Good morning and welcome to live coverage of free practice from Turkey. It's felt like a long three week break since we last saw action in China, but what a race that was.

So, after such a breathless grand prix last time out in Shanghai, what will Turkey have in store? All of the teams have been working hard on updating their cars since returning to Europe, while some have been making more drastic changes than others.

I refer of course to Williams, who announced Sam Michael and Jon Tomlinson will leave at the end of the season, with Mike Coughlan joining in June. What do you think of the changes at the team? Let us know your thoughts on Williams, Ferrari and anything else you like using the link above, or via Twitter @ESPNF1_live

Tyres are going to be a key feature in Turkey, but for today at least it will all be about the wet Pirelli's. Rain is coming down in a cold Istanbul.

Driver changes for this first session see Karun Chandhok in the Lotus in place of Heikki Kovalainen, Daniel Ricciardo has Jaime Alguersuari's car, and Nico Hulkenberg is in for Adrian Sutil at Force India.

And we have a car out on the very wet track, with Paul di Resta the first man to venture out.

Neville asks: "Do you think there is enough reason for teams to run vastly differing race strategies in view of Webbers result in China? Coming back out in traffic is no longer a major pit concern as the tyre degradation is great and makes passing a little easier. As I see it starting 11th becomes quite a good call."

It could be worth an alternate strategy if teams can save the soft tyres Neville, but it's by no means ideal to be starting so far back. The quicker cars could find themselves caught up in more problems trying to come through the field, and McLaren's Phil Prew said this week it would prefer grid position over extra tyres.

Not an easy start for HRT, Karthikeyan has pulled his car off on to the grass on the back straight. He radios in to say he was the one who stopped the engine.

A lot of installation laps being completed, but unsurprisingly nobody venturing out on a proper run in these conditions at present.

Sebastian Vettel completed his installation lap on the intermediate tyres, which was pretty brave with the track as wet as it is. Not that he would have been pushing at all.

Jenson Button is out on intermediates as well, cruising round on his installation lap, so the conditions appear to be somewhere in between the two types of wet tyre at the moment.

A lot of standing around and talking going on at the moment, with drivers in body warmers as the air temperature is just 10C - Nico Rosberg is even wearing a scarf in the garage. Now would be a good time to get any questions in to us using the link above to prevent us talking about Rosberg's attire much more.

WilliamsF1Team on Twitter: "Too wet to evaluate the new aero parts this session, new front wing and rear wing will go on if it it's dry later on"

Another car on track! Kamui Kobayashi is out in the Sauber. He's usually good value for some entertainment, but I fear we're asking a bit much for him to do more than one lap...

MyTeamLotus on Twitter: "Rain means we'll mainly be tyre testing today. We have a few new parts to try here, but will have to wait until it's dry to check properly"

Kobayashi overtakes Karthikeyan in the pit lane, although the HRT was being wheeled back to the garage by the mechanics after stopping out on track earlier.

Dave asks: "Will the teams get to use the experimental extra hard tyres later in the weekend if the rain continues today?"

Unforunately for Pirelli no they won't Dave, the tyres have to be returned at the end of second practice later this afternoon as things stand. If they were to get some dry running they are likely to want to use tyres that they already understand in order to test any new upgrades effectively anyway.

Ian emails in to say: "Hi. I'm still not sure about the tyres improving the races by the amount of degradation they have. It seems to me F1 is becoming less about the drivers and more about strategy and artificial devices.

Now I will contradict myself and say it's a lot more exciting racing than the old follow the we have had in recent years."

So who agrees with Ian that it's artificial? And who agrees that it's a lot more exciting?

There's a move on track, D'Ambrosio out in the updated Virgin and he passes Sergio Perez on the exit of turn nine. And he sets a lap time of 1:49.518. Exciting times.

Sebastian Buemi then goes quicker with a 1:41.632, while Ricciardo is also on track.

