Image source, Getty Images

Fernando Alonso eases himself in with a 1:24.077. He remains dead last on the timesheet but with his team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne 13th quickest, he should be able to find an improvement.

Fernando Alonso is playing catch up to the rest. He's out now for his first stint on the softs.

Image source, Getty Images

What have we learned so far? Well, the good news is that Red Bull appear to have found a bit more thanks to their upgrades. They seem to be closer to Ferrari. 

The bad news (for those wanting a closely contested season)? Mercedes' upgrades look to have pushed them a bit further than the rest...

A marshal has scampered onto the track, scooped up the bits of debris and the track is green again. A touch under 25 minutes left on the clock as we crack on with long runs.

Red flagpublished at 14:03 BST 12 May 2017

14:03 BST 12 May 2017

Red flag. It looks like it has been brought out to give the marshals a chance to clear away those bits of derbis from the Toro Rosso.

Kimi Raikkonen was in and out of the pits pretty sharpish and now he's reporting some debris on the track.

It's from Carlos Sainz's Toro Rosso, with something flying off after he ran wide and clattered over the kerbs.

Uh oh, there could be problems for Kimi Raikkonen. He's told to box because of an engine problem.

Fernando Alonso is up and running with a timed lap, clocking a 1:26.700. Five laps and counting...

JaSi: I'm on my 12th Honda Motorcycle over 40 years—not one failure!  

David Blagden: Our @Honda, external lawnmower has been superb: sweet as a nut, 25 yrs on. Happy to lend to @McLarenF1, external: equal power, but with more reliability.

Image source, .

This is what Jack Nicholls was talking about on commentary.

It's amazing!

Joanna Harran: I think it's Bernie in the lion's costume. Incognito so he doesn't get thrown out.

Image source, Rex Features

Fernando Alonso is back out again. He's managed two installation laps so far and, unsurprisingly, isn't interested in any qualifying sims yet. All about getting in as many laps as possible in the McLaren.

Max Verstappen's qualifying simulation run sees him go fifth quickest with a 1:21.438 on the softs.

Pretty sure I've seen this lion at every race so far this season.

Dedication.

Franco: Alonso will do 8 and a half laps, and he'll just smile and a single tear will catch the sunlight as he sits in his fold out chair, grinning.  

Chris Thomas: 6 laps then he will accidentally walk into the Ferrari garage on his way back, just to set tongues wagging!!  

Daniel Ricciardo does his first run on the soft tyres and goes fifth quickest - seven tenths down on Lewis Hamilton's benchmark time but just 0.3s off Sebastian Vettel. 

Jennie Gow
BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter

Image source, AFP

I am stood in front of Fernando's car at the moment, they are just putting the bodywork on. It has just been system checks and he should be back out reasonably soon.

Image source, AFP

Where's Fernando Alonso? Not on the track at the moment. He did those two installation laps earlier and we have not seen him since.