Ahead of today’s qualifying session the air temperature is 19 degrees C, while the track temperature is 29 degrees.

After yesterday morning’s deluge conditions are altogether better this afternoon, indeed, there is even a strange orange thing in the sky, some of the old timers here say it used to be called the sun. That said, it is fairly windy, with a strong head wind at certain points on the track which will cause problems.

While Nico Rosberg has topped the timesheets in both dry sessions, one cannot help but feel that it is a question of same old, same old, as Mercedes demonstrates a superb pace over one lap - usually on Saturday – only to fall apart on Sunday when it matters.

Therefore, all eyes must be on Vettel and Webber who finished third and fourth this morning. The Red Bull looks good here, and since announcing his intention to quit F1 on Thursday, the Australian, twice a winner here, has had a distinct sparkle in his eye.

While Ferrari has yet to show its hand, McLaren is clearly struggling, a situation not helped by the tyre failure on Sergio Perez’ car this morning. While the cause of the failure is unclear the situation could have major ramifications for the sport. While the safety card will be played over the coming weeks we cannot help but feel that politics is the true issue here.

Kimi Raikkonen has been running the controversial passive DRS system, aka The Device, while teammate Romain Grosjean has yet to get his hands on it. Then again, the Frenchman was quicker this morning.

Clearly fired up by the ‘help wanted’ sign over the Red Bull garage, Vergne and Ricciardo have raised their game while force India continues to show good progress. Indeed, speaking last night Paul di Resta actually referred to “we” when talking about the team.

The lights go green for Q1 and Hulkenberg, who really isn’t enjoying his time with Sauber, is first out.

As The German begins his first flying lap, more and more drivers head down the pitlane to join him, amongst them Raikkonen.

As Hulkenberg posts 35.806, Hamilton is on the pit-wall waving to the fans. All that’s missing is Roscoe.

Grosjean goes quickest with a 32.586 while teammate Raikkonen, with the aid of The Device, can only manage second (32.785). Perez goes sixth just ahead of Massa.

As Alonso goes quickest in S1, Grosjean raises the bar with a 32.401. Moments later di Resta splits the Lotus duo with a 32.546.

Grosjean, Vergne and Massa all have little moments, running wide at various points of the track.

Rosberg goes quickest in the first two sectors, finally crossing the line at 31.555, over half-a-second quicker than Grosjean. Moments later Hamilton bangs in a 30.995.

With 7:00 remaining, the Red Bulls, Button and Van der Garde have yet to post times, though all but the Dutchman are on track. The Caterham driver, who picked up a grid penalty for one of his numerous clashes in Canada, is likely to start from the back of the field tomorrow no matter what happens.

On his first flying lap Webber goes third (31.605), with Vettel fourth (31.854) moments later. Button posts 31.979 to go eighth.

Raikkonen goes third and Grosjean fourth, the passive DRS, or lack of it, not appearing to make much of a difference between the pair.

As the clock counts down to zero, Massa and Bottas are both in the drop zone. The Brazilian improves to fourteenth, one place ahead of his Ferrari teammate. Maldonado posts 32.512 to make it through to Q2, albeit at the expense of his teammate, Montreal hero Valtteri Bottas.

Quickest was Hamilton, ahead of Rosberg, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Vettel, Webber, Perez, Button, Sutil and di Resta. Perfect symmetry.

We lose Bottas, Gutierrez, Pic, Bianchi, Van der Garde and Chilton.

Going into Q2, it appears to be all about Mercedes and Red Bull while Ferrari, based on the evidence of Q1, is struggling.

Hard to believe but Capt No Grip reports that there is “a lot of grip” out there. Is he complaining that there’s too much grip? Surely not.