A fairly uneventful morning session at the Circuit de Catalunya finally sprang to life in 'extra time', when two drivers who had seen little or no action finally made an appearance.

As was the case yesterday, Mercedes - with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel - quietly got on with the job.

The Briton was the pace-setter for much of the morning, finally nailing it with a late switch to supersofts which saw the him cross the line at 20.983.

Once again, the silver car ran without missing a beat, and while the dreaded fin had been dropped - no, not Valtteri - the T-Wing now featured two elements, shades of The Red Baron's bi-plane.

Kimi Raikkonen was second quickest, the Finn having an equally quiet morning - he clearly knows what he's doing - as he completed 47 laps on his way to posting a 22.831. As was the case yesterday, Ferrari opted not to run the soft rubber instead sticking to medium.

Having lost much of the morning as Force India investigated the exhaust issue which compromised its efforts yesterday, when Esteban Ocon did finally appear he was straight on the pace, finally finishing third with a 23.045.

Unfortunately, with 15 minutes remaining the Frenchman stopped on track bringing out the red flag.

When it appeared the session would not re-start, organisers finally announced that once Ocon's car had been removed the session would be extended by five minutes.

A late surge during that extra five minutes not only allowed Hamilton to bring his lap tally up to 66 - a race distance - but Kevin Magnussen to - the only driver appearing for a second full consecutive day - leapfrog Max Verstappen. Both drivers enjoying quiet mornings and quietly getting on with the task in hand.

That pretty much applies to Daniel Kvyat also, the Russian finishing sixth on the timesheets.

An early pace-setter, Lance Stroll was the cause of a red flag just forty minutes into the session, the youngster, alone on track at the time, spinning off at T9. Unfortunately the car was damaged in the process and with the team not having the necessary parts available the Canadian will not run again this afternoon.

"Lance was on lap six of his second run when he had a spin," confirmed Rob Smedley. "The grip was particularly low and so he spun and went through the gravel backwards.

"Even though the accident was entirely innocuous we've unfortunately had quite a bit of accident damage," he revealed, "which we're now in the process of repairing. We're having to send some composite parts back to the factory, which will be back with us at some point tomorrow. We're doing the upmost we can now to get back out on track at the earliest opportunity tomorrow. We will be able to recover the programme in the coming days."

At first it looked as if McLaren, which had Stoffel Vandoorne on duty, was in for another difficult day. Having ground to a halt on his return to the pits after his install lap, memories of yesterday's torrid start to the programme came flooding back.

Vandoorne subsequently reappeared and was soon lapping on a regular basis but then he was sidelined once again.

According to Honda the power unit lost power and as a result the engine was changed - for the second day running. While the Japanese manufacturer is giving little away, it is understood that the oil tank - or rather the design of it - continues to be an issue.

Antonio Giovinazzi and Jolyon Palmer spent much of the morning twiddling their thumbs - or whatever F1 drivers twiddle. The Sauber had incurred an engine issue which necessitated a change, while Renault was waiting on a number of spares - including brake ducts - to be flown out from Enstone.

Amazingly, with neither having posted a time, Palmer not having even turned a wheel, up until the time of the final (Ocon) red flag, both were able to head out in 'extra time'. Indeed, though Palmer merely completed an installation lap, Giovinazzi managed to post a time, albeit 12.7s off the pace.

Check out our Tuesday gallery from Barcelona, here.