2012 Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying

8 min: Rosberg is into second spot, behind Alonso with a time of 1m24.865s.

8 min: Alonso is comfortably fastest of the early runners with a new best of 1m24.326s.

8 min: Ricciardo goes second to Grosjean with 1m25.566s.

8 min: Both McLaren men are warming up to a timed attempt.

8 min: Raikkonen slots in a current third after a slow initial attempt in 1m28s.

8 min: Still no move yet from either Red Bull driver, Maldonado or de la Rosa.

7 min: Grosjean is immediately quicker with a 1m25.025s lap in his Lotus.

7 min: Di Resta gets the ball rolling with 1m25.675s.

7 min: Hard tyres for the Scot and he is suffering from a little understeer. He also catches traffic towards the end of the lap.

6 min: McLaren tell Hamilton a 1m24.0s lap is predicted to be the cut-off in this segment.

6 min: Schumacher is next out, as di Resta works through the first hot lap of the session.

6 min: Button is advised to do an aggressive out lap to warm his hard compound tyres.

5 min: Rosberg and Vergne head out with still more than half the field in their garages.

5 min: Alonso joins the track to the delight of the home fans.

5 min: Karthikeyan is advised on the latest weather conditions, as Hulkenberg and Ricciardo head out for their first run.

4 min: Raikkonen has joined his team-mate on track for an early run.

4 min: Grosjean is also on the move, having missed much of final practice with a loss of fuel pressure.

4 min: Finally, we hear some noise and Paul di Resta joins the circuit.

4 min: Raikkonen waits for action at Lotus. The E20 demonstrated strong race pace on Friday, so the Finn will be keen to secure a good grid slot.

3 min: This could be a case of not only Q3 being less than action-packed, with three minutes of the opening 20-minute segment done and dusted.

2 min: Perez studies some data in his Sauber, with still no drivers taking to the circuit.

2 min: Rosberg is sitting in the cockpit of his car as the brinkmanship continues.

1 min: No takers in the first minute as everyone waits for someone else to blink.

0 min: Sebastian Vettel looks a little less relaxed than usual, as he comtemplates a huge fight to come against the McLaren and Mercedes cars.

0 min: Qualifying is underway in Spain.

Track temperature is up at 41 degrees Celsius with a couple of minutes to go until the start of the session.

Plenty for the teams to ponder heading into this grid-deciding hour, with tyre strategy looking particularly complex this weekend.

Leading outfits will be very keen to conserve soft rubber for tomorrow's race, but need to be wary of a tightly-packed field - with the likes of Sauber and Williams comfortably able to spring a surprise.

Even the traditional use of hard tyres in Q1 could become a problem here thanks to the major speed advantage of the much softer option rubber.

A large pro-Alonso crowd is on hand, packing the main grandstand and the spectator banks up the hill towards Campsa corner.

Here is how the qualifying battle is shaping up heading into the European season: Qualifying head-to-head Vettel 1 - 3 Webber Button 0 - 4 Hamilton Alonso 4 - 0 Massa Schumacher 2 - 2 Rosberg Raikkonen 2 - 2 Grosjean Di Resta 3 - 1 Hulkenberg Kobayashi 2 - 2 Perez Ricciardo 4 - 0 Vergne Maldonado 3 - 1 Senna Kovalainen 4 - 0 Petrov De la Rosa 4 - 0 Karthikeyan Glock 3 - 1 Pic

Weather conditions remain fine and dry as we move into the qualifying hour. Air temperature is nudging towards 30 degrees and track temperatures were already in the forties by the end of final practice.

A little more in the way of could has drifted over the circuit in the last couple of hours and there is a slight chance of a shower tonight, but the track action will be dry this afternoon.

Sebastian Vettel returned to the top of the timesheet in this mroning's final 60-minute practice session, as teams and drivers explored different ways of attacking what is becoming a complex Formula 1 weekend in terms of tyre use.

The Red Bull driver lapped the 4.655km Montmelo circuit in 1m23.168s, edging out Williams' Pastor Maldonado by 0.168s, with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi just a faction slower than that in third spot. Mark Webber was next up in the other RB8, with Sergio Perez fifth and local hero Fernando Alonso in sixth place.

Vettel fastest in final Barcelona practice

Vettel, Catalunya 2012

Hello and welcome back to AUTOSPORT Live for continuing coverage of the fifth round in this year's Formula 1 world championship.

The practice sessions are complete and now it is time to qualify for tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona.

Tyre preservation and performance has dominated the weekend thus far, and while the top four teams look good once again, they were somewhat cagey in their approach to this morning's final session - several drivers electing to concentrate on tomorrow's race, rather than out-and-out qualifying trim.

Mark Webber gave more than a subtle hint yesterday that we could end up watching further moves in the Pirelli chess game during the top 10 shootout. Qualifying begins in just under 10 minutes time.

Webber expects drivers to sit out Q3