a difference as we

And not as big a difference as And not as big a difference as

yesterday, when it was between eight tenths and one second, but the

circuit is a little bit cleaner. Lewis Hamilton a little bit wider

through the left-hander up Lewis Hamilton a little bit wider

towards turn nine. But I think the gap was bigger yesterday, a bit

closer today. Interestingly, that lap is not quicker than Hamilton

managed in second practice yesterday, 25.5, so Rosberg has not

managed to beat that, which is surprising, considering the track is

a bit cleaner. Great overhead view of that final section that Hamilton

is coming into now, this chicane that was added in 2007 and has been

a part of the track ever since. He has backed off at the end, slows

down, coming into the pits. He did the quickest middle sector, so I

think Lewis the quickest middle sector, so I

has got in the car. He has came into the pits for whatever reason...

Chilton off again, the second time this weekend. The us put it into the

gravel, and this has more effect. -- he has put it. 11 minutes to go,

everybody is about to do their quick laps, let's hope this can be sorted

quickly. That is turn five, the hairpin before you go downhill. He

has locked up the front left and just run out of road at that point.

On the hard tyre, presumably he had done quite a few laps. It is locking

up problems that are catching him out both times. Well, their car

struggles with downforce generally. It is easier to lock up the tyres

when you have got low downforce, and then when you add in a pretty hard

tyre from Pirelli for this particular Grand Prix, it

exacerbates the problem. particular Grand Prix, it

thing about that corner is that it is quite a lot of camber, and the

left hand wheel is a little bit is quite a lot of camber, and the

little mock-ups if you have steering angle especially. -- lock-ups.

Yellow flag in that section at turn five where Max Chilton's car will be

hoisted out of the way, the marshals getting to work. John Bruce keeping

a close eye on the Marussia pit wall. What is going on at Mercedes?

a close eye on the Marussia pit We saw Hamilton come straight back

in, will he come out again? No, he is out of his car, Ben, and I think

he has done enough. He was happy with the pace of the car through the

middle sector and he does not want to reveal his hand, simple as that.

We have seen Mercedes back up early in the third practice section at

quite a few races, and he is now relaxing. Nico Rosberg, on the other

hand, completed relaxing. Nico Rosberg, on the other

has come back to do a practice start. It is worth reminding people

we have the longest run from pole position to the apex of turn one, a

lot can happen at the start of the race, so

lot can happen at the start of the when the lights go out. Very true,

it is not just about starting up front, the other side

it is not just about starting up row can sometimes make the drag, and

Alonso has made brilliant starts to sneaker heads down into the first

corner. As you say, that long stretch down to turn one could make

the difference. It looks as though Rosberg will be coming straight back

in again, here we are, yeah, the team getting ready to do a practised

tyre change. We are not going to see the full extent, I think, of what

Mercedes are capable of doing. We saw a quickest lap from Rosberg, a

good lap, 25.8. We never saw what Hamilton could do, he decided to

back off out of it, and Mercedes are playing it slightly differently.

Rosberg has been reporting on the radio that he has too much oversteer

on the options, the softer tyre. The oversteer start on entry and goes

all the way through the corner. He is coming down to do another

practice start, on the harder of the two tyres, just sitting at the end

of the pit lane, ready to eat to get going. They are using the time in a

very different way, not on track activity, it is off-track to some

extent, doing starts, making sure the car is totally prepared in the

mechanical sense, making sure it is 100% right in the garage, also

taking a bit of stress off the mechanics leading into qualifying.

Very low revs with these basics turbo-charged engines when they had

the start sequence, picking up as he accelerates away. -- V6. So what

about the others? We are still expecting a flurry of activity at

the end of this session. Daniil Kvyat turned 20 since the last Grand

Prix, and we will come out to have a qualifying simulations. He has

scored three times this year, finishing in the top ten just one

time outside the top ten. Magnussen across the line, he is on the softer

tyre, so let's see what the Dane can do. Another impressive rookie, Kvyat

and Magnussen, two to watch for the season ahead after their excellent

starts, particularly Magnussen with that outstanding beginning in

Australia. He has not been able to back that up, qualified for in

Australia, went on to finish in second place. -- qualified fourth.

