Ahead of today's sole free practice session, the air temperature is 21 degrees C, while the track temperature is 29 degrees. It is bright, with the sun trying to break through the clouds.

First out is Takuma Sato, followed by Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard rarely seen at this time of the morning. That said, he has a difficult weekend ahead of him.

The Renault driver posts the first time of the day, crossing the line at 1:25.405, Sato can only manage 29.417.

Alonso pits in order that the team can made adjustments to his front wing, moments later he's heading back down the pitlane. Clearly, with the 2s penalty in qualifying, Pat Symonds has a strategy, hence the reason the Spaniard is out so early in the day.

Ralf and Trulli head down the pitlane, as Fernando goes quickest in the first sector. The Spaniard maintains his pace, finally crossing the line at 1:23.092.

Clearly Renault, and Alonso, mean business, the race stewards might have done us all a favour… we might be in for a battle royal.

As Ralf goes second (26.142) and Trulli third (27.617), Alonso returns to the pits, no doubt for some further adjustments.

Barrichello leaves the pits, followed by Scott Speed.

Liuzzi, Kubica, Klien, Coulthard, one by one more and more drivers come out to play, as Alonso heads down the pitlane yet again. The guy means business.

While Ralf can only manage 25.713, the Spaniard raises the benchmark to 22.119, that's 3.5s difference. Clearly Renault is looking at running ultra-light in the opening phase(s) of qualifying.

Massa is on track, which should give us an idea of Alonso's true pace this morning. Button, Webber and Heidfeld also leave the pits.

Massa begins a flying lap, but is almost a second down on Alonso in the first sector. Meanwhile, Michael and Fisichella leave the pits.

Button goes second (25.303), but is almost instantly demoted by Klien, who crosses the line at 25.124, still 3s off Alonso's pace. Next time around, Button improves to 24.731, but once again Klien goes quicker (642).

Disaster for the English driver, smoke pours from the back of his car, his engine has clearly blown, which means a ten spot grid penalty - and no further lappery this morning. With oil on the track, the session is red flagged.

With 31 minutes remaining, the order is: Alonso, Klien, Button, Speed, Coulthard, Kubica, Heidfeld, Ralf, de la Rosa and Michael.

There is confusion, the timing screens indicate that the session is back on, indeed the 'clock' is ticking. However, Alonso is told that the session is still red-flagged… the Spaniard is impatient to get back to work.

With marshals clearing the oil from the track, it is obvious that the session has not re-started and that the timing screens are wrong.

In all honesty, the marshals seem to be making more mess than is necessary, that said, Button dropped a lot of oil, all the way up the hill to Turn 4 and round the corner.

The clock is still ticking, indicating that we have just over 21 minutes remaining, though four drivers have yet to post a time - Albers, Fisichella, Rosberg and Raikkonen.

The lights finally go green - for real - and first out is Fernando, followed by Webber, Heidfeld and Barrichello. Rosberg and Raikkonen join them.

Rosberg goes second (24.381), but Raikkonen has already gone quickest in the first sector, on his first flying lap. The Finn goes second (22.599), just 0.480s off Alonso's time, as Webber goes third, ahead of his WilliamsF1 teammate Rosberg.

Michael goes seventh (24.872), as Raikkonen goes quickest in the first sector but fails to improve his overall time. Massa, who has only completed four laps, is twenty-first, of twenty-two.

Interestingly, Alonso, Raikkonen and Webber are covered by just 0.720, with fourth fastest Klien, a further 1.3s behind. It would appear that conditions are only marginally better than yesterday… though the 'experts' are still predicting rain for tomorrow.

Pedro de la Rosa goes quickest in the first sector, finally crossing the line at 22.477, to go second. Elsewhere, Massa is back on track.

As Yamamoto gets all out of shape, Massa goes quickest in the first sector. The Brazilian maintains the pace and finally crosses the line at 21.472, the only person - other than Alonso - to top the timesheets this morning.