Good morning and welcome to ESPNF1's live coverage of the inaugural Indian Grand Prix. Free practice 1 is just half an hour away, when we'll finally see Formula One cars driven in anger on the brand new Buddh International Circuit

It's been a long wait for India, with the Bahrain problems of earlier this year seeing the date moved and then moved back to its original position. Despite the uncertainty, the track itself is ready on time, and Laurence has given his first impressions of the new circuit

And Laurence is manning the Twitter live from the paddock, giving us such insight as:

"There's a dog in one of the run off areas. No doubt Bruno Senna will be having flashbacks of Istanbul Park '08."

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The circuit itself is looking very impressive, here's the view from the final corner down the pit straight:

© Sutton Images

And Formula One really is embracing India, with Jenson Button especially keen to sample as much of the culture as possible, even on the traditional Thursday track walk:

© Getty Images

The track is still very dusty, even before cars are out on track it's clear to see there's a lot of dust to be cleared

Some really nice touches out there from the drivers who are paying respects after a tragic week in motorsport saw Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli lose their lives. Jarno Trulli has a special Simoncelli-style helmet for his fellow Italian, and Jenson Button is wearing a black armband as well as a sticker on his helmet which Mark Webber is also sporting

Chandhok is desperate to be the first man out on track, but Force India's Adrian Sutil has beaten him to the end of the pit lane!

The session is underway, and Sutil's Force India is the first 2011-spec Formula One car on the track. Chandhok soon passes him on the main straight thought, and is the first man to complete a lap

Sutil pits, but Chandhok continues to start a timed lap

Felipe Massa with the number 58 on his helmet for Marco Simoncelli as well

Chandhok tops the timesheets after setting the first lap of the day, a 1:52.148

Chandhok is in for Kovalainen in FP1, while there are no other changes as teams want to give their drivers as much time in the car as possible on a new circuit. The only driver change for the race itself is Karthikeyan in for Liuzzi at HRT

We've got a red flag because of a dog on the circuit. Welcome to India!

Chandhok managed to pass the dog without incident, and only Massa, Webber, Rosberg and Hamilton were also on track

The clock won't stop running, as is the norm with red flags in practice sessions

A quick update on track conditions: other than dusty it's mainly dry and 30C, although there is water on the track on the start finish straight either side of the timing beam due to marshals washing the track surface earlier

The session will restart at 10:10 local time, so in about one minute

The track is clear and the lights go green again

Jenson Button heads out for his first run, so only Vettel has yet to leave the pit lane

Mitul asks: "How are pit garages assigned to the teams? Does it create a benefit for the teams at the end of the pit lane as they can see the other teams and how far are their cars?"

The order is allocated by the constructors' standings from the previous season, so Red Bull is first in the pit lane and Virgin last. The benefits are bigger garages at the top end of the pit lane where Red Bull is (with the bigger teams needing more space) and the first team has an unimpeded run in to its pit box

The track falls quiet again after the installation laps

Ralf Schumacher is in the paddock and joins his brother Michael in the Mercedes garage

Sebastian Vettel heads out for his first laps of Buddh, with Nico Rosberg also out on track

HRT (HRTF1Team) on Twitter: "Asphalt has been washed out overnight but both drivers report a very dusty track"

The problem with the dusty circuit is that nobody wants to go out while it is so slippery, and they are waiting for other cars to go and clean the track up slightly. Narain Karthikeyan obliges and starts a timed lap

Karthikeyan also has a special helmet for this race weekend, and the HRT has additional sponsors on the rear wing

Karthikeyan trumps Chandhok with a 1:45.906, over six seconds quicker than his countryman. It'll be interesting to see how much he improves by on his second flying lap

Hamilton - sporting a Bob Marley-inspired helmet - runs wide at turn nine as the lack of grip is clearly exposed

Karthikeyan improves to a 1:42.310, so 3.6 seconds quicker on his second lap

Ricciardo completes his first timed lap, and it's a 1:43.177

Ricciardo goes quickest on a 1:39.835. We're expecting times to lower to about a 1m26s by the end of the weekend

