Barcelona F1 test day one
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Ricciardo is back out there, but with the track temperature down to eight degrees celsius, Red Bull has sent him out on a dry track on intermediate tyres.
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That didn't take too long, did it? Red Bull's Christian Horner voices "concern" over Renault's engine strategy, and fears the supplier may start the season in a compromised specification to ensure it is reliable: 
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A reminder of the lap count, not that is has changed much this afternoon. In the current order on the timing screens:
Ricciardo 85; Bottas 58; Raikkonen 80; Hulkenberg 73; Alonso 40; Sainz 26; Hamilton 25; Hartley 93; Stroll 46; Grosjean 54; Ericsson 61; Mazepin 22; Sirotkin 21
Ricciardo 85; Bottas 58; Raikkonen 80; Hulkenberg 73; Alonso 40; Sainz 26; Hamilton 25; Hartley 93; Stroll 46; Grosjean 54; Ericsson 61; Mazepin 22; Sirotkin 21
The Williams is back in the pits, as are the other cars we briefly saw. Fortunately, Ericsson's Sauber goes out to prevent the track falling completely silent.
Sirotkin's programme is still not focused on anything resembling a worthwhile lap time. He cruises past the pits again, completing a lap that took more than two minutes.
Hartley and Alonso are back in action, too. Maybe even the teams got bored of sitting in the garages.
Williams sends Sirotkin back out, while underneath us at Ferrari we hear wheelguns being whizzed into action. Pitstop practice coming up for Raikkonen?
Hartley returns to the pits after adding one lap to Toro Rosso-Honda's tally. Meanwhile Sainz goes quicker again, and he's up to sixth now.
Sainz improves! Everyone get out there and set some quick times! 1m22.428s for the Renault, who gives us something to talk about. We're grateful.
Sainz sets a personal best first sector on softs after giving them a couple of laps to warm up, and Hartley heads back out to boost Honda's lead in the laps completed column. Yes, we really just wrote that, on the first day of F1 pre-season testing.
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Sainz goes back out. He's drawn the short straw on the Renault split-day strategy, only managing 19 laps in dropping temperatures so far after team-mate Hulkenberg logged 73 in the morning session.
Gary Anderson is taking advantage of the lack of action to make an early start on jotting down his day one observations, which Autosport Plus and Motorsport.com Prime readers will be able to enjoy later on today. Three cars in particular have impressed him today, and the Mercedes isn't one of them.
Ricciardo's Red Bull in action earlier, sporting a touch of flow-vis paint at the rear (LAT Images)
Raikkonen is back again, engine off this time, and Sirotkin pits as well. The teams clearly don't think they can get much out of testing in these low temperatures, so we're without any cars on track again. Shame.
Raikkonen makes a brief visit to the pits, and heads back out with the track to himself. Sirotkin rejoins the fray too.
Back to the box for Alonso (LAT Images)
...and Alonso pits immediately.
Raikkonen decides Alonso looks lonely out there and joins the action.
Next time around Alonso is one second adrift of his earlier 1m21.3s that he set on super-softs.
The media centre is filling up with people who have got too cold either in the pits or the paddock, and most of them have returned with hot drinks.
It's taken us three laps, and a second opinion, but those are indeed ultra-softs Alonso is running. His two flying laps have been 1m23s.
The McLaren spits some sparks out the rear as Alonso crosses the line on what looked a bit like ultra-soft tyres. We'll have another go at identifying those next time around.
The track silence is broken by Alonso's McLaren-Renault.
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Barcelona's not the only circuit where incoming weather is of concern, it would seem...
Sirotkin safely back at base after his latest run (LAT Images)
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The temperature continues to drop here in Spain, we're down to just 7.6 degrees celsius now (9.4 track temp). The big coats are called into action in the pits.
Ricciardo comes straight back to the pits, so we have nothing on track for the moment.
No laps this afternoon for the Force India, which was revealed in the pitlane earlier today. Here are GARY ANDERSON's first impressions of a car that appears to be an evolution of its 2017 predecessor, but doesn't share the approach that many of its rivals have taken: 
Ricciardo breaks the silence on track. Talking of lap counts, Red Bull wanted to be capable of 100 laps per day from the off this season, something the team has never achieved on the opening day in the V6 hybrid era. Ricciardo is only 16 away from hitting that mark with two hours of track time remaining.
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Laps completed today (in times order):
Ricciardo 84; Bottas 58; Raikkonen 77; Hulkenberg 73; Alonso 31; Hamilton 25; Hartley 90; Stroll 46; Grosjean 54; Sainz 19; Ericsson 60; Mazepin 22; Sirotkin 16
Ricciardo 84; Bottas 58; Raikkonen 77; Hulkenberg 73; Alonso 31; Hamilton 25; Hartley 90; Stroll 46; Grosjean 54; Sainz 19; Ericsson 60; Mazepin 22; Sirotkin 16
We'll pick up on this quiet moment to address a question we are receiving from many of you: unfortunately, it's not possible for us to add the laps completed to our timing box. Keep a look out for our regular updates on the lap count in the stream (shaded in grey) - in fact, we'll do one now. Stand by...
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Sirotkin pits having taken his total up to 15 laps with those 1m40-something efforts, and the track falls silent again.
Our trackside observers (Gary Anderson and Edd Straw) tell us there is the "odd spot of rain" in the air, but that's about it at the moment. We're not dusting off the 'rain' icon to go with a weather update just yet.
Gary Anderson
You’d have to say for the confidence the drivers have the Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren are standing out. It’s not flowing for the Mercedes so much, but it's still early days.
Sirotkin's first time of the test is a 1m44.148s. Gentle.
By: Geoff Creighton
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