All of the drivers have completed installation laps, some more than others, Sergio Perez has done 4 without setting a lap time.

D'Ambrosio improves his time by two seconds, while Ricciardo sets a 1:49.573.

Buemi lowers his lap time to a 1:41.306, and Ricciardo improves to a 1:43.392 as the rain continues to come down.

Craig asks: "Do you guys think the DRS zone is better place at this event, as in China the cars seemed to be nearly on the rev limiter before they hit the zone?"

Yes Craig it is well placed, as the activation zone is left until the latter part of the back straight to ensure it isn't too long. It should allow overtaking down in to turn 12, and with regards to the rev limiter - it is down to the teams to set their cars up to ensure that doesn't happen if they wish.

Timo Glock has also set a lap time - a 1:51.767, as now only 0.2s seperate the Toro Rosso pair at the top.

Colin says: "Is F1 not becoming too predictable by all the changes and limitations that are being placed on teams? Should we not have a premium section where teams are left to develop as they see fit?"

Well the term Formula means a certain set of rules, so that's why you have such limitations. The teams aren't overly shackled though, as innovations like Renault's exhaust system show.

Another comment about how artificial Formula One may have become, Ron says: "OH for the days of Fangio when there were no artificiial bits on cars and it was all left to the driver."

Nico Rosberg sets a 1:42.166 to go third quickest., while Hulkenberg has done a 1:42.447 to go fourth with Alonso fifth on a 1:42.474

Alonso goes quickest with a 1:40.897, set on full wet tyres.

Alonso's race engineer tells him over the radio to take it easy on his in lap as his tyres are "going away", which is surprising seeing as he has only completed five laps on a set of full wet tyres.

Paul di Resta has to gently feather the throttle through turn 10 as the back end tries to get away from him, still very wet out there. He does a 1:45.709

Rosberg improves to set the quickest time so far, a 1:40.072.

Rakesh says: "I'm a Rubens Barrichello fan. I'm very interested to see how the front wing update is going to pay off, although am a bit skeptic about their claims that they are going to finish among points. Anyway, goodluck Rubino."

Michael Schumacher heads out to join di Resta, Liuzzi and Kobayashi on track.

Craig emails in to say: "I don't think F1 is artificial but the FIA's stance on green tech is a bit much, this is motor racing at it's best, there not road cars and in particular I happen to like the sound of the bigger engines, I can't see how they can justify 4 turbo's, there are only 26 of these cars in the world so that's maybe artificial."

Kobayashi corrects his car through turn 11, before setting the sixth fastest time with a 1:42.470

Di Resta again has the back end step out on him on the way out of turn 10, and does well t correct the car before it swaps ends.

Schumacher goes third fastest with a 1:40.954, while Mark Webber starts a timed lap

Webber passes a slow moving Virgin having seen yellow flags on his way to a 1:43.365

And we then see why, Timo Glock trying to take turn 11 flat and aquaplaning in to a spin. Fortunately for him he slides to the outside of the track where there is a large run-off area and continues.

Webber improves his time but stays 10th, as the Renault pair currently sit second and third.

We didn't see Heidfeld's lap but he's within 0.3s of Rosberg at the top of the timesheets.

Even though the rain is coming down harder, Alonso goes quickest with a 1:38.670 on intermediate tyres.

Buemi is the latest man to get caught out by standing water at turn 11, running wide after the car tried to get away from him.

Schumacher, Buemi, Ricciardo and Massa are out on track at the moment, but it looks a lot darker overhead.

Another turn 11 victim, Michael Schumacher hits the standing water and ends up facing the wrong way. He continues though after making use of the run-off area.

And now Sebastian Vettel runs wide at turn 11 on intermediate tyres. Lots of drivers getting caught out.

Felipe Massa improves to a 1:40.697 and seventh quickest.

Sebastian Vettel has a big off. Coming out of turn 8 he gets on the kerb on the outside and spins the car round in to the wall, heavily damaging the right hand side.