Schumacher goes quickest with a 1:38.658

Kobayashi runs wide at turn six, but as with all new circuits there is plenty of run-off area and he can continue

Schumacher improves to a 1:35.275

Riding on board with Rosberg and the incline at turn three is very severe. It's a wide corner too so there should be opportunities for overtaking there

Rosberg goes second with a 1:37.116, almost 2.5s slower than Schumacher's best time

Moloise Daniel emails in to say: "I do not understand why the organizers haven't taken any precaution about the dusty track. For heaven's sake its the first time GP is coming to India and the last thing we wanna hear is driver's complaining about the conditions after all the money spent on it?"

Unfortunately it's just the nature of a new circuit and the location. Similarly Bahrain used to get sand on the circuit, and it's just a characteristic that the track needs cleaning up. The drivers won't complain as such, just are aware of the lack of grip early on, and the organisers have been out washing the track to try and help the situation

Alonso showing off tributes to Marco Simoncelli and Dan Wheldon on his helmet

Alguersuari has gone quickest with a 1:32.911, times still tumbling as you'd expect

Chandhok is back on track and has already improved his time by well over ten seconds

Chandhok improves again to go seventh quickest, while Alguersuari lowers the headline time to a 1:31.436

Oops, Senna runs wide at turn six avoiding Button as he came across the slower McLaren

Webber goes fifth quickest but still 3 seconds off the pace

Sutil runs very wide at turn five and bumps across the grass

One thing I have noticed is that a lot of paint is being kicked up from the kerbs, and is flaking off on to the track with a lot of it sitting on the outside of turn 12

Button goes quickest with a 1:30.794

Nearly half way through the session and we've already seen laptimes drop by 22 seconds. There's also a clear difference between the racing line and the rest of the track

A great camera on Vettel's car, rearward facing allowing us to see him hard at work. He's very hard at work actually, catching a slide and running wide at turn six, bouncing across the grass. (I call it grass, it's actually dirt spray-painted green)

Button the first man under the 1m30s barried with a 1:29.694

Schumacher really pushing the grip levels now, as he changes direction quickly through turns 12 and 13 before setting the fastest time: 1:29.353

Marco asks: "Are the McLarens and Red Bulls running the prime or option tyre?"

Sebastian Vettel is currently on the option tyre - which this weekend is the harder compound because Pirelli wanted the teams to be allowed to run on soft tyres more often - while Button was on the prime

Massa is the latest driver to run wide at turn six. It's almost part of turn five in that the car is never fully straightened before the next apex, and it is causing drivers a lot of issues

Schumacher has improved to a 1:28.656 on the soft tyre, while Massa goes second with a 1:29.473

Barrichello also sporting a special helmet. It's mainly white with blue and red vertical stripes

Problems for Alonso and Ferrari. He's stopped on the track on the inside of turn 10, and he climbs out of the car and walks away looking very dejected

There's no yellow flag as he is on a different part of track to the actual grand prix circuit. He sits on the base of a giant TV screen, and a replay shows him dropping revs after turn four and radioing in that he's got a loss of power. The team tell him to stop, and then another replay shows him watching the first replay on a big screen!

Hamilton now on soft tyres but heavily slowed by Glock in turns 10 and 11

Neville emails in to ask: "I have heard that this Circuit has varying race lines. Are their any indications of this or do the drivers follow the 'conventional' lines?"

There is likely to be one quickest line Neville, so we've seen most of the drivers taking the same one through turns three and four (the widest corners) but what it will facilitate is overtaking in the race as drivers can try to pass on both the inside and outside, or focus on the exit of a corner to out-drag another car

Hamilton goes second quickest on soft tyres with the fastest final sector

Button goes fastest with a 1:28.501 on soft tyres

We've had an email asking what the crowd is like (don't forget to put your names on your emails), and it's a good turnout for a Friday morning; more than in Korea at least

Lewis Hamilton absolutely dominating this lap, he goes a second quicker than anyone else with a 1:27.515

Vettel goes fourth quickest with the fastest final sector

I said we'd be expecting 1m26s by the end of the weekend earlier, but it looks like we'll get lower than that by the end of today! It just shows how big an effect grip levels can have

Vettel now second quickest, but 0.8s slower than Hamilton

Webber goes second on soft tyres with a 1:28.203

Kartic emails in to ask: "We have seen a lot of drivers run wide on turns 5 and 6. What would happen if most of the drivers complain about the same? What should be in your opinion to negotiate the turn?"

