WRC Argentina, Indianapolis IndyCar, Pau Euro F3, Spanish GP supports

GP2 - Barcelona: Tio Ellinas moves up to sixth in the final three minutes.

GP2 - Barcelona: And here comes Raffaele Marciello, who moves up to fourth, ahead of Nasr.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: 20 minutes remain, and the only driver yet to set a time is Graham Rahal. Scott Dixon and Juan Pablo Montoya have just completed their first laps of the morning.

GP2 - Barcelona: Still time for just about everybody to have another shot at pole. DAMS duo Richelmi and Palmer have called it a day.

GP2 - Barcelona: No improvements yet...

IndyCar - Indianapolis: Rookie Jack Hawksworth goes to P1.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: Another trip through the grass, this time from Will Power. He rejoins the circuit immediately and presses on.

Esteban Ocon

European F3 - Pau: If Verstappen is a grand prix star of the future, as we suggested a little earlier, so too must be Esteban Ocon, who aced him in the second free practice session.

These two guys were getting a lovely drift on through Parc Beaumont, which is continuous turning before flicking it into the Foch chicane - a bit like Coram at Snetterton on acid.

The season's other star rookie, Antonio Fuoco, looked pretty glum after free practice. He binned it after just 10 laps, meaning he faces a massive uphill climb to get himself into contention. Track familiarity is vital here, and he'll be starting first qualifying with a very tough task.

Another problem for Fuoco is that he's in the ultra-competitive odd-numbered group, where he'll go up against Felix Rosenqvist, Lucas Auer, Tom Blomqvist, Jordan King, Riccardo Agostini, Felix Serralles, Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicholas Latifi, all of whom were in the top 13 in free practice.

The even numbers will almost certainly be topped by Ocon and Verstappen, with Jake Dennis and Ed Jones likely not too far adrift.

Rosenqvist looked pretty glum about the split before free practice, but if he maintains this morning's form that should guarantee he splits Ocon and Verstappen and earn a place on the front row.

GP2 - Barcelona: The top six in qualifying:

1 Richelmi 1m29.293s; 2 Palmer +0.128s; 3 Coletti +0.221s; 4 Marciello +0.357s; 5 Nasr +0.405s; 6 Evans +0.410s.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: A couple of teams are tweeting that it is raining again in pitlane, although it looks OK from our safe, warm, dry vantage point in the media centre. We do hope we get to see an onboard of the save that Graham Rahal just made, though - it's rare that you see someone sawing that hard at the wheel on a straight.

Pagenaud is back to P1, by the way.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: Sebastian Saavedra overshoots into the escape road. No harm done.

Meanwhile, Power has just done his fastest lap of the morning and jumps up to third behind Hawksworth.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: Another spin, this time from Dixon ...

... and just as we're about to hit 'post', Power goes into the grass for the second time. It looks like the rain is starting to pick up again.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: Those who subscribe to the idea that spinning is a natural by-product of seeking the limit would find some ammunition in this session - four of the current top six have been off the track at some point this morning.

While the Indy marshals head out to retrieve the Russian's Schmidt Dallara-Honda, AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live is going to wind down for the next few hours until the second loop of Rally Argentina stages and IndyCar qualifying.

We'll keep popping the odd update in here from the Argentina service park and beyond, and we'll be back in full flow from 6.30pm UK time.

Jari-Matti Latvala

Welcome back to AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live, we've got two more Rally Argentina stages and qualifying for IndyCar's inaugural Indianapolis road course event coming up over the next two-ish hours.

WRC - Argentina: Here's a reminder of how the field stands after today's first loop, during which Mads Ostberg and Mikko Hirvonen crashed out:

1 Latvala
2 Ogier +3.3s
3 Mikkelsen +18.5s
4 Neuville +32.4s
5 Meeke +42.5s
6 Prokop +2m10.9s
7 Evans +2m15.4s
8 Kubica +2m29.0s

Rally Argentina Friday morning report

WRC - Argentina: From what we've seen during the service break, Hirvonen and WRC2 contender Ott Tanak's shunts on SS2 earlier were particularly nasty. Both crews are thankfully OK, though.

WRC - Argentina: The first cars are onto the Santa Catalina stage, which is gentle in length terms - at 27kms compared to the 52kms of Ascochinga that follows - but is regarded as the toughest surface of the weekend.

The road is tough, tricky, rocky and rutted. Following major storm damage a few weeks ago, this stage is reckoned to have fared the worst.

Matthew Brabham

IndyCar - Indianapolis: IndyCar qualifying will kick off shortly, and we've just finished watching a close battle for pole for the Lights race that is coming up later this afternoon.

Matthew Brabham came out on top to claim the first pole of his Lights career, but it was a hard-fought thing: the top four were all covered by 0.15s.

Indianapolis Indy Lights qualifying report

WRC - Argentina: Remember it was on the following long Ascochinga stage where Latvala was able to outpace Ogier earlier on, so there are more twists to come yet.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: The track was dry when the cars first ventured out; if that changes then things could get very interesting indeed.

Power currently leads the times. Six of this group will progress to the next round.

WRC - Argentina: Third going into the afternoon, Andreas Mikkelsen ruled himself out of a fight for the win.

"Of course I always want to win," he said, "but I need the experience. I would love another podium finish, but it's the finish that's the most important thing for me."

The steering on Mikkelsen's Polo was changed at lunchtime service after the Norwegian was left with only 30 per cent assistance for 12 miles on Ascochinga.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: The flag is out for the first group.

Progressing to the next phase will be Pagenaud, Power, Hinchcliffe, Castroneves, Saavedra and Hunter-Reay.

That means that Andretti, Newgarden, Huertas, Munoz, Montagny and Kimball are done for the day. Newgarden in particular will be disappointed; he appeared to have the speed but didn't time his run properly.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: Group 2 is preparing to head out. Drivers in this group: Scott Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais, Mikhail Aleshin, Graham Rahal, Tony Kanaan, Juan Pablo Montoya, Justin Wilson, Jack Hawksworth, Ryan Briscoe, Takuma Sato, Oriol Servia, Martin Plowman and Mike Conway.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: The second group is done, and Montoya, Bourdais, Aleshin, Dixon, Kanaan and Hawksworth will all progress to phase two. That's an especially good result from the two rookies Aleshin and Hawksworth, and it's also the first time that Montoya has topped a session since his IndyCar return.

Those on the outside looking in: Rahal, Sato, Wilson, Plowman, Servia and Conway. Rahal appeared to make the same mistake as Newgarden did earlier - he was quickest with two minutes to go, and then got shuffled out of the top six when others improved on their final runs.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: Following that change, the 12 drivers heading out for the second phase are: Pagenaud, Power, Hinchcliffe, Castroneves, Saavedra, Hunter-Reay, Montoya, Bourdais, Dixon, Kanaan, Hawksworth and Rahal.

IndyCar - Indianapolis: The rain in the Indianapolis area appears to be localised entirely above the race track - clearer skies are visible on the horizon in almost every direction.

WRC - Argentina: Ascochinga is firmly up and running, and Mikkelsen is the man setting the pace so far on the opening splits.