Ahead of today's all-important qualifying session, the air temperature is 38 degrees while the track temperature is 51 degrees. Hot and sunny, as ever, however, the wind is picking up.

This morning's session, in particular, didn't really give us any sort of clear idea as to who's hot and who's not. Timo Glock was quickest but suffered a technical failure that left him stranded by the side of the track. Meanwhile, the Brawns were well down the timesheets with both drivers being told to go easy on their engine for fear of overheating.

Ferraris were on the pace this morning, but one feels that this is not a true indication of the Italian team really lies in terms of the opposition. The same can almost certainly be said of BMW.

Renault are clearly being very cagey, and something tells us that Fernando Alonso will be attempting the same strategy we saw in China, i.e. running on fumes in order to be at the front.

As for the Shanghai winners, Red Bull, while they didn't exactly set the timesheets alive this morning, we feel that in terms of true form, the Brackley outfit is behind the Brawn GP cars, but just a little. Despite Glock's technical problem earlier, watch out for the Toyotas this afternoon, particularly qualifying whiz-kid Trulli.

As for Williams, which thus far have been unable to convert their practice pace into qualifying or race results, maybe this is the weekend when things will go right for the Grove outfit.

Four teams are using KERS this weekend - Renault, BMW, McLaren and Ferrari - while the tyre options are medium and super-soft, which we will refer to as hard and soft.

The moment the lights go green, Fisichella slips out of the Force India garage, keen to get to work. The Silverstone-based outfit, which has a raft of upgrades on the car this weekend, including an interim diffuser, has looked good in all three practice sessions.

Kovalainen is another the first of the big guns to go out, joined by Sutil, Bourdais and Piquet.

Fisichella crosses the line at 1:35.931 to post the first time of the session, with Sutil going second with a 38.779. Moments later, Kovalainen crosses the line at 35.542.

As more and more cars go out the times begin to tumble. As Vettel begins his first flying lap, the order is Bourdais, Rosberg and Trulli.

Vettel goes fourth, the Red Bull looking very, very good. Elsewhere, Trulli goes quickest in the first two sectors, crossing the line at 34.117 to quickest overall. Vettel goes second with a 34.159.

Raikkonen goes quickest in the first two sectors, finally crossing the line at 33.648, as Webber takes seventh courtesy of a 4.534. A big lock-up for Kovalainen at the notorious Turn 9/10 combination.

Button goes fourth as Raikkonen continues to set a blistering pace, the Finn raising the benchmark with a 33.524. However, Massa posts 33.512 to go quickest, a 1-2 for Ferrari.

Hamilton goes quickest in the first sector, going on to post a 33.290 to go quickest, despite only being fastest in that one sector.