There'll be no complaints Kartic; it's great to see because it means the track is challenging the drivers. They will need to carry less apex speed through turn five in order to get the car to slow enough for turn six, or take a wider line through five so that the car is straighter to brake for the next corner

Webber goes fastest with a 1:27.428, before Vettel just pips it with a 1:27.416

The top three are covered by just 0.099s

Schumacher dives up the inside of a Virgin in to the final corner and improves slightly - he's on the soft tyres - and then radios in to say he needs to pit because of rear locking in to turn one

Webber was on for a new fastest lap but encountered traffic in the final sector and backed off

Subhadip asks: "What is the top speed achieved so far?

320kph is the highest recorded speed so far Subhadip, set by Alguersuari. Buemi is second with 319kph and Perez third with 318kph

Massa had a weird moment earlier when he actually caught the dirt on the inside of turn six

Alguersuari has gone off quite heavily on the exit of turn nine. He says he is OK on the radio but he's damaged the rear end

He looks disappointed as he walks away from his car, and the onboard replay shows that he actually caught the initial slide in turn nine but ran wide over astroturf, and then the car snapped away from him again

Massa's front wing was vibrating and flexing heavily along the long straight earlier, with sparks coming off the front wing until he hit the brakes

Trouble for Maldonado, and it looks like his engine has gone pop. Smoke out of the back of the car and the horrible sound of crunching metal during the onboard replay

Maldonado has parked his car on the run down to the final corner. Teams will run older engines on a Friday and we're seeing the repurcussions of that with Alonso and Maldonado's problems

Perez is the latest driver to go off at turn six, running very wide having taken too much speed through turn five

It looks like we'll be under yellow flags until the end of the session, so nobody will be able to improve their times. Hamilton has got closer to Vettel and Webber - just 0.030s between the trio now - but he's still third

Speaking of Hamilton, Rakesh says: "Amazing to see difference between Hamilton and Button over a single lap. But alas, Hamilton loses his cool in the race and that's why Button is way ahead of Hamilton in WDC!!"

Hamilton much quicker on this lap too, almost half a second up but he will have to back off in the final sector and can't improve overall

Di Resta also off at turn five, but he manages to keep the car away from the grass

Hamilton going faster still on this lap...

...and the track is now clear so Hamilton can complete the lap and does go fastest with a 1:26.836 right at the end

Di Resta runs wide at turn ten but has enough run-off area to rejoin

Button passed Karthikeyan under yellows at the end of the session, and radios in to McLaren to say that the HRT was "dangerously slow"

Oddly, a replay shows that Hamilton was passing double waved yellows right at the end still. The timing screen definitely showed a clear track status. Strange, but it could mean Hamilton is called before the stewards...

...I think that may be a case of the marshals being slightly slow to stop waving the flags. The car was definitely cleared from that sector

Kamal asks: "Is the track really as exciting as all the media hype suggested it to be? I especially liked the sequence from turn 4 to 7. Good to have a quick racing track on the calendar… Anyways great commentating from the ESPN F1 team as usual"

Firstly, thank you for the kind words Kamal. And yes the circuit really is that exciting; the high speed sections are spectacular and are challenging the drivers, while the first sector should see some great racing on Sunday, so I think it's only going to get better as the weekend goes on

So Hamilton ends the session as comfortably the quickest man, and that pace seemed to be there all morning but he just didn't get the chance to display it until the very last lap. Vettel is second, just 0.012s quicker than Webber, while Button is a further second off the pace. We've got a big spread in times but expect that to close up as the track cleans up.

Thanks very much for all of your emails and tweets; sorry that we couldn't reply to or publish all of them but we will endeavour to respond to those that we haven't already at the start of FP2, so join us then