Welcome back to ESPN's live commentary of the Italian Grand Prix weekend. Qualifying is up next and the big question is whether anybody can beat Sebastian Vettel. Ever since second practice he has looked like he is in a class of his own, but in final practice Fernando Alonso narrowed the gap to 0.283s. But that's still a fair chunk of time at Monza.

We should also keep an eye on Mercedes. They have often held something back in the practice sessions this year, so Lewis Hamilton on low fuel could find the 0.352s he was lacking in FP3. Rosberg had a hydraulic issue in FP3 but the car should be ready for Q1 in 20 minutes time.

The other team that has been hard at work over lunchtime is Force India who are repairing Paul di Resta's car after he went off at the Parabolica.

It was a slightly odd accident as di Resta lost the rear just as he turned in and before he knew it was in the gravel. Force India is having another difficult weekend so making Q3 would be a huge achievement after its struggles this weekend.

But it looks like the top ten places should be filled by the Red Bulls, Ferraris, Mercedes, Lotuses and McLarens. However, even Lotus struggled for pace in FP3 so there are no guarantees at this stage.

Keep an eye out for Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo, who was only 0.505s off his team-mate for next year Sebastian Vettel. He will be aiming to cause an upset for one of the big names and make Q3 and even Pastor Maldonado in the Williams could cause a surprise.

The key to a good lap here is to get the front tyres working and up to temperature at the same time as the rears. That's been tricky for all the drivers this weekend and as a result most have been setting their best time on the second hot lap on the medium tyres. That could make timing a lap in Q3 interesting.

The other thing to watch out for is the Ferraris slipstreaming on the straights. In practice they were getting one car to punch a hole in the air for the one behind, thus improving straightline speed. If it works it can offer a big advantage but it's also very easy to screw up. They were trying to get an advantage on the pit straight and through the Curva Grande before letting the following car loose after the second chicane. Last year they made it work for Massa between Lesmo 2 and Ascari.

There's no chance of rain in this session judging by the clear blue sky. So we can expect a true test of the cars' speed over the next hour or so. Tomorrow might see some rainstorms mix the order up, so while the grid is important, it might seem fairly irrelevant by Sunday evening.

Air temperature is up at 30C with track temperature at 42C.

The drivers are belted in. It will be interesting to see who can qualify on hard tyres for Q2. However, we're expecting drivers to attempt a one-stop tomorrow so tyres aren't as critical as usual.

The cars head out. It sounds like Rosberg is going to attempt three hot laps on these hard tyres with cool down laps in between, according to his radio.

Vettel, Webber, Button, Perez, Raikkonen and Hamilton yet to head out.

Ferrari look like they are going to try a slingshot with Massa and Alonso. They may just do it on the hards in Q1 to see if it works and to get through without using the mediums.

Alonso currently fastest with a 1:24.938. Webber is on a hot lap now but 0.2s down.

Vergne now fastest at the Toro Rosso shows another flash of pace on a 1:24.630. He then misses his braking point for the first chicane.

Webber radios in to say it is very hot in the left-hand side of the cockpit. Red Bull are keeping an eye on it.

Vettel finally heads out on track. A sign of his confidence with just eight minutes left in this session.

At the moment Gutierrez and Sutil will need to improve to make Q2. Di Resta and Bottas will also be under threat. Force India clearly struggling this weekend.

Webber is currently 11th and won't feel too confident with just 0.4s in his pocket over Sutil, who is likely to be demoted into the drop zone when Vettel completes his lap.

Vettel goes third fastest, 0.067s off Vergne. He lost a bit of time in the final sector.

Webber has now improved, so clearly the hard tyres take a few laps to get up to speed. Hamilton proves that with a 1:24.589 to go fastest.

Hamilton's lead doesn't last for long with Vettel going fastest on a 1:24.319.

Gutierrez is now out on mediums. Rosberg and the two Lotuses have just left the pits on medium tyres. A sign that nobody is that comfortable in the top ten.

Of course, Grosjean and Rosberg aren't in the top ten, so feeling the heat here. Rosberg missed most of FP3 so is learning as he goes.

Gutierrez has got himself ahead of Bottas but slips back into the drop zone as Sutil improves to 13th.

Maldonado doesn't improve on medium compound tyres and stays just on the brink ahead of team-mate Bottas who has just gone faster than Gutierrez but remains in the drop zone.

Grosjean goes sixth fastest but ruins his next lap as he goes through the turn one run off a clonks over a speed bump.

Gutierrez drops the two Willaimses into the drop zone.

Bottas just makes it through to start another lap. Maldonado is faster than Gutierrez in the first sector.

Gutierrez doesn't improve on his last lap.

Maldonado is on a good enough lap to beat Gutierrez and goes 12th fastest. Good lap.

Bottas does not improve and is out in Q1, remaining behind Gutierrez on the grid.

Bottas had a McLaren to negotiate on the back straight. That may have slowed him a touch as he had to scamper back over to the left of the track for Parabolica. However, he may have gained a slipstream on the straight so I doubt he will use it as an excuse.

A replay shows that Ricciardo ran wide at the second Lesmo. His car took a battering through the gravel trap. Hopefully there's no damage as he is looking quick so far with the sixth fastest time in Q1.

To confirm, the back of the grid will look like this: Gutierrez, Bottas, Van der Garde, Pic, Bianchi, Chilton. All were comfortably within 107% of Vettel's time.

Rosberg ended up second fastest in that session, 0.2s off Vettel and that's promising for Mercedes, especially after Rosberg missed most of FP3 with a hydraulics issue.

Ricciardo is the first man out. Possibly keen to see the car is still in good shape after that mistake at the second Lesmo.

Most drivers will head out on the same medium tyres as they finished the last session before bolting on a new set for their second run.