Since then it has been harder, but that is what Formula One is about,

doing the best you can when the car is working for you, and then

fighting on when it is not quite so comfortable. Both McLarens on track

at the same time now. He uses a bit of road out of turn nine, not

getting the card tucked into the apex as well as some of the others.

It is a tricky corner there, and unless you have got really precise

front and a stable rear to get the apex, mid-corner and also exit, it

is a bit of apex, mid-corner and also exit, it

with you. That is not the strength of the McLaren right now. Through

turn 13, 14, 15, getting it slowed down, onto the kerb, and the

corresponds quite a lot to the kerb, popping over. -- the car

responds. He will come across the line, 1:27.8, third for the moment

as he uses the softer tyre to improve his lap time. That is a

little bit better, as Jenson Button comes up to follow him through to

finish as lap as well. That is a little bit better than I expected,

to be honest. The gap to the Mercedes is still two seconds, still

2.1 seconds, it is huge, actually. So better in terms of position, but

not in terms of lap time. Just and a sector that Button found on the

second set of tyres. -- just under a second. This will allow some of the

top teams do not have to use the option tyre for the first part of

qualifying, saving them up for the final part of qualifying, and by

keeping a set of tyres available, that should help them in the top ten

shoot out. We are watching Alonso, first sector down by a tenth on the

fastest that we have seen so far from Lewis Hamilton. How about this

second sector? Certainly working with the car, the rear has stepped

out a little bit, but he is able to catch it quickly. We know that

Fernando Alonso does hustle a car, he has an aggressive style, and I

would expect him to drag a pretty good time out of this one. All four

wheels off at turn nine, not a particular problem. That is his

personal best, but it is still half a second slower in that part of the

circuit in comparison to Nico Rosberg from earlier. He does love

this circuit, the last time he was out qualified by a team mate was in

2004 by John Oates rally, and just as Christian Horner said to us

earlier, he seems to be able to drag as Christian Horner said to us

something out. -- Jarno Trulli. That puts him ahead of the two McLarens

by quite a margin, seven tenths faster than the McLarens but still

over a second slower than the Mercedes.

TEAM RADIO: Places to find time, exit at seven, eight up the hill,

lived earlier for turn nine, tight on the exit. That may have worked,

because Magnussen is a fraction quicker than Button, not much to

choose between them as we see Daniil Kvyat, riding on board with him. The

Toro Rosso comes across the line, that puts him 11 at this stage. He

has been struggling with a debt of oversteer, like quite a lot of the

runners this time, an impressive start to his season seems to be

continuing. The thing is he seems very composed on the radio, getting

used to it all. Massa has gone well, but look at Grosjean, quicker than

both of the McLarens, fifth fastest. I think we need to keep an eye on

Lotus for potentially getting into the top ten, which would be a major

bonus for them. Massa a little ahead of the Williams, William is hoping

to challenge Ferrari, and with that time that Massa has done, they

have... Massa has been setting up for quite a little while, he has

been of there at the sharp end of it. Quite an aggressive lap by

Felipe Massa, as we have got a replay of Maldonado... Oh dear! A

bit of confusion between the two Lotus guys. That is rather

unfortunate, Grosjean and Maldonado. Grosjean has been quicker

up until this session, currently ninth fastest, but having a much

better day in fifth. Rosberg out of the car, I wonder what he is looking

at that makes him respond like that, maybe seeing how the Lotus is

going. I think that is definitely something that not everyone

expected, but they had a good day yesterday, and I think Lotus have a

chance of getting into the top ten. I think it will be tough, the lower

part of the top ten I think it will be tough, the lower

massive battle. We have still got to see what kind of times Raikkonen

will be doing, he did not do a quick lap on the medium tyre, but you

would expect him to be up there with Alonso, putting him in the mix with

Massa as well. I think he is sitting just behind Massa and Grosjean at

the moment. He has been a couple of tenths shy Fernando Alonso most of

the weekend. Not representative and 14th, that is

the weekend. Not representative and interesting thing is Ricciardo's

time, I was expecting more from the Red Bull. I think it will be

quicker. Vettel said, we thought he was running with more fuel, and fuel

weight makes a heck of a difference. Every ten kilograms of

fuel is about four tenths of a second, though a big penalty in

terms of what you can do in quali. But if you pump it out, you know

what you have got. I think Red Bull will save it up for qualifying.

