As the cars prepare to go out for today's second free practice session, the air temperature has risen to 38 degrees C, and the track temperature 54 degrees.

First out is Robert Doornbos, followed by Liuzzi, Friesacher, Albers, Wurz and Sato.

Following the inactivity of the first session - particularly with regards the 'big guns' - we can expect a bit more 'action' in this session. At least we very much hope so.

Doornbos posts the benchmark but moments later this eclipsed by Wurz who laps the Sakhir circuit in 1:33.633.

Zonta goes second, Klien and Coulthard fourth and fifth, suddenly it's fast and furious, and we're only 7 minutes into the session.

Button goes third (1:33.911) only to be demoted by Kimi Raikkonen who goes straight to the top of the timesheets with a 1:33.297. Ralf Schumacher posts his first time of the day, a 1:34.769, which puts him seventh.

There are 17 cars on track as Fisichella goes ninth (1:35.093) and teammate Alonso goes fourth (1:33.788).

As Trulli goes ninth (1:35.038), teammate Zonta begins what looks to be a very fast lap, the Brazilian going quickest in the first sector. Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher goes second with a 1:33.358, just 0.061s off Raikkonen's pace.

Trulli improves to fifth only to be demoted by de la Rosa who goes third with a 1:33.387, which means the top 3 - Raikkonen, Schumacher and de la Rosa - are covered by 0.090.

Another improvement sees Trulli go quickest with a 1:33.295, eclipsing Raikkonen by just two-thousandths of a second.

Fifteen minutes into the session and it's: Trulli, Raikkonen, Michael, de la Rosa, Zonta, Wurz, Ralf, Alonso, Button and Klien. Only Massa, Barrichello and Webber have yet to post a time.

Wurz begins a hot lap, the Austrian going a full second quicker than anyone else in the first sector. He's still quickest in the second sector, going on to cross the line at 1:30.695, that's only slightly off lat year's pole time (1:30.139).

Felipe Massa goes seventh with a 1:33.726 as teammate Villeneuve languishes in seventeenth. The Canadian really does need a good result, and soon.

As Alonso and Button are on 'hot' laps, Coulthard goes seventh, leapfrogging Massa. Moments later, Alonso goes second (1:33.000), albeit 2.3s off Wurz' pace.

Jenson Button goes fifth (1:33.302), while teammate Sato is back in seventeenth, despite having completed the same amount of laps (7).

With almost thirty minutes gone, the session slips into one of those limbo-like periods where nothing appears to happen and the order hardly changes. At which point Mark Webber leaves the WilliamsF1 pit - he and Barrichello being the only drivers that have yet to post a time. The Ferrari driver appears to have a gearbox problem.

Sato's session appears to be over, he stops in the second sector.