Ahead of today's second practice session the air temperature is 25 degrees C, while the track temperature is 31 degrees. Following this morning's fog, it is now much brighter, with clear blue skies and much warmer.

The tyres available this weekend are hard and medium, while there are two DRS zones, one on the pit straight while the other, as in 2012, runs between Turns 11 and 12.

The problems with the fog and then the medical helicopter meant there was restricted running for all concerned, so hopefully, Jean-Eric-Vergne, Giedo Van der Garde and Jules Bianchi didn't lose out too much after handing over their cars to their teams' reserve drivers.

Fernando Alonso set the pace, ahead of Jenson Button, while Valtteri Bottas was third quickest, the Finn no doubt motivated by having been retained for a second season.

Talking of Button, the McLaren driver has incurred a three-place grid penalty for overtaking Daniil Kyat as the session was red-flagged.

Interestingly, Heikki Kovalainen was only slightly out-paced by Romain Grosjean whilst at Toro Rosso Kvyat kept Daniel Ricciardo honest.

While Mark Webber was eighth quickest, behind the Mercedes, teammate Sebastian Vettel was way down in eighteenth, 2.319s off the pace.

The lights go green and once again Kovalainen leads the way, followed by Hulkenberg.

As more and more drivers pour on to the track, Fernando Alonso dons his helmet. If he were a dog you'd probably do the humane thing… other than a very sore back and neck following his excursion in Abu Dhabi, the Spaniard has also hurt his thumb which is sporting a large plaster.

As Kovalainen gets things underway with a 40.335, all but Webber, Alonso, Hamilton, Maldonado and Ricciardo are on track. Indeed, there is a lot of work going being carried out on Ricciardo's car.

Bianchi runs wide at T19, a corner that caught out a number of drivers this morning, especially Sutil who went wide three times.

Ten minutes into the session, on his first flying lap, Vettel goes straight to the top of the timesheets, the German posting 38.352. Button is second, ahead of Rosberg, Grosjean and Hulkenberg.

Mercedes is encountering a telemetry problem which is causing a problem for Hamilton in particular. "Information will be scarce," he is told. Teammate Rosberg complains that his car has "understeer everywhere".

Grosjean and Sutil go wide in T19 while T16 is reported to be "slippery".

Around seventeen minutes into the session, Maldonado finally leaves his garage, performing a full launch process at the pit exit.

A hairy moment for Hamilton in Turn 8/9, as Webber goes second to make it a Red Bull 1-2 (groan). Despite his woes, Hamilton goes third with a 38.728.

Capt. No Grip is "struggling with front brake locking, low speed corners... and traction".

Maldonado runs wide at the notorious T19 as Hamilton runs wide in T12, the Mercedes driver subsequently diving into the pits.

Finally on track, Ricciardo goes nineteenth (41.658), teammate Vergne is currently fifteenth.

Good to see a sizeable crowd here, especially at that wonderful first turn.

Coming up to the half-hour, Gutierrez and Pic are the first to fit the option (medium) rubber.

As Hulkenberg and Kovalainen fit the softer rubber, Gutierrez posts a PB in S1. Another PB in S3 sees the Sauber driver improve to seventh (38.842) a difference of about 0.6s.

Webber and Rosberg are the first of the big guns to fit the softer rubber, the Australian will give us an idea of what we can expect from his teammate.

A PB in S1 for Hulkenberg is followed by a rapid S2. At the line the German posts 38.533 to go second, despite losing time in the final sector due to a lock up in T15.

Rosberg goes quickest in S1 while Webber can only manage a PB. As Kovalainen goes third he is demoted when Gutierrez improves to second (38.229). Moments later, Rosberg goes quickest with a 37.785 only to lose out to Webber and his 37.420.

Asked for his thoughts, Maldonado responds: "Everything is wrong!" Well they did ask.