It's a pretty big shunt, as he was carrying a lot of speed through turn 8 and didn't really get the car slowed down before hitting the wall. The car bounced along the grass before hitting the wall again with the left hand side, so a lot of work to be done by the Red Bull mechanics today.

Fortunately for Vettel he won't be missing out on much meaningful running during the rest of this session at least.

Vettel's car is put on the back of a recovery truck as marshalls sweep the track and recover the rest of the debris. We're still under a red flag.

Vettel said over the radio: "I hit the kerb a little bit on the exit. There's nothing I could have done."

And the session is restarted, with Sergio Perez in the Sauber the first man out. Incidentally, Vettel was on intermediate tyres when he crashed.

Red Bull is frantically trying to cover its car at the end of the pit lane before it has to wheel it back past everybody else.

Before that crash Deepen emailed in to ask what Michael Schumacher's problems have been in qualifying as he struggles to match Nico Rosberg. The reason has been a problem with his DRS so far this season Deepen, as it has been very intermittent for him in qualifying.

Laurie says: "I think the FIA is on the right track with tyres, KERS, and narrow track cars, et al, in order to improve the show … but gawd, the designer's have come up with some UGLY cars in response!"

Vettel's car is wheeled back in to the garage, completely covered over. Alonso is currently cruising round on full wet tyres conducting an aero test. The drivers will have taken not of Vettel's error.

Luthando asks: "Why are McLaren still sitting in the pits?"

Like Vettel, they were waiting for conditions to improve, but when the rain got heavier they decided to stay in the garage rather than go out on track. They will feel they can't learn enough in these conditions, especially if they expect a dry race.

Red Bull has put screens up in front of its garage as it works on Vettel's car. The mechanics will be at it for a long time.

Michael Schumacher completes another lap, and with rain still falling it is unlikely that anyone will threaten Alonso's time.

Mark Webber is an interested spectator in the Red Bull garage as he talks to a Pirelli official. He won't be going out again, although he has set a time. Yet to register are Trulli, Karthikeyan, Maldonado, Perez, Chandhok, Barrichello, Button and Hamilton. Perez has completed 11 laps.

After Vettel's crash, Craig says: "I hope Webber has a tight grip on his car as Vettel is in the market for a good one now. History doesn't look good for MW in this!"

We've just seen two empty McLaren cars in the garage, so no more running for them this morning with five minutes remaining.

Michael Schumacher runs wide on the exit of turn 8 just as Vettel did, but he lifts off the throttle and straightens the car before rejoining.

Pastor Maldonado corrects his Williams twice after catching the water at turn 11, but eventually half spins. Paul di Resta also spins on the exit of turn 9.

A busy track now, with 13 cars on track.

Satyajeet says: "I don't understand why Schumi is takign this risk, they must save the machinery now."

The reason Mercedes are doing so much running is because they have a new rear wing and a lot of updates to check over. Right on cue, Schumacher spins at turn 11 and gingerly rejoins.

So much for the two empty McLaren's...Jenson Button is out for another installation lap and to carry out some practice starts.

Lewis Hamilton was supposed to follow Button out on to track, but he was stationary at the end of the pit lane and has just been wheeled back by mechanics. It could have been that the red light was on.

The session has finished, and now a lot of drivers are carrying out practice starts.

Karun Chandhok spun in turn 9, and now Pastor Maldonado has spun at turn 11, damaging the rear of the car.

Replays show he ran wide at turn 11 once again, but tried to rejoin the circuit before he had fully collected the spin and tamely spun back across the track before hitting the wall. Not a major impact but some damage.

So, at the end of that session Fernando Alonso tops the timesheets with a 1:38.670, ahead of the Mercedes pair of Nico rosberg and Michael Schumacher. Times will not be the talking point in the conditions though, the headline news is Vettel's crash. Will he make it out for FP2 this afternoon? Join us then to find out.