Bottas is going on for one more quick lap, what are the Force

Indias doing? Perez is 15, Hulkenberg 16, and I think that

might be the problem for them, dragging a lap out in qualifying.

They are struggling to get the tyres to work over one lap, whereas their

race runs were looking better. If they end up qualifying down there,

they will be struggling to deliver the performance we have seen from

Force India. Oh, into the gravel is Kamui Kobayashi indicator, trying to

get back on again, depositing gravel as

get back on again, depositing gravel seven, he has gone in a bit steep,

it appears, correctly keeping well off the line, braking to make sure

the stones come out where off the line, braking to make sure

not be driving. But now with the chequered flag having come out, it

is the end of the just about kept the car moving

enough to be able to drag just about kept the car moving

out again. Catalunya is Bianchi may have done a lap. Whether he got a

clear lap, I not sure. The loss at Ferrari, Marco Mattiacci.

clear lap, I not sure. The loss at sees that Alonso with that third

fastest time, reasonably promising, but knows it won't be easy with the

likes of Massa close behind. Lotus with resurgence in form. They

predicted they would see the real Lotus this weekend. I wonder if we

will do when it comes to qualifying. There

fourth fastest. Yes, they've done a good job. They have got a few things

on the car. It looked as if they are back in the game.

on the car. It looked as if they are of races where they didn't have the

pure pace we expected, but it looks as if they are back in the game. So

in comes the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel. He has

in comes the Red Bull of Sebastian yesterday. They haven't been looking

at outright lap time, they have been trying to catch up on their race

running so Vettel in tenth position. I think if you look at it in quick

summary then the two Mercedes are a step ahead of everyone else. A big

step ahead. Afterwards, you have probably got the Red Bulls, but the

Ferrari of Alonso is there and also the two Williams. More on the Massa

side of the garage than Valtteri Bottas looking at yesterday and

today. I'm not sure about the Lotus performance. I hope that it is going

to be able to translate into this afternoon, but that battle as we are

seeing at the bottom end of the top ten and the top end of 13th to tenth

will be a real fight. That's going to be a scrap. Yeah, it is going to

be a scrap. Q2 could be remarkable here today and then, of course, in

Q3, we should see Rosberg versus Hamilton fight for

Q3, we should see Rosberg versus That will be one of the highlights.

Q3, we should see Rosberg versus It will be about those two fighting

out for top spots unless some of the others catch up quickly. Rosberg is

fastest, but Hamilton keeping his powder dry this morning. Grosjean

there in fifth place for Lotus and Magnussen in the McLaren is sixth

ahead of Ricciardo and Button. Maldonado, the second Lotus in the

top ten. Valtteri Bottas and Vergne next up. Sutil and Gutierrez and Max

Chilton, Bianchi and Kobayashi and Ericsson. Everything is preparing

for qualifying later on this afternoon and it should be pretty

exciting. So a busy session out there as everyone tries to perfect

their cars before qualifying. This isn't an easy track to overtake.

Pole position can make a difference. It does look like it might be

another Mercedes day. Nico Rosberg impressive out there and what about

Fernando Alonso, well he loves this circuit and he says that home

advantage gives him an edge here, almost worth a couple of places on

the grid, but the fans will have to use all their energy 23 if they hope

to get that under performing Ferrari over the line first. We are live

with qualifying on BBC One, 12. 20. We have a gorgeous Ayrton Senna

feature too. Thanks for your company this morning. Bye-bye.