Good morning and welcome to ESPNF1's live coverage of FP3 for the British Grand Prix. There's trouble off the track and there's been little action on it so far this weekend, but that will all change today

And why will it change? Well, for now, the track is dry. A lot of aero updates still need to be tested by the teams and they will see this morning as a good opportunity to do so. As long as the rain holds off.

I didn't expect to set the track condition to dry at any point this weekend, to be honest. There are showers still around, but the GP3 practice took place on slick tyres and teams are unlikely to need to save much rubber as rain is expected this afternoon and tomorrow

If you missed yesterday's action, here's the report as Lewis Hamilton was fastest in a wet FP2

© Sutton Images

I mentioned problems off the track, and they surround the conditions in the car parks at Silverstone. Unfortunately, due to such heavy rain yesterday a number have had to be closed, which has led to the race organisers asking some fans to stay away today

If you want to get in touch with us today, you can do so either via the link above or by tweeting us @ESPNF1. While it's likely to be a busy session, we'll endeavour to deal with as many questions and comments as possible.

And our first email this morning is from Mehul who asks: "What is the reason behind the burning of the unused tyres? Why can pirelli issue the same intermediate and wet tyres in the next race if they are unused? Isn't it a waste of lot of money?"

I believe it's to prevent anyone getting hold of the tyres, because then they could work out the make-up of the compounds. That's also a reason why there are so few wet tyres supplied during a race weekend, because most of the time they will just be destroyed

Rahulan also emails in to ask: "Seriously dont know what to expect from this session. Can you give us some insights on what teams might contemplate doing this one hour?"

With the dry conditions we can expect to see teams trying to cram Friday schedules in to the hour. That means a few runs on hard tyres to analyse new upgrade parts - probably with one car running new parts and one not to compare - before heavier fuel runs and potentially a late blast on soft tyres if there's time in case qualifying is dry too.

There is a bit of rain expected to hit the circuit in about ten to fifteen minutes. It looks like a light shower, so might mean teams wait a second before starting their runs after installation laps

It's another cool morning, with the air temperature just 16C. If it stays dry, that could make switching on the tyres very tricky during qualifying - though the high-speed nature of the track will help as it puts a lot of energy through the tyres

Cars are already queued up at the end of the pit lane. Almost everyone is there

We are under way and it's a bit of a mess trying to get everyone out on track. Senna does a practice start at the end of the pit lane and others don't want to wait for him. Only Rosberg and di Resta were not in that queue!

Most on the hard tyre, and quite a few heading quickly round. Raikkonen has started a flying lap on softs though

Raikkonen dived past Senna in the pit lane from quite a way back - he could get a little word from the stewards for that one

Raikkonen hits a wet patch of track in Becketts and runs off-track. Still not easy conditions out there

Raikkonen completes a 1:45.447 before Hulkenberg does a 1:44.010

Groskean now quickest on a 1:39.514

Schumacher on the hard tyre goes comfortably quickest with a 1:34.517

A lot of cars aren't being checked after installation laps, they're just getting on with it. Increases the chance of a problem, but they need to get their work done

Schumacher's was his first timed lap, and is immediately just three seconds off the quickest FP3 time last year - a 1:31.401 from Vettel

Schumacher then improves to a 1:34.187

Chalk and cheese compared to yesterday. Times being posted all over the place and Maldonado is second on a 1:35.498

Rosberg goes quickest on a 1:33.733

We're pretty much seeing racing this morning - Rosberg dives up the inside of Petrov in to turn three. Nobody has time to hang around

Surprisingly neither Ferrari has come back out on track yet. Nor has Vettel. Both McLaren's out on track

Alonso with a new front wing for Ferrari while Massa runs the old one

Hamilton runs wide at Brooklands - the astroturf is still soaking wet on the outside of corners

Button on the softs and he's on a quick lap

Button goes second quickest, just 0.069s slower than Rosberg

Perez hits the same wet patch that Raikkonen did at Chapel and runs wide

Only Hamilton and Massa in the pits at the moment, busy times

Schumacher told that very light rain is expected in the next three to five minutes

Another one off at Chapel as the rain starts to fall. It was a Force India that went off

It was di Resta and he had a full spin on the hard tyres

Kobayashi's gone off there too but continues

It was spitting with rain in the final sector and first sector when we were onboard with Perez. He just set the fastest middle sector but then lost time in the final sector and stays fifth

Massa on his first timed lap now - the only man yet to set a time

Vettel goes fifth on hard tyres - 0.6s off the pace

Raikkonen's on the softs still - perhaps Lotus looking at qualifying pace

Di Resta is without KERS at present, it has failed. He's 14th quickest at present but 3.7s off the pace

Alonso pushing hard on the hard compound tyres and he's quick through the first two sectors

Alonso goes third - 0.088s slower than Rosberg

Interesting that the early time from Rosberg hasn't been beaten yet - probably as a result of the sprinkling of rain we've had

Massa goes tenth, a second off the pace

I think I was wrong about qualifying pace for Lotus - Raikkonen is down in 21st and nearly six seconds off the pace

Hamilton flying now on the hard tyre

Alonso's gone quickest on a 1:33.606

Not for long though, Hamilton beats it with a 1:33.084

Senna 1.6s off the pace - he'll be hoping for a clean session after his accident in FP2

Maldonado goes sixth on soft tyres, 0.8s slower than Rosberg

Charles Pic is rolling along slowly on the side of the track and has stopped on the inside of the track after Copse

Pic radios in to say the engine stopped, and we have a red flag

A shame for Marussia, it has a big upgrade here and will have been hoping to get as much data as possible

While we're under red flag conditions, Shiv has asked: "How much time it takes for a team to repair the KERS failure?"