A replay from Q1 shows di Resta bouncing off the rev limiter for a fair bit of the pit straight. It looks like Force India may have under-geared here.

Ricciardo sets a 1:24.746 on his first lap. That's a tenth slower than his Q1 time, so it seems as though he is back out on the same set of mediums. He may get a better time on his next lap as they come up to temperature.

The problem with Monza is that the tyres really cool down on the straight and that's why you often see drivers weaving to gaining temperature on their out laps.

Grosjean misses the first chicane again. Once again a pretty serious lock up is to blame.

Ricciardo headed back to the pits after his lap. So it was just one banker lap on the old tyres before switching to the new ones, which I suspect he will attempt two times laps on.

Alonso goes fastest with a 1:24.227. But was confronted with a cloud of dust after Hamilton ran wide on his out lap at the end of Parabolica. It looks like he got caught by surprise as the corner tightened on the exit. Very odd.

Rosberg goes second fastest 0.311s off Alonso. It looks like Red Bull are ditching the run on used mediums and going straight for a fresh tyre lap at the end of this session.

Hamilton returns to the pits without setting a decent lap. It looks like that mistake cost him there. He is being wheeled back into the pits for more fuel and fresh medium tyres. No doubt Mercedes will give the floor a quick once over after that trip through the gravel.

Webber and Vettel are out on track. It looks like they will have a couple of timed laps on these tyres with a cool-down lap in between. Makes sense to me, especially if you are as confident as Red Bull can allow themselves to be.

Alonso and Massa are leaving it a little bit later.

Webber goes second fastest with a 1:24.263. That's not that great considering Alonso's lap was most likely on used tyres.

Ricciardo goes third fastest with a 1:24.520.

And there goes Vettel with the fastest lap by some margin. A 1:23.977, which is 0.25s ahead of Alonso who hasn't gone back out yet and may be comfortable with his time.

Sutil, di Resta, Perez, Grosjean, Maldonado and Hamilton all in the drop zone and need to improve.

Hamilton only improves to ninth fastest. He will get one more lap but could be at threat here.

Hamilton drops to tenth and is not on another quick lap. If any of the cars behind him can find a couple of tenths, he is out in Q2.

Perez knocks Hamilton out, Button also improves.

Raikkonen is also out after he failed to improve. He missed out by 0.020s to Perez in tenth. Both Lotuses drop out.

I wonder if Hamilton damaged his car at all when he ran wide early in Q2.

Stewards are investigating Hamilton being blocked by Sutil in the Parabolica and onto the main straight. The team confirms there was nothing wrong with the car from the mistake Hamilton made.

That doesn't help Hamilton at all as Sutil is behind him on the grid anyway. It won't do anything for the tense relationship between the two, however.

But traffic is always a concern here, sometimes you win with a slipstream and sometimes you lose with a block in the corners.

Q3 gets underway. Rosberg is the first man out.

So both Toro Rossos, both McLarens and a Sauber in Q3. That's a bit of a surprise turn out.

Massa and Alonso leave the pits in tandem. Expect to see some slipstreaming here as the Tifosi goes wild.

Hamilton said he doesn't think he was quick enough to beat the Red Bull and is surprisingly relaxed about being blocked by Sutil. "If you impede, you impede. You get a penalty." It should be a fairly straightforward case.

Meanwhile, Webber sets a 1:23.990 to go fastest, but still a fraction slower than Vettel's Q2 time.

It looks to me like Massa is a little too far ahead to really be helping Alonso at the moment.

But Alonso goes faster than Massa with a 1:24.419, but that's slower than his Q2 time.

Vettel goes fastest on a 1:23.859. A new fastest time of the weekend. Red Bull have provisionally locked out the front row.

We should have another run from all the drivers though.

Rosberg's time was a 1:28 so clearly he didn't get it right or wasn't pushing. Expect to see another attempt from him soon.

Ricciardo, meanwhile, has the track to himself and is on his fast lap. Looks like he's probably fuelled for two fast laps.

Ricciardo makes a small error exiting the second chicane. That won't help.

Ricciardo is fourth fastest. Not bad with a 1:24.538, 0.2s quicker than Massa.

Now the track comes back to life as the rest of the cars join Ricciardo. All ten are on track. Vettel was out last so should be the final man to set a time.

Rosberg still warming up his tyres on his first timed lap. He will get around for a quick lap.

Alonso told to stay in touch with Massa, but Massa is too far ahead says Alonso. Ferrari have messed this up a bit, either Massa gives up on his lap and drops back or Alonso won't get a tow.

But Vettel and Webber are going even quicker now and the battle for pole is really between those two.

Vergne runs wide and creates a big cloud of dust. Massa beats Alonso to fourth and Hulkenberg is third!

Ferrari completely stuffed that up and Alonso will take fifth while Vettel leads a Red Bull front-row lockout by 0.2s from Webber.

Rosberg takes sixth with Ricciardo also putting in a strong lap in sixth. Vergne lost the rear of his car on the exit of Parabolica. He was lucky to keep it out of the wall.

Perez beats Button to eighth by 0.013s. Good effort by the Mexican.

So this looks like another race for the taking for Vettel starting ahead of the notoriously-slow-off-the-line Webber and the Sauber of Hulkenberg in third.

So there will be a bit of tasty de-brief at Ferrari. Did Massa go too fast on the out lap to drop Alonso? Ferrari were intending to sacrifice his lap to benefit Alonso, who found less than a tenth on his Q2 time.

Drama at the theatre of speed. Make sure you keep an eye on the website over the next few hours as we go into the paddock to investigated all the stories behind that intriguing qualifying session.

Join us tomorrow for the race too. With rain expected to be in the air it's not all over yet.