Ahead of today's all important- certainly in terms of the nature of the circuit - qualifying session, the air temperature is 27 degrees C, while the track temperature is 44 degrees. It remains bright and sunny.

In spite of attempts to slow down Red Bull's runaway domination this season, and with due respect to Charlie Whiting's denial, Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets this morning, eclipsing Fernando Alonso's best time by 0.420s.

However, that was this morning, and now, in light of the FIA's new directive that teams cannot change their engine mapping between qualifying and the race, all eyes are on Red Bull to see how this new rule will effect the Austrian outfit's dominance, particularly in qualifying.

The pace of the Ferraris suggests that the Austrian outfit won't have it all its own way while the McLarens are there or thereabouts. Mercedes continues to make progress, while Renault is also looking quite good here.

The Saubers and Force Indias seem evenly matched, Paul di Resta doing well to finish thirteenth this morning despite his lack of track time here. The Toro Rossos are mixing it with the Williams, while Lotus continues to be best of the rest, albeit over a second off the pace of the back of the midfielders.

Tyre options this weekend are medium - making their debut - and soft, with the softer compound over a second-and-a-half quicker than the harder option and also good for several hot laps.

Q1 gets underway and Heidfeld and di Resta lead the way, followed, shortly after, by Barrichello, di Resta and Liuzzi. Alonso and the Mercedes are also among those eager to get to work… perhaps with an eye on the traffic situation and also the possibility of a yellow flag should there be an incident.

Heidfeld gets things underway with a 41.897 but Alonso and Schumacher are on hot laps. The Mercedes driver posts 42.161 while moments later the Spaniard stops the clocks at 43.458 having slowed right down in the final corner when he comes up behind Kovalainen.

On his first flying lap Webber goes quickest (40.429), ahead of Massa and Petrov, as Alonso seeks to improve.

Vettel goes straight to the top of the timesheets with a 39.965 as Alonso goes second with a 40.254, the Spaniard really struggling with the F150th.

Hamilton and Button are both on hot laps, the Montreal winner posting 39.605 to leapfrog Vettel while Barrichello complains that his car is "definitely worse" in terms of grip.

Hamilton goes fifth (40.258), ahead of Webber and Sutil as Vettel re-takes the top spot with a 39.356.

With 9:34 on the clock Perez finally leaves the pits, still no sign of the Toro Rossos.

Button goes quickest in S1 as Webber goes quickest in S2. The Englishman improves but remains second only to be demoted when his teammate takes the top spot with a 39.244.

The Toro Rossos finally leave the pits, both on softs, taking advantage of the fact that most of their rivals are in their garages. Elsewhere, Vettel posts a 39.116 to leapfrog Hamilton for the top spot.

Perez goes fourth (39.754), the Mexican making good use of his option tyres. Schumacher also opts to switch to the softer rubber.

Buemi goes fourth (39.679) and his teammate ninth (40.498), thereby dropping Kobayashi into the danger zone. Moments later, a 39.690 drops di Resta into the danger zone also.

Rosberg and Schumacher are both o track with 2:01 on the clock, both on softs. Di Resta improves to eleventh with a 39.852 only to be demoted when Rosberg goes fourth (39.266).

With just over a minute remaining there are 20 cars on track and Webber is in the danger zone and stuck in traffic. Elsewhere, Schumacher goes second with a 39.198.

Webber improves to fourteenth but several other drivers are still on track. Massa goes quickest in the first two sectors as he seeks to improve on seventeenth. The Brazilian goes quickest overall (38.413) as all eyes are on Alguersuari. However, the Spaniard fails to improve while Trulli spins in the final corner.

Therefore, we lose Alguersuari, Kovalainen, Trulli, Glock, Liuzzi, d'Ambrosio and Karthikeyan.

Quickest was Massa, ahead of Vettel, Schumacher, Hamilton, Rosberg, Sutil, Button, Perez, Barrichello and Buemi.