Good morning and welcome to live coverage of FP3 from Monza. Once again the Autodromo Nazionale is looking glorious in the sunshine and we're just half an hour from the final practice session getting under way

The teams were able to get plenty of dry running yesterday, so Saturday morning isn't as crucial as it was one week ago for all the teams. There are still some that really need to make progress in final practice - most notably Red Bull

Yes, Red Bull was off the pace yesterday when it came to one-lap pace, with both drivers admitting that the team is not as quick as it would like and that there's work to do. Check out the report from FP2, with Lewis Hamilton fastest in a tight session

While Red Bull was struggling slightly, Mercedes looked very competitive yesterday after Schumacher topped the first session. I did tip him on the podcast to win this weekend, but I also predicted a Button victory in the preview. Basically I'm hedging my bets, as yesterday showed Ferrari and Raikkonen to be well in the mix too; with Force India also quick over one lap

If you want to get in touch with us during this session then you can do so in one of two ways. Either email us using the link above of you can tweet Laurence in the paddock @ESPNF1

Now, let's get on to some gearbox news. A lot of you were worried about Alonso after he had a gearbox failure in FP2; fear not, it wasn't his race gearbox so he can change it without penalty

Rahulan asks: "Paul Hembery stated that he expects a one stop strategy. Do you think few might go in for an aggressive two stopper considering the high track temperatures to counter tyre wear?"

If we see teams two-stopping it will be because they can't stretch the tyres out for a one-stop, but the one-stop will be the optimum strategy. That means they're less likely to be aggressive, because teams will only start to find out when the tyres begin to drop off

And an additional bit of information to go with Rahulan's question; the tyre compounds available this weekend are the medium and hard compounds, so the hardest Pirelli could possible select

Luca di Montezemolo has arrived for his traditional Saturday appearance at Monza. He'll be in the garage soon no doubt. Piero Ferrari is also in the paddock too

FP3 has started under bright sunshine, with Kovalainen the first man out on track

And Montezemolo has made it in to the garage. Next stop; the pit wall

Only Hamilton yet to head out on track so far

And he heads out, past Montezemolo who has now taken up his place on the Ferrari pit wall

Jaydeep asks: "Any idea what we can expect from the Saubers this weekend?"

Unfortunately, not a huge amount. Mercedes power seems to be best around here with all six Merc-engined cars in the top ten. With Sauber having Ferrari engines, they seem to be at a slight disadvantage this weekend and will be aiming for the lower-paying points positions

Installation laps complete, and we have an empty track. All is quiet, but it won't be for too long. Now's your time to get any questions in though!

Mike asks: "Where do the sectors start and stop?"

Sector one is from the finish line until 233 metres before the Roggia chicane, then sector two ends 215m before the Ascari chicane and obviously sector three runs until the finish line again

Hulkenberg pierces the silence and heads out on track in the Force India. Perez and di Resta join him and the Royal Park reverberates to the sound of V8s once again

Martin asks: "Will Lewis or Button have similar problems overtaking the Mercedes on the start/finish straight like Lewis did last year ?"

We can only speculate for now, but I'd say the Mercedes is going to be hard for any car to overtake in a straight line (as DRS is less effective here), but then the McLaren is probably going to be similarly hard to pass. This is why qualifying will be so crucial - four of the last five races here have been won from pole

Perez goes quickest with a 1:26.620, just 0.050s quicker than di Resta. Bad news for di Resta though is that he's taken a gearbox change which will result in a five-place grid penalty today

Raikkonen goes fastest with a 1:26.215

The fastest time from yesterday was a 1:25.290 from Hamilton

Rahulan asks: ""Can you please throw us some light on the gearbox rules. Alonso had an accident last time around so could he have changed it without penalty. And yesterday he did change without penalty as it was not the race unit. I dont get the picture."

The gearboxes must last for five race weekends, but teams often run old ones during Friday practice in order to ensure that any problems don't effect their grid position (as they do with engines). If your gearbox is damaged in an incident but wasn't the cause of that incident then it can be changed without penalty. If it is undamaged despite a crash, then it can't be changed

Hamilton goes quickest with a 1:25.165 - the fastest time we've seen so far this weekend

Vettel with a big moment of oversteer entering the Parabolica and he can only go seventh with a 1:25.788. All drivers on the hard tyre at present

Senna goes fourth with a 1:25.461

Hamilton then goes comfortably quickest with a 1:24.687 - still on the hard tyre

Williams tweets Pastor Maldonado's helmet design this weekend: "Pastor's special edition helmet design: 'Less Trouble, More Speed.....Monza, temple of the fastest'"

Vettel with a 1:25.564

We're seeing faster lap times today because the track has 'rubbered in' even more and the teams will be running less fuel than in FP2

Maldonado goes third with a 1:25.383

Both Ferraris now out on track - traditionally late to the party in FP3

Peter asks: "I know that Red Bull always seem to be lacking in out and out speed, I gather this is a combination of gearing and drag as induced by downforce devices. However, this weekend most if not all the teams appear to have the narrower wings to give less downforce. I guess my question is, are all the teams limited in their top gear ratios. One would think in theory that if they all have the same or similar engine power and top gear ratios that their top speeds should be pretty well the same. This certainly does not appear to be the case. Maybe I am missing something!"

