Free practice 3

Welcome to ESPNF1's live commentary of the Korean Grand Prix weekend. Final practice is 30 minutes away and the good news for the drivers (and fans) is that its sunny. Yesterday the teams struggled to get any decent running in wet and damp conditions, but there should be no stopping them this morning.

The teams will be focused on finding a setup on the slick tyres this morning having done no meaningful running on either low or heavy fuel yesterday. The data will be of crucial importance as tyre degradation on the soft and super-soft tyres is expected to be high and managing the tyres will be crucial to a good result on Sunday. Anywhere between three and five pit stops have been predicted.

Overnight the FIA has added pit lane warning lights to the end of the pit straight and the pit lane itself in an attempt to avoid collisions at the end of the pit lane like the one we saw yesterday between Rosberg and Alguersuari. The pit lane filters cars out onto the outside of turn one and Rosberg lost his car under braking and hit the Toro Rosso as it was leaving the pits. Now there will be warning lights on the pit straight in the hope that drivers will be able to take the corner more cautiously.

Incidently, Rosberg did not get penalised for the incident but did get called to the stewards' office. However, he rocked up late and was slapped with a €10,000 euro fine, €5,000 of which will be suspended. So, there's a lesson to drivers to turn up in a timely fashion at the stewards, these are busy men, don't you know?

Stephen says: "Maybe the pitlane exit wasn't designed by Herr Tilke?"

There are reports that McLaren has re-built Button's chassis overnight. The car looks ready to go now.

The final practice session is underway. 16 cars are on track.

Most the cars are returning to the pits after their installation laps. If everything is working they will be straight back out in order to get as much running into the next 60 minutes as possible.

All 24 cars have now been out on track . Vettel, Webber, Rosberg, Schumacher and Button are out there at the moment.

Webber hasn't even bothered to return to the pits after his installation lap and has set a lap time. Vettel and the two Mercedes have done the same.

Rosberg is warned that there is "quite a lot of tail wind" into turn four. 4.0 mps to be precise.

Webber clocks a 1:40.754 followed by Schumacher on a 1:40.471.

Renault are trying to get an idea of the airflow over their diffuser. The team tweets: "Hi vis paint spews forth from Vitaly's diffuser as he parks up for post installation lap fettlement."

Senna is out on track in the Renault on soft tyres. It's his birthday today so he'll be hoping to get a decent grid slot to celebrate this afternoon.

Vettel improves to a 1:39.799 to go fastest.

Pirelli tweets: "So we're expecting the usual pattern: drivers to start this session on the P Zero Yellow soft before moving onto the P Zero Red supersoft"

Hamilton coaxes his McLaren through the penultimate corner with slight correction to the steering wheel. He crosses the line to set a 1:39.830.

Senna has spun off. The car doesn't look too badly damaged, but he spun on the exit of turn 14. He just clipped the wall with his front wing but should be OK to carry on in this session.

Hamilton is on a fast lap and, despite coming up behind Petrov in the final sector, sets a 1:38.210 to go fastest.

Pirelli makes an interesting observation: "You can really see how long it takes the track to dry out here: patches of asphalt were still damp this morning, despite no overnight rain"

Ricciardo has stopped at the entrance to the pits. It looks like he's lost power and his team has run down the pit lane to give him a push. The car looked as though it was leaking from its underbelly, which is never good in an F1 car.

Pirelli is full of wisdom this morning: "While there's plenty of work to do, drivers still need to look after tyres during FP3 in order to maximise opportunities in qualifying..."

If only Senna had been listening before he spun off and flatspotted all four tyres.

Slight issue with Kovalainen's car: "For heikki DRS not working on this outing"

Alguersuari is out on the super-soft tyres. Plenty of twitching at the rear of his Toro Rosso and he sets a the eighth fastest time with a 1:39.851, 1.641 off Button.

Buemi is also out on the super-softs and he has set the fastest first sector yet. He clocks a 1:39.964, slower than Alguersuari, and is ninth. He lost a lot of time in the final sector.

Just some minor tweaks needed on Petrov's setup according to Renualt: "A little bit of understeer reported by Vitaly but it feels sweet in the high speed turns."

Senna is back out on super-soft tyres having trashed his softs.

Sauber isn't ready for super-softs yet: "Both back in the garage. Drivers reporting, tyres are analysed and ready to go again.Keep the softs"

Vettel is reporting "quite a lot of vibration" on his most recent run.

Rosberg is out on super-softs too. His first sector was nothing special though.

Sutil pops up to sixth with the fastest super-soft lap we've seen. He was still 1.450s off Hamilton.

Hamilton says his front tyres are not up to pressure. He's out on the softs still, so maybe they're starting to wear quite heavily.

Hamilton has the smallest of lifts through the final two corners as he sets thw fastest lap time with a 1:38.020. Obviously those tyres still have a bit of bite.

Button just pips Hamilton by 0.015s. It should be a very interesting battle between those two this afternoon.

No let up from Hamilton. He sets a 1:37.595 to go 0.410 faster than Button.

Time for super-soft tyres among the top teams as Alonso, Button, Vettel and Webber return to their garages.

Massa is being kept hard at work through the final two corners. He's still out on the softs, but will no doubt come back in soon.

Hamilton is back in the pits now and out come the super-softs in their blankets.

Just seven cars on track at the moment.

Shawn says: "Odd red bull has most laps in p3"

They went out right from the start and didn't even come back to the pits after an installation lap in order to start banging in the times and gaining data. You can read it two ways, either they're worried or just very well prepared.

Schumacher is out on super-softs and is told that Rosberg's super-softs were still good after 10 laps.

Kobayashi is out on super-softs.

The Ferraris, McLarens and Red Bulls are heading out on track on super-softs.

Button is going faster on this lap but is coming up behind Webber ... and he lost a bit of time, failing to beat Hamilton's soft tyre time by 0.101s.

It's very busy out there with 23 cars on track. Vettel locks up into turn one on his new super-softs as Hamilton sets a fastest time of 1:37.199.

Webber can't match the McLarens with a 1:37.723. He was 0.524s off Hamilton.

Vettel's lap is ruined by Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso. The speed differential was huge in the middle sector and he backed off. Christian shakes his head on the pit wall.

Button gets within 0.098s of Hamilton who is again on a fast lap .... but loses time in traffic.

Vettel is stuck behind Alguersuari and gives him a few hand gestures as he passes. Alguersuari was on the softs rather than the super-softs.

Hamilton now gets stuck behind Schumacher and even attempts a move into one of the tight corners towards the end of the lap.

Button goes fastest of all on his final lap with a 1:36.910. A very good lap and you could see him pushing hard through the final sector. He looks very confident in the McLaren once again. Meanwhile, Hamilton runs wide at turn three.

Anmol says: "Hoping for another qualification session where McLaren get their strategy wrong so that Ferrari can get P1…"

Whatever happens this afternoon, it should be one of the most competitive sessions of the year with the McLarens looking as though they can pip Red Bull to pole for the first time this season. But lots of traffic problems for Vettel, so we still don't know what he is capable of.

To find out what happens, you'll have to join us in two hours time for qualifying...