Jennie Gow
F1 pit-lane reporter in Madrid

Arvid Lindblad's car is up in the air and on its stands, and Racing Bulls are working underneath it. So he certainly won’t be going out at the beginning of the session.

I have asked the team what they're up to: whether this is just repair work carried over from yesterday. Now that would seem slightly strange, but whatever they're doing, it's taking a while, and he won't be ready to go out.

The two Aston Martins, the Williams, Valtteri Bottas and Franco Colapinto have joined the Audis.

Nico Hulkenberg has set the fastest lap time so far, it's a 1:35.721 for the Audi.

Image source, Getty Images

The weather forecast for Saturday in Madrid is set to be warm with light winds and zero chance of rain.

For final practice session, the temperature is set to be between 21-23C.

Temperatures will rise later for qualifying, reaching highs of 31C.

Alice Powell
British racing driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2

None of the frontrunners used the hard tyre during free practice yesterday; the Mercedes drivers concentrated on the medium compound for their longer runs. along with Lewis Hamilton.

Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen did their longer runs on a slightly newer soft tyre, and if you're doing a long run on a soft, that shows a confidence that the tyre is going to stay underneath them.

In the Formula 3 race earlier, tyre degradation wasn't really a massive thing when it usually is. So that will be interesting with strategy.

I do think it's going to be hard to overtake here.

Five minutes have gone by in final practice and here comes the first car.

The Audi of Gabriel Bortoleto has made its way down the very long pit lane and on to the Madring circuit.

His team-mate Nico Hulkenberg has also joined in out on the track.

Image source, Getty Images

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It is all quiet out on track at the moment. No one is ready to leave just yet.

There are engineers stood around Arvid Lindblad's Racing Bull.

The rookie's car is not ready just yet as the team have had to change the chassis.

Will he make it out in time for practice?

Jennie Gow
F1 pit-lane reporter in Madrid

Image source, Getty Images

It's a beautiful sunny day, not a single cloud in the sky. There's no wind at the moment; the flag at the end of the pit lane is just looking a bit sorry for itself.

Speaking to people down in the pit lane and they're really enjoying the Madring weekend so far. There are some interesting thoughts about the location because Madrid is such a beautiful city, but we're down the road, near the airport - it feels a little bit like racing around Heathrow.

Lights have gone green for final practice in Madrid.

Are we ready? Vamos!

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Madrid

Image source, Getty Images

George Russell, who was fastest in first practice, said: "Without doubt, it is a circuit of very high risk and probably all the drivers were giving that bit of margin today. Let's see tomorrow."

Russell said the drivers had experienced significant problems with tyre degradation on the new track surface.

"The grip is very high but you are sliding quite aggressively," Russell said.

"With the (tyre) deg we had in P1, a six-stop race would be the fastest way. P2 was slightly better. I'm sure the race will be better again but that is the biggest question mark."

Russell, who heads into the weekend trailing Antonelli by 66 points in the championship, had before practice descried the Madring as "less margin than Monaco, purely because of the speed".

"In Monaco, the walls are closer, but because you're going far slower, if you make a mistake, you're not into the wall as quickly, and you can recover it sometimes, a small lock-up.

"There's a lot of really fast corners, but the barrier is kind of like coming back on to the track. So, if you are to go wide and hit the wall, you're not hitting it kind of at the same angle as the car is going. The wall is sort of coming in at you."

BBC Sounds

Hello to Harry Benjamin, Alice Powell, Jennie Gow and Andrew Benson.

To listen to today's practice sessions, you can either click the 'listen live' tab at the top of the page, search for Sports Extra 3 on the BBC Sounds app if you're heading out for the day, or you can ask your smart speaker to "play Sports Extra 3".

The Madring is a brand new track in the Spanish capital, Madrid. The circuit replaces the Barcelona-Catalunya track as the home of the Spanish Grand Prix.

It is 5.414km in length and incorporates a combination of a street circuit and a permanent race track.

Madring has 22 corners, each posing a different challenge, located near the Ifema Exhibition Centre.

There are plenty of heavy braking zones, and the pit entry is located just before the final corner of El Parque.

Image source, Getty Images

The Mercedes were the fastest cars out on the new Madring circuit.

George Russell was the fastest driver in the first practice session, 0.286 seconds ahead of his team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

They were followed by the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

In the second session, Antonelli took the fastest lap, with a time of 1:33.662.

He was followed closely by Leclerc and Hamilton.

Racing Bull's Arvid Lindbland was fourth fastest, before the rookie crashed heading into Turn 13.

Image source, Getty Images

Mercedes are leading the constructors' championship by 112 points from second-placed Ferrari, while McLaren in third and Red Bull in fourth are separated by 83 points following last week's Italian grand Prix.

Can Alpine close the gap on Racing Bulls in the battle for fifth place? Both teams scored double points in Monza, and after 13 rounds of racing this season, there are just 13 points between the two teams.

Italian Kimi Antonelli left Monza with the biggest smile on his face after winning his home race from 19th on the grid. The 20-year-old is 66 points clear of Mercedes team-mate George Russell at the top of the drivers' standings, with Lewis Hamilton trailing him by 76 points in third.

Pierre Gasly grabbed his maiden pole position in Italy seven days ago and while the Frenchman couldn't stay in the podium places, he did add six points to his championship tally, and inches closer to ninth-placed Liam Lawson.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Hola! Welcome to a sunny Saturday at the Madring circuit in Madrid.

The Mercedes duo, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, were the fastest in each of Friday's sessions. Can they continue their form or will we see someone else take the top spot?

It is the last chance for all 22 drivers to put in practice laps and get to grips with the new track before the all-important qualifying session later on.

Final practice will get under way at 11:30 BST and lights go green at 15:00 BST for Q1.

Image source, Getty Images