Barcelona second 2015 test Test day one

Team AUTOSPORT is pretty well situated in the Barcelona media centre, with decent access to the banks of screens showing laptimes, additional data (which we'll be sharing more of as proper laps come in), weather information and CCTV, and a reasonable window view too.

We do have to crane our necks round to see the monitor that's showing what appears to be the Spanish version of Countryfile, though.

Maldonado continues on for a second lap, but Nasr's back in and then out again.

Raikkonen's also brought the Ferrari back on to the circuit.

Nasr makes his way back into the pits and gets on his way again, while Maldonado emerges from the Lotus garage and leaves the pitlane.

The short period of silence is broken by Nasr and the ever-so-slightly different-looking Sauber.

Hamilton's back in the pits, with five laps to his name already.

We've had two install laps from Verstappen and one from everyone but Ricciardo in the Red Bull.

Here's the first on-track shot of the test from our friends at LAT.

The Sauber has a slightly tweaked livery, while Force India's 2014 car is sans vanity panel, unlike the look it had for its 2015 livery launch in Mexico last month.

Felipe Nasr, Sauber and Pascal Wehrlein, Force India, Barcelona F1 test February 2015

Obviously we have no representative information from this point 12 months ago, with Bahrain replacing Barcelona for the 2014 pre-season tests.

But, for reference, Hamilton's 2014 GP pole was 1m25.232s. The fastest lap of the race was 1m28.918s.

This test two years ago, with the old car, was 1m21.848s.

Hamilton's second lap is slightly slower, a 2m00.220s.

Verstappen's come into the pits at the end of his second lap.

An installation lap complete early on for Button in the McLaren-Honda.

Verstappen has also continued onto a second lap. There's little messing about in Spain today.

Button in the McLaren-Honda and Ricciardo in the Red Bull are the two that did not join the early runners.

Wehrlein and Raikkonen head the returning cars after those very early install laps.

Hamilton has continued on to a second lap.

And now Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen joins in.

We have an early influx of track action. No messing about for Nasr (Sauber), Wehrlein (Force India), Wolff (Williams), Raikkonen (Ferrari), Hamilton (Mercedes) and Maldonado (Lotus).

The privileged position at the heart of Formula 1 has to be earned, and the journey for Team AUTOSPORT (that's Ben Anderson, Matt Beer and Scott Mitchell for this test) to get here has certainly been arduous.

There was a near-miss at the airport after a short sprint to make our flight, a hire car with questionable brakes and recalcitrant seatbelts, a tricky-to-navigate industrial estate and then, last night, a 2.5-mile walk just to find a restaurant.

Turning small journeys into odysseys didn't end yesterday though. It took multiple laps to find the accreditation centre this morning, and door-to-door from the hotel to the media centre (about two miles) took over half an hour.

In our defence, it's the getting there that's the hard bit. And the drama's behind us now. Which means we can concentrate on bringing you the best live coverage, reaction, news and analysis from what should be a fascinating second test.

The start is now imminent.

Basically, each engine manufacturer has a story to be told in this test, and there's no better place to hear it than AUTOSPORT Live. Of course, we'll bring you laptimes, lap counts and driver and team reaction along the way as well.

Speaking of storylines, you can complement our Live coverage of this test with the latest issue of AUTOSPORT magazine, available online and in stores now.

BEN ANDERSON: "F1 teams insists Jerez is an 'unrepresentative' circuit for testing, but the same cannot be said of Barcelona.

"The next four days should give us a better indication of where everyone stands with their latest designs, and it will be interesting to see whether Ferrari can continue its headline-grabbing form and re-enforce the pace it showed in Jerez.

"We've yet to see Mercedes show anything like its full hand, but at some point it (and its customer teams) will need to assess performance as well as reliability.

"But the big questions coming to Barcelona concern McLaren-Honda and the Renault-powered Red Bull teams.

"Have they cured the ills that blighted their running in Jerez, or does the trouble run deeper?"

Some trackside information before the action begins. It's a clear morning, quite chilly, with barely a breeze to be found. The air temperature is a balmy 3.7C, and track temperature is 11.7C, with both slowly rising all the time.

That's already a significant increase on what it was 10 minutes ago.

Here's who is driving on the first day:

Mercedes - Hamilton
Red Bull - Ricciardo
Williams - Wolff
Ferrari - Raikkonen
McLaren - Button
Force India - Wehrlein*
Toro Rosso - Verstappen
Lotus - Maldonado
Sauber - Nasr

* The Mercedes reserve driver is driving Force India's 2014 car

Hello and welcome to AUTOSPORT Live for coverage of the second Formula 1 pre-season test, from Barcelona.

We've arrived, eventually, in the press room at the Circuit de Catalunya. The day's action kicks off at 9am local time (that's 8am GMT).

We'll keep you up to speed on everything that happens here over the next four days. So thanks for joining us, get comfortable, and let us do the rest.