Over the Melbourne weekend McLaren, to little noticeable fanfare, signed a new sponsor... Sensodyne.

In many ways this has to be one of the most significant and cleverest signings in recent times, for if ever one needed to take away the bad taste that F1 is currently leaving...

As the sport's powers-that-be stumble from one fiasco to another, witness the absolute disaster that is qualifying and the even more ludicrous alternative that has been put forward today, let us hope for a decent race today that might raise our spirits.

On the face of it the Mercedes duo still have that 0.5s advantage over Ferrari, however, a Melbourne-style start could see one of the red cars riding shotgun for the other. On the other hand there remains a serious question mark over tyre strategy, the silvers cars opting for softs where the red favour medium.

So, assuming we can allow Mercedes and Ferrari to dominate - in much the same way Bernie tells us they rule the sport politically these days - it is the battle behind that should provide the fireworks.

Another strangely disappointing performance from Daniil Kvyat means that Daniel Ricciardo has to face the might of Williams, Toro Rosso and Haas - yes Haas - alone.

A clever move by Nico Hulkenberg means the German is in the mix, whilst Sergio Perez pays the price for his team's failure to get to grips with the new format. Then again, if we're going to start apportioning blame...

It's race we hear this, but the Bahrain International Circuit is good for overtaking, indeed, most drivers agree that pole isn't as important as it is at other tracks, which possibly explains why so many didn't bother going for it yesterday.

Tyre should play a significant role today, with those drivers playing the long game, looking at the race as opposed to Saturday afternoon, looking to make up ground.

A three-stop strategy is theoretically quickest; start on supersoft, change to soft on lap 14, soft again on lap 29 and soft again on lap 43.

If a driver has enough new supersofts available (around a second per lap faster than the soft) another effective strategy would be to start on supersoft, then change to supersoft again on laps 12 and 27, then a final stint on soft from lap 42.

The fastest two-stopper would be start on supersoft, medium on lap 12, then soft from lap 37. However, this carries a significant pace disadvantage.

The blood red skies of dusk will give way to the floodlights, and a number of drivers will be looking to shine, none more so than Stoffel Vandoorne, a three-time winner here in GP2. Out-qualifying his illustrious teammate, Jenson Button, yesterday, the Belgian got his weekend off to the best possible start... despite the Ronster's attempt to put Fernando back in the car.

Despite a frustrating qualifying, Jolyon Palmer will be looking to make up ground whilst we look forward to good performances from Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto.

Fifteen minutes before the pit lane is due to open the stewards reveal that after brake balance map parameters were changed during Parc Ferme, Magnussen will start from the pitlane. However, since the Dane was already going to start from the pitlane after the weigh station mix-up on Friday...

The pitlane opens, and one by one the drivers head out.

On his grid walk Martin Brundle comes across a clearly embarrassed and forlorn Fernando Alonso... the term 'place I would rather be' springs to mind. "It is very, very strange," admits the Spaniard. "Hopefully it is useful in China when I am back in the car."

Fifteen minutes before the start, as the sun begins setting and the floodlights slowly come to life, the air temperature is 23 degrees C, whilst the track temperature is 30 degrees. There's a fairly strong cross-wing on the main pit straight.

All are starting on the super(soft), bar Sainz, Kvyat, Wehrlein, Ericsson, Haryanto, Nasr and Magnussen who all start on the soft. Starting eleventh, Sainz is the highest starting driver on softs, his teammate, just a place ahead, is on the supers.

The field heads off on the warm-up lap, Rosberg very slow getting away and losing a couple of positions.

"I might have an engine failure," warns Vettel, at which point his power unit detonates. He pulls off track between turns 13 and 14, his race over... and in many ways, ours.

As the grid forms, Palmers heads into the pitlane, meaning that both Renaults in the pitlane.

They're away, and Rosberg makes a great start, as do the Williams duo, whilst Raikkonen, unlike Melbourne, has a poor getaway.

Rosberg leads into T1 but there's chaos behind as Hamilton is hit by Bottas who attempts to go down the inside of the Mercedes, and loses a heap of positions along with a significant amount of carbonfibre.

"Something feels wrong at my rear," says Hamilton as he drops to eighth and looks likely to fall further. That said, the Briton begins his fight back, making short work of Hulkenberg despite a worrying amount of sparks from under the car suggesting a tyre or suspension issue.

No such problems for Bottas, who appeared to be the culprit of that clash. "Everything OK from my side," declares the Finn.

Replay shows Ricciardo suffered some front wing damage as he clouted the rear of Bottas' Williams in that first lap melee.

Out front Rosberg leads Massa, Bottas, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Gutierrez, Hulkenberg, Hamilton and Button.

Hulkenberg pits at the end of lap 1 as teammate Perez collides with Sainz in an accident eerily similar to that a lap earlier, the Mexican losing a piece of his front wing.

Despite his damaged front wing, Perez battles with Kvyat for twelfth, Wehrlein keeping a close watch. The Mexican subsequently pits for a new front wing. Elsewhere, Ericsson and Nasr in a furious scrap for 15th, as Magnussen and Haryanto look on.

Palmer is declared a non-starter, the Briton never having left the pits after peeling off at the end of the warm-up lap.

Sainz pits, the Spaniard having picked up a puncture in that clash with Perez.

After 3 laps, Rosberg leads Massa by 4.2s with Bottas third, ahead of Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Grosjean, Gutierrez, Verstappen and Button.

As Rosberg posts a new fastest lap (37.483), Hamilton is setting a strong pace as he closes on Raikkonen.

With his damaged front wing Ricciardo is struggling. He runs wide in T1 and Raikkonen doesn't await an invitation passing the Red Bull on the run to T4. Hamilton also closes in on the Australian.

Check out our Sunday gallery, here.