Ahead of today's all important qualifying session, the air temperature is 26 degrees C and the track temperature is 38 degrees. It remains bright, hot and sunny, almost ideal conditions.

Lewis Hamilton was quickest this morning, however, the Red Bulls and Ferraris are up there, as is his McLaren teammate, albeit with a radically different downforce package. Interestingly, the Woking team is continuing with this strategy this afternoon, Hamilton opting for a lower downforce configuration than his teammate who is running with a different wing and the F-duct.

Mark Webber missed the last seventeen minutes of the session - as he did yesterday afternoon - the problem traced to a small fire in the airbox on his car. The good news is that the Australian doesn't require an engine change.

It would take a brave man - or a very knowledgeable betting syndicate - to put money on who will take pole this afternoon for all the main contenders have looked very good at various stages throughout the weekend. That said, it is clearly between McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari, with Renault somewhat disappointing here thus far, the same goes for Mercedes and Force India.

Tyres this weekend are hard (prime) and soft (option) with very little obvious difference between the tow thus far - not that Webber will be aware of that since he has hardly had any running on the softer option.

The lights go green and Q1 gets underway, Timo Glock leading the way. Michael Schumacher, who has had a difficult weekend thus far, to put it mildly, waves to the TV cameras, the German unlikely to add to his win tally this weekend or in the foreseeable future.

As Glock is about to start his first flying lap, he is badly blocked at the first chicane by Petrov. The German - who already faces a 5-spot penalty after his team needed to break a seal on his gearbox in order to replace the differential - vents his obvious frustration.

Massive oversteer for Schumacher at Roggia, the German pushing hard despite the obvious limitations of the Mercedes.

The seven-time world champion posts 25.619, leapfrogging Liuzzi and Glock but not good enough to beat Hulkenberg (25.490). That said, Rosberg can only manage 30.151.

Having encountered traffic - a significant problem this weekend - Hamilton can only manage seventh (26.273). Teammate Button however, goes quickest with a 23.693 ahead of Barrichello and Petrov. Webber, Vettel, Massa and Alonso are all on track.

Hulkenberg improves to second having gone quickest in sectors two and three however, moments later teammate Barrichello takes the spot back with a 23.731.

A 23.501 sees Massa go quickest but this is almost instantly beaten by Alonso and then Hamilton (22.830). Button crosses the line at 23.085 to consolidate second while Rosberg goes fifth with a 23.707.

A 22.895 sees Massa move up from fourth to second as Vettel goes eighth (23.872) and Webber ninth. Next time around Vettel fails to improve on eighth while Alonso posts 22.803 to go quickest, subsequently consolidating the position with a 22.646.