Hello and Welcome to Suazuka for the third and final practices session ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. Red Bull dominated on Friday but today we have an added element of interest: Rain. It's set to stay with us throughout qualifying and we should have showers for teh race on Sunday.

The rain has inensified over the last ten minutes and there are rivers streaming down parts of the circuit. We might not get a huge amount of action in this session, but this will be what qualifying is like so the drivers should head out to get a taster of what is to come.

McLaren is still waiting on replacement parts after Hamilton's crash yesterday. They are hoping the new rear wing will arrive in time for qualifying.

Christian Horner says that all the teams will ahve to be careful not to burn up the precious intermediate and full wet tyres ahead of qualifying. They have just four sets of intermediates and three full wets.

The session has started and Alguersuari is the first driver to head out on track.

It looks as though most the drivers have opted for full wets for the installation laps. We might see some intermediate running pretty soon though.

Force India update: "Scheduled programme for today will be two runs for adrian but we are waiting until cars have been out on track to get idea of conditions"

Schumacher and Alonso are heading out on track to get a measure of the conditions.

Di Grassi says that the track is impossible to drive due to too many rivers at points where the car has lots of lateral G. He said the tyre tread is just filling up with water and aquaplaning.

The cars are just completing one lap and heading straight back to the pits.

Button is out on track taking a few alternative lines to avoid puddles.

Kobayashi says the Sauber is aquaplaning but he is quite happy with the car in general.

Force India: "Tonio's back 'everything seems ok, it's hard to warm everything up as it's so cold.' Adrian is given the call to go out now"

Ferrari are going to wait for things to improve before heading out again: "Both drivers are back in the garage. Now it will take some time to run again"

Hamilton, Button and Vettel are all using new engines this weekend to put them on the eight engine limit. Webber still has one engine in reserve but is using an older unit today.

Glock becomes the first driver to spin off at Spoon corner. The rain is now getting worse.

Glock says he is now coming in because "I just can't drive". He is the only driver on track and as a result the standing water is building up.

Alguersuari has gone out and is pushing reasonably hard given the conditions.

The other drivers are watching on from the garage as Alguersuari pounds round.

Alguersuari: "Big, big aquaplaning"

Team Radio: " Box Jaime, box"

Schumacher gets out of his car. We may have seen the last of the running for this hour session because the weather is set to get worse.

Petrov is still hopeful: "Robert has hopped out of the car, Vitaly still sat in his however not sure when we'll start a run yet, conditions are not improving for now"

Hamilton has hit the track for the first time today. I suspect it will just be a quick installation lap.

Despite maoning about the conditions Alguersuari and Glock have gone out. And remarkably Hamilton is staying out.

Mike Gascoyne says: "Frank Derney used to say there are two ways of learning nothing in the wet: To go out on track or to stay in the garage."

Alguersuari just spun off and Hamilton has now returned to the pits. Button is back out. BBC commentator Anthony Davidson says that if all the cars go out they will disperse the water and conditions will improve.

Frank asks: "If conditions make qualifying impossible, what happens?"

There is a back-up plan to move qualifying to Sunday morning (as they did in 2004) if things get worse. But everyone is keen to get it out of the way today.

30 minutes into this session and the two McLaren drivers have said it is too dangerous to carry on. They say the tyres cannot cope with the amount of water out there.

Alguersuari has set a time of 1:55.902 and is going faster and faster. So he is enjoying himself and building up confidence ahead of qualifying.

Alguersuari shoot back to the pits as Kubica and Schumacher ready themselves to head out.

The track has now gone completely quiet as the rain gets even worse.

Alguersuari says the balance of the car is quite good but the problem is that the car is aquaplaning on the straight and that is when you are likely to crash. "It's like ice."

Update from Lotus' Mike Gascoyne: "Absolutely pouring down now, now chance to run. Radar picture looks like it will only get worse"

The Ferrari drivers are not keen to go anywhere soon: "There is no really point to run now with these conditions. Too risky and nothing to learn..."

Buemi is heading out despite the most recent concerns that qualifying might not happen.

The conditions are awful. Buemi's car is skitting all over the surface of the track.

And Buemi spins coming out of the final chicane. He was just about to head into the pits and the car stepped out.

Kubica is now heading out to get an idea of just how bad it is out there.

Although times have changed dramatically since 1979, click on the link to see how Gilles Villeneuve would have dealt with these conditions.

So, no cars are on track at the moment.

The rain is still coming down hard and there is no sign of it stopping. Button is considering going out.

Ross Brawn: "I'd be disappointed if we qualify in these conditions. We might have a quiet afternoon."

Ferrari update: "Both Felipe and Fernando are still in the car but it is not likely they will do even another out-in"

Hamilton has gone out on track. He is going painfully slowly but very brave and good to see nonetheless.

He says: "Impossible to drive, huge rivers everyhere."

Hamilton returns to the pits and soaks everyone stood in the pit lane.

Alguersuari and Buemi have gone out on track. Schumacher got to the end of the pit lane and turned his engine off.

The session has come to an end. Alguersuari and Buemi tip toe back to the pit lane.