Welcome back to ESPNF1's live coverage of the Indian Grand Prix weekend. In about 20 minutes first practice will get underway and it should give us the best indication yet as to what will happen in qualifying.

Yesterday's practice sessions got off to a rather dusty and slippery start but the track started to offer up more grip by the end of FP2. Vettel put that grip to the best use with a time of 1:26.221 but he expecting much closer competition in qualifying.

McLaren did not look that quick in FP2 but Hamilton is hoping he was running more fuel than the Red Bulls. However, on race pace they did not look so far off, but then fuel loads could have played a part in those times as well.

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Off the track Ferrari has been criticised by local media and authorities for running an Italian naval flag on the front of its car. The team say it is not a political statement, but with an ongoing diplomatic dispute over two arrested Italian marines in India it's been seen as slightly provocative. You can read more about the story here.

Back on the track, we just have a few moments before the start of this session. The drivers are currently suiting and booting up and we still have a slightly hazy smog hanging over the circuit.

Lots of cars flooding out on to the track at the start of this session, led by Kimi Raikkonen.

It looks like hard tyres for everyone so far. That's no surprise as the teams tend to go out for a qualifying simulation on the softs at the very end of the session.

Ferrari tweets: "FP3 has just begun. As usual, qualifying preparation is the main aim of this last hour of free practice."

Installation laps done, all 24 cars have now returned to the pits.

Caterham tweets: "Installation laps done and all's well. current air temp is 28c, track temp 33c but with less haze it feels a lot hotter than yesterday."

Raikkonen returns to the track in the Lotus. Yesterday seemed to serve as confirmation that Lotus has dropped off the pace of the top three teams, although they are closer on race pace than one-lap pace.

Grosjean has also gone back out, so Lotus clearly has a bit of work to do this morning.

Raikkonen is told to use some of his KERS as he comes to the end of his outlap.

Raikkonen is straight on the attack, keeping his DRS open until the last moment ahead of turn five.

And Raikkonen sets a 1:30.183. Not too shoddy for a first lap on the circuit on hard tyres, but lap times will drop significantly over the remainder of the session.

Raikkonen drops his time to a 1:28.173 on his second timed lap. He's got quite a bit more company out there now, including Hamilton.

And Raikkonen goes fastest again with a small lock up into the final corner. He's now down to a 1:27.686.

Rosberg is off the track at turn three. Looks like he had a little spin but had to take to the gravel to get going again, which is a bit odd.

Pirelli tweets: "The time difference between the two compounds is approx. between 0.8-1.0s"

Some work is being done on the front of Alonso's car after his single outlap.

Rosberg is told to return to the pits so the team can check the car over.

Nitish says: "Although the no. of drivers in the points has gone up from 6 to 10 in the last decade, wouldn't it be even more interesting if the points system is altered so that, lets say all who finish get points? I feel it can be a motivating factor for teams like caterham,HRT, Marussia and May be even STR. they have something more to play for."

It has been suggested in the past and that does happen in other forms of motorsport. I don't think it's on F1's agenda any time soon though.

Hulkenberg runs very wide out of turn 11 and completely cuts the apex of turn 12.

Vettel is now fastest on a 1:26.822 on the hard tyres. That suggests the track has as much or possibly more grip than it had at the end of the last session as it's not too far off his soft tyre time.

Webber is just 0.065s off his team-mate but is on a hot lap.

And Webber goes fastest with a 1:26.657.

Vettel smashes Webber's time now with a 1:25.892. The fastest time yet this weekend and on a set of hard tyres.

Hamilton comes across Perez in the middle of turn 10 and turn 11 and ran a little wide. I should imagine Hamilton was not that impressed by the positioning of the Sauber. Hamilton is now third but 1.323s off Vettel.

Senna pops up to third place with a a lap 1.031s off Vettel. That Williams is looking pretty quick this weekend.

Hamilton is now on a much better lap. He ends up second fastest with a 1:26.151, 0.259s off Vettel.

The Ferraris are now on track and running line astern.

Massa's first lap was a 1:27.897 and that's enough for 11th.

Michael asks: "Hamilton on soft?"

No, all the drivers are currently on hard tyres.

Button has improved to third with a time 0.371s off Vettel.

After three or four laps giving each other a tow down the long straight here, Massa and Alonso head off on their separate programmes. It looks like they were slipstreaming each other to see if they could gain a straight-line speed advantage. They did something similar at Monza but it didn't really work out.

Alonso goes seventh on next lap with a 1:27.593. He's 1.701s off Vettel now.

Hulkenberg, Senna and the two Mercedes are out on the soft tyres now.

Hulkenberg goes fourth fastest on the soft tyres but is still 0.639s off Vettel. He lost most of his time in the final sector, where the Red Bull looks unbeatable this weekend.

Senna runs wide at the penultimate corner and has now bailed out of two laps on the soft tyres now.

Hulkenberg is complaining of understeer at the moment while his team-mate di Resta has the sidepod covers off his Force India.

Vettel's was briefly back on track on the hard tyres but returns to the pits.

Webber has spun at the final corner. He was also on a single lap out of the pits but appeared to lose it under braking. Odd.

Meanwhile Grosjean is getting a little hot under the collar after being held up on a fast lap by one of the Mercedes.

Hamilton has gone out on soft tyres.

Button and Raikkonen are also out on the softer rubber.

Worth mentioning that Senna got up to third on the soft tyres, 0.322s off Vettel's hard tyre run.

Button sets a 1:26.263 on the soft tyres which is an improvement in time but still leaves him fourth behind Senna (soft tyre time), Hamilton (hard tyre time) and Vettel (hard tyre time).

Vettel is now out on the softs as is his team-mate Webber.

Button is now on a fast lap, it looks like it is taking McLaren at least one lap to get these soft tyres in their working range.

Button goes second with a 1:26.066 on the softs. He had a poor final sector.

Vettel sets fastest second and third sectors but wasn't on it in sector one and doesn't beat his hard tyre time.

Webber can only manage third with a 1:26.108 but had some traffic.

Raikkonen pops up in fifth with a 1:26.209, which doesn't look too bad. Just 0.367s off Vettel.

However, Vettel is now on a much faster lap.

Button improves again but is still 0.192s off Vettel.

Vettel fails again to set the fastest time. But he now has fastest first, second and final sectors, just on different laps.

Button and Hamilton have now backed off without making a huge impression on Vettel's time.

Hamilton got a huge slide on in the final corner. Very odd.

If you added all of Vettel's best sectors together it would be a 1:25.2, which is 0.6s faster than his current best.

Vettel was on an even faster lap just now but got blocked by Petrov's Caterham in sector two.

Put simply, there is much more to come from Red Bull and Vettel than his 1:25.842. If you take the first sector from his final lap he would have been on a 1:25.1 with all his best sectors.

In comparison, Button's best was a 1:26.034, Hamilton's best lap was a 1:26.151 and Alonso only managed a 1:26.521.

So, it looks like we are set for a Red Bull-dominated qualifying session unless McLaren too was hiding its true pace.

To find out you'll have to join us again in a couple of hours for live commentary of all three qualifying sessions. See you then.