I assume you're referring to Di Resta's problem. The team can attempt to reset it from the pit wall. There's no set time, it's like rebooting your computer to fix a problem. Could be done in a couple of laps, could take half an hour.

Pic's car had stopped in an awkward place for the marshalls - not a million miles from the exit of the old pit lane. He's currently being pushed round two corners and is now off the circuit

Naveen asks: "Hey i just want to know y the Ferraris r still in pits wen there is little dry running available?"

I assume this was referring to the start of the session. It did its checks following the installation lap, but didn't lose much time and Alonso and Massa are now well in to their schedules

We're green again and Rosberg heads out as well as Alonso, Raikkonen and Ricciardo

Karthikeyan heads out on a new set of soft tyres - he ran over a paper cup on track earlier but no damage

Grosjean sat in his car while work goes on at the front of his Lotus

Raikkonen has switched to hard tyres

Half way through the session and we've seen so much more running than we saw on Friday

Raikkonen sets the fastest middle sector while Button does the fastest first sector, the track improving all the time

Raikkonen goes second - 0.250s slower than Hamilton after losing a bit of time in the final two corners

Alonso goes second and Perez fourth

Didn't take Lotus long to sort Grosjean's car, he's back out

Button goes quickest with a 1:32.851, that time set on the soft tyre

We've got a pretty big field spread at the moment as we've seen a number of different programmes being run. Groskean in 21st is over five seconds off the pace and Vergne is last - 7.4s slower than Button

The sun just breaks through for a second - cue scenes of celebration in the stands

Webber passes Schumacher - who runs wide at the final corner - before going eighth

Grosjean goes third and Perez second

Hamilton now quickest with a 1:32.728 on the soft tyres

Vettel has gone 0.5s slower than Hamilton in fifth place

Kobayashi goes fifth after suffering from a bit of oversteer in the final corner as he followed a Caterham

Hamilton asks for an update on 'the situation' and is told that he needs to find time in the middle sector

Raikkonen goes fifth, 0.305s slower than Hamilton

Shankar asks: "How is Alonso's chances for this weekend?"

I've tipped him to win in the preview Shankar. He won here in the wet last year and that Ferrari is improving

Grosjean goes quickest on the hard tyre with a 1:32.471

Alonso on the soft tyre and now he goes fastest with a 1:32.167

Sitaram asks about the McLaren updates. It's a substantial package which is likely to include a new exhaust layout, front and rear wings (but unfortunately we don't have that confirmed due to the lack of running yesterday). It is almost certain that it will be running the new parts all weekend after such a deficit to Red Bull in Valencia

Alonso is told that some rain is expected at the end of the session

Alonso has spun at the final corner

Alonso manages to reverse and get going again. Took him a while though

Two wheels on the kerb on the outside of Club and it's very wet there so round he went. That destroyed the front tyres too

Rahulan asks "Why is massa languishing at the bottom while his teammate is at the top. Are they on different programs?"

Well, Massa is up to 11th now, but with such little time available today they will be running different schedules

Karthik asks about the weather for qualifying - in all honesty we have no idea if it will stay dry or not. Rain is still around and it could be a rain-interrupted session

Hamilton with the fastest first sector, while Maldonado is quick on the softs too

Maldonado up to third, while Hamilton then goes third as well - 0.4s slower than Alonso on the soft tyres

Perez has gone off at Woodcote, running wide across the gravel and grass before rejoining

Kobayashi has put the soft tyres on and is the fastest man in sector one

As Kobayashi exits Copse he heads towards a very big black cloud!

Perez has gone off again and broken his front wing

Kobayashi spins at the final corner so ruins that lap when he was going quickest

Not a good few corners for Sauber!

Raikkonen up to second with a 1:32.454 on soft tyres

Rosberg has an oil leak and isn't going back out. A lot of work going on at the back of his Mercedes

Replays show Perez went across the grass at Becketts and lost the front wing under the car

A new floor being brought in to the Mercedes garage

Caterham has an updated car with new rear bodywork, exhausts, front and rear wings and Kovalainen is just 2.1s off the ultimate pace

Pic had got back out after a fuel problem but he's now stopped again! This time on the Hangar Straight and he's being pushed away by the marshals

Alonso had set the fastest first sector but had to back out due to the yellow flags

BBC reporting a hydraulics problem for Rosberg at Mercedes. Schumacher has just gone back out on track

Massa with the fastest middle sector but he has to back off due to the yellow flags. They've just cleared though

Vettel goes third on soft tyres with a 1:32.420

Button goes second on hard tyres with a 1:32.320 - a good lap on the hard tyres

Schumacher is on the softs now but a few tenths down in sector one

Schumacher a second off the pace as he passes Vettel on the Hangar Straight

Button pits after a very revealing radio message - telling everyone that the tyre was a seven lap old hard tyre

The session is over but Vettel is on a quick lap on softs

Vettel stays fourth, 0.253s slower than Alonso

So the session is over and Alonso ends it as the quickest man. He's just ahead of Button and Grosjean - Button especially impressive on the hard tyre - with Vettel fourth and Raikkonen fifth. Hamilton in sixth and Maldonado seventh were both within half a second of the ultimate pace

It's just started raining and it's caused Perez to go off on his in-lap. He's unable to slow the car at Stowe and runs in to the gravel, He's had to climb out.

Perfect timing for the rain - we got the dry session in and now it comes down. If enough falls we're likely to have a wet (and exciting) qualifying session later because the temperatures aren't high enough to dry the track. Make sure you join us for it in around 90 minutes. See you then.