Whilst Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets this morning, the time posted by teammate Nico Rosberg in FP2 yesterday was quicker.

Either way, this morning's laps by both drivers, though scrappy, were clear indication that the Mercedes remains the class of the field and that both drivers have much more in reserve.

The battle between Williams and Ferrari is warming up nicely, and though the Grove outfit seems uber confident the Italian team, taking an atypically low key approach, looks good, particularly on the longer runs.

Behind these three the form ebbs and flows with Sauber looking particularly strong this morning, amazing really when you consider the distractions its faced in the last couple of days. Then again, the Swiss outfit's pre-season form was none too shabby.

While Lotus and Toro Rosso have clearly improved, the Enstone outfit benefitting from the switch to Mercedes power, Red Bull is all at sea, both Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat losing vital track time this morning following engine related issues.

Force India is still catching up following the late arrival of its 2015 car, whilst McLaren continues to plug away.

Once again the Marussias failed to make an appearance as frustration with the Diddington team slowly builds. McLaren was the only team to break the curfew last night, which begs the question, if Marussia is working so hard to rectify its problems and get on track, why didn't it also break the curfew?

While Hamilton took pole here last year it was Rosberg who took the win. In fact, though the Briton went on to take the title, against expectations it was the German who ruled on Saturday afternoon's beating Hamilton 12-7.

The tyre compounds are medium and soft, whilst there are two DRS zones, detection is 13m before T14 with activation 30m after T16 and 32m after T2.

Ahead of Q1, the air temperature is 30 degrees C, whilst the track temperature is 40 degrees. Despite it being 18:00 it remains bright though somewhat gusty.

The lights go green and shortly afterwards Sainz heads down the pitlane to get things underway. With so little track time, Ricciardo is another early riser.

Soon all but Perez, Kvyat ad the McLarens are on track. All on primes except for Vettel, Raikkonen and Hulkenberg who are already on options.

Sainz posts 33.094 but this is soon beaten by Verstappen (32.851) and then Nasr 32.540).

Hamilton complains about "big vibration" following a minor off, Maldonado also struggling to stay on the black stuff.

Raikkonen posts 30.188 to go quickest as Vettel goes quickest in the first two sectors, finally crossing the line at 29.307. Elsewhere, Hulkenberg takes to the grass in T1.

As Sainz spins at T9, just as he did in FP3, Bottas goes third (30.305) and Rosberg fourth (30.376), though both are on the prime rubber.

Ricciardo goes eighth with a 32.340 as Button turns the MP4-30 into a lawnmower in T1.

Despite a scrappy lap, Hamilton goes third (30.277) on the primes.

Bottas splits the Ferraris with a 29.641 though he is subsequently demoted when Rosberg posts 28.906.

Hamilton goes quickest in S1 and again in S2, finally crossing the line at 28.586, eclipsing his teammate by 0.320s.

With 5:15 remaining, all but Kvyat have posted times. The Russian, along with teammate Ricciardo and Nasr currently in the drop zone. The McLarens currently eleventh (Magnussen) and twelfth.

Ricciardo improves to 9th (29.834) as Verstappen goes third with a 29.248, the Dutch youngster on the softer rubber. The McLaren duo join Kvyat in the drop zone.

Kvyat has just one times lap in which to make it to Q2, he does it, the Red Bull driver posting 30.402 to go thirteenth.

Button improves to 17th (31.422) but it's not enough, like his McLaren teammate he falls at the first hurdle.

Quickest was Hamilton, ahead of Rosberg, Massa, Verstappen, Vettel, Grosjean, Sainz, Bottas, Hulkenberg and Raikkonen.

We lose Ericsson, Button and Magnussen and the Marussias.

All but the Mercedes duo and Bottas ran with the option rubber.