F1 testing, Day 2 LIVE: Latest times and updates as Lewis Hamilton leads Fernando Alonso

The drivers struggled to do much last week with the rain and snow proving problematic in Barcelona.

But yesterday was already an improvement and we should see more of the same today.

Results from Day 1 of the second week of F1 testing

Fastest lap: 1. Vettel, Ferrari, 1m20.396s; 2. Bottas, Mercedes, 1m20.596s; 3. Verstappen, Red Bull, 1m20.649s; 4. Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m20.808s; 5. Gasly, Toro Rosso, 1m20.973s; 6. Magnussen, Haas, 1m21.298s; 7. Hulkenberg, Renault, 1m21.432s; 8. Sainz, Renault, 1m21.455s; 9. Sirotkin, Williams, 1m21.588s; 10. Perez, Force India, 1m21.643s; 11. Ericsson, Sauber, 1m21.706s; 12. Vandoorne, McLaren, 1m21.946s; 13. Stroll, Williams, 1m22.937s

F1 testing – Day 2 LIVE

1pm: Since there is no running – the teams really have rebelled against this lack of lunch break – have a full rundown of the times and laps done by each driver.

1) Ricciardo, Red Bull, 89 laps, Hypersoft tyres – 1:18.047; 2) Hamilton, Mercedes, 90 laps, Ultrasoft tyres – 1:18.400; 3) Vettel, Ferrari, 66 laps, Soft tyres, 1:19.541; 4) Alonso, McLaren, 47 laps, Hypersoft tyres – 1:19.856; 5) Sainz, Renault, 88 laps, Medium tyres – 1:20.042; 6) Grosjean, Haas, 51 laps, Soft tyres – 1:20.237; 7) Stroll, Williams, 63 laps, Soft tyres – 1:20.349; 8) Ocon, Force India, 64 laps, Soft tyres, 1:20.805; 9) Hartley, Toro Rosso, 53 laps, Soft tyres – 1:20.834; 10) Leclerc, Sauber, 80 laps, Soft tyres – 1:20.918.

12.30pm: So everyone IS taking a lunch break – even though it’s not an official one. Slightly odd but who can blame them. Lewis Hamilton is done for the day and will be replaced by Valtteri Bottas this afternoon.

12pm: There will be no lunch break today – for the teams I mean. There will be a lunch break for me. I haven’t missed a meal since 1997 and I don’t intend to start now.

Just four cars out on track at the moment: Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon have gone out to join Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll. Danny Ricc has shaved some time off his fastest lap and is four tenths clear.

1) Ricciardo, Red Bull, 74 laps, Hypersoft tyres – 1:18.047; 2) Hamilton, Mercedes, 67 laps, Hypersoft tyres – 1:18.400; 3) Vettel, Ferrari, 66 laps, Soft tyres – 1:19.541.

11.30am: 2018 is officially faster than 2018. Hamilton beats Kimi Raikkonen’s lap record from last year – only for Daniel Ricciardo to come out on the hypersofts and go even quicker. That will please the folks in the Red Bull garage and back home in Milton Keynes.

How much of a role can they play in the title race this season? Certainly, it would be great to see three teams battling at the front of the grid.

1) Ricciardo, Red Bull, 65 laps, Hypersoft tyres – 1:18.357; 2) Hamilton, Mercedes, 67laps, Hypersoft tyres – 1:18.400; 3) Vettel, Ferrari, 58 laps, Soft tyres, 1:19.541.

11.10am: More bad news from McLaren. They are being forced to change the engine and will lose at least three hours of running time. Ouch.

10.50am: Hamilton didn’t appear to push the car too much yesterday – well he is today. The Brit is out on the red-rimmed supersets and he has clocked a lap that extends his lead over Daniel Ricciardo to half a second.

The track is relatively quiet after Hamilton’s apparent qualifying run and Brendon Hartley is taking advantage by going out on some soft tyres. His best lap today has him eighth in the standings, and he will want to improve on that after Pierre Gasly’s impressive showing in the car yesterday.

McLaren meanwhile have blamed an oil leak for their latest stoppage – Fernando Alonso isn’t even the garage at the moment so I don’t think they’ll be out again any time soon.

1) Hamilton, Mercedes, 56 laps, Supersoft tyres – 1:18.752; 2) Ricciardo, Red Bull, 53 laps, Ultrasoft tyres – 1:19.381; 3) Vettel, Ferrari, 45 laps, Soft tyres, 1:19.541.

10.20am: Two steps forward, one step back for McLaren so far today. Alonso is going quickly… but then stops on track and there appears to be an engine fire. At the moment, we have to chalk these up as teething problems between a team and their new engine supplier. But after last year’s never-ending debacle with Honda, there is not much give in that rope.

9.50am: Hamilton and Alonso are buzzing around this track this morning.

Hamilton has put in another fastest lap as things start to get really interesting with Vettel also coming to the party.

How we stand so far this morning

1) Hamilton, Mercedes, 37 laps, Medium tyres – 1:18.317;

2) Alonso, McLaren, 33 laps, Hypersoft tyres – 1:19.856;

3) Ricciardo, Red Bull, 25 laps, Medium tyres – 1:19.555;

4) Sainz, Renault, 41 laps, Medium tyres – 1:20.402;

5) Vettel, Ferrari, 24 laps, Soft tyres, 1:20.273

9.00am: Lewis Hamilton moves up to top spot with a stunning 1:19.830.

We could have another Hamilton-Alonso battle on our hands.

8.35am: Fernando Alonso puts in quickest lap a time of 1:20.320!

8.30am: Ted Kravitz insists McLaren are not in crisis after a difficult first day.

“They’re not in crisis but there’s an atmosphere of high tension at McLaren because they know they’ve got something better than last year – better than the last three years – but they haven’t been able to get a coherent, solid testing session in so far, in terms of a block of four days.

“It’s been scrappy, messy, so they just don’t know whether they’re going to be ready for Melbourne. They’re trying to put a brave face on it, saying ‘these things happen’ but they are a little bit tense.

“All they need is a couple of good days where nothing breaks, and they can look more like podium challengers for Melbourne.

“They believe that they have had one of the top three chassis over the last couple of years. They’ve got various data that support that, that show that were it not for this not so good Honda engine – they’ve got one of the best chassis out there. Maybe even better, more downforce, than Mercedes, I’ve heard some team people say.

“If it turns out that Red Bull have a much better chassis, there will be some questions asked at Woking. It’s crunch time, the acid test for McLaren this year.”

8.00am: Esteban Ocon, Romain Grosjean and Brendon Hartley get us underway this morning in Barcelona.

Fernando Alonso was next out and is hoping for a better day.