The teams actually have to nominate 30 gear ratios to last them all season. That means pre-empting what you want to run at Monza, and as Vettel proved last year having a car that is quick through the gears but lacking top speed can still be effective here. The main reason for Red Bull's lack of top speed is therefore its gear ratios, with the driveability of the Renault engine helping it out of the chicanes

Schumacher has lost KERS ahead of his run on medium tyres

Alonso goes second quickest with a 1:25.186

Zhihoe asks: "Is there any sign of improvement shown by the Caterham Team?"

There is. Caterham is much happier with its pace this weekend and is closer to the rear of the midfield, with Kovalainen less than a second outside the top ten in FP2 yesterday

Alonso goes fastest with a 1:24.632 having got a bit of a tow from Massa in to the Ascari chicane

A lot of work going on at McLaren on Button's car, and he's not sat in it. In fact, he's nowhere to be seen. Session over for the Belgian GP winner?

Rosberg is on medium tyres and has gone third quickest, 0.404s slower than Alonso

A hark back to the old days, Ron Dennis and Luca di Montezemolo chatting away in the McLaren garage

Speaking of the McLaren garage, Button is looking at telemetry (we haven't seen it ) and data in the middle of the garage, with his overalls tied around his waist

D'Ambrosio outbrakes himself in to turn one and cuts the chicane. He's down in 17th place at present and 1.8s off the pace

Montezemolo was also shown having a chat with Button in the McLaren garage, but Button is now preparing to head back out on track. He and Alonso have done the least amount of laps with nine each

Schumacher is now on the medium tyre and winding up to start a flying lap

Altaf asks: "What went wrong with the lotus E20 ??? They should try and run DDRS ???"

The Lotus is still competitive here, but probably won't be aiming much higher than fourth or fifth on the grid. The DDRS is not compatible at Monza though because of the special low-downforce rear wings that all the teams run

Vettel up to seventh with a 1:25.406

For those asking about Alonso's gearbox - he replaced an old one with his race gearbox last night so has no penalty. For those asking about Red Bull - they're genuinely a bit off the pace over one lap, but don't forget that was the case in Spa and Vettel still finished second

Button is back out on track for McLaren, only he, Rosberg and Raikkonen on track at present

Button's on the medium tyres, as is Rosberg but the Mercedes DRS isn't open so he's on a high-fuel run

Button going quickly on his first lap on the mediums and he goes third - 0.362s slower than Alonso. Raikkonen goes sixth with a 1:25.255 on mediums

Alonso does the fastest final sector having got a tow off Rosberg

Button is consistently a tenth quicker than Hamilton in sector one - but that's comparing medium and hard tyres

Button again within a tenth through the first two sectors, and again he loses time in the final sector and doesn't improve

Alonso is on medium tyres, as are Hamilton and Massa. Di Resta on mediums too goes third - 0.217s slower than Alonso

Quite a few cars getting crossed up in to Parabolica - Raikkonen the latest

Button complains that he's lacking rear grip in low speed corners

Alonso improves to a 1:24.579

Hamilton goes quickest by 0.001s with a strong final sector. Button then does the fastest first sector of the session so far

Button again losing a lot of time in the final sector - 0.6s slower than Alonso's best

Massa is fourth, 0.330s slower than his team-mate and 0.331s off the best time today

All the best times at the sharp end have been set on medium tyres

Vettel's stopped at the Roggia chicane

Frowns on the Red Bull pit wall, it looks like a mechanical problem

Vettel was upshifting and as soon as he went in to seventh in Curva Grande then he started dropping through the gears to a controlled stop before radioing in to say "Low Battery"

Could it be a repeat of the alternator problem in Valencia?

The chequered flag is out and Webber ends the session by improving to a 1:25.389, 0.811 off the pace in 11th

Kovalainen again with a good lap late on - two seconds off the pace but still competitive for Caterham

So that's the end of the session, and Hamilton is quickest from Alonso by just 0.001s. Di Resta was third - 0.271s back - but he'll take a grid penalty this afternoon. Massa was fourth ahead of Button, Rosberg, Perez, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg and Maldonado. Less than one second covers first to 14th, with Schumacher the 14th-placed driver despite having no KERS.

Vettel's problem means he didn't set a time on the medium tyre but he was 0.828s slower than Hamilton. Will it prove to be costly in qualifying? Make sure you join us in less than two hours to find out - it's going to be a cracker