Hello and welcome to the qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix where the breaking news is that Lewis Hamilton has been demoted five places on the grid for having to change his gearbox.

Vettel comes out on the mediums as well which suggests Red Bull prefer the harder tyre as a race tyre and are happy to discard the mediums.

Alonso goes fastest by half a second. Hamilton is out on the hard tyres which means Mercedes think they have enough pace. Webber is straight out on the softer mediums but he does have a grid penalty and may want to make one less stop.

And Alonso is out. He’s followed by Button and Webber. Vettel still waits.

Lotus have gone early to give themselves the option of another run. Ferrari and Red Bull still in the garage. Perez straight out onto the medium compound.

Van der Garde says there is something rattling around in the cockpit by his legs! Far from ideal...

And Rosberg goes quickest with a 1:33.364. Grosjean goes P2.

Rosberg now out on the hards as Grosjean starts a quick lap.

Vergne currently quickest with a 1:34.314. Toro Rosso have opted to start on the hard compound.

A few cars on track now. Vergne, Ricciardo and Van der Garde join the action.

And Hulkenberg crosses the line to set the opening mark of 1:34.409. Gutierrez with a 1:35.027. You’d expect the best times to be in the 1m33s.

It could be a tense wait followed by a hectic last few minutes as it so often is, building to an exciting crescendo.

He’s followed by team-mate Nico Hulkenberg.

And here comes Esteban Gutierrez in his Sauber Ferrari. The first man out.

Drivers still sitting impassively in the pits waiting for someone to make a move and clean the track...

Hamilton looks ready to go so that was a quick repair job. Still no cars on track.

The pit lane is open and we await the early runners, usually the teams to the back end of the grid. The track temperature has soared to 42 degrees...

@Lotus_F1Team: Decisions decisions for @RGrosjean; which would you choose? #LongerLastingRubber

Qualifying is split into three sessions, the first 20 minutes, the second 15 and the final Q3 lasting ten minutes. The surprise teams in danger of not making it through to Q3 look like being McLaren and Williams. Five minutes until the pit lane opens!

It’s slightly overcast but still hot in Bahrain with the track temperature of 42 degrees. Once again tyre degradation will play a big part so the heavy hitters must be conservative in Q1 and Q2 before making that all-important lap count. Pirelli have brought the medium and hard compounds to Bahrain where degradation is one of the highest on the calendar.

Ferrari, Lotus and Red Bull look the form horses going into qualifying, showing good pace on both compounds both over long runs and quick bursts in free practice.