Hello and welcome to ESPNF1's coverage of final practice for the Japanese Grand Prix. Jenson Button topped both sessions on Friday and will be looking to continue that momentum for McLaren this morning

It was Red Bull who looked the stronger car over a longer run yesterday by quite a sizeable margin, but Lewis Hamilton said he thinks it runs its car light, and that McLaren will be competitive

It's another bright and sunny morning in Japan; a far cry from some of the weather that the teams had to contend with during the latter part of the European season.

Now, who wants to see a picture of a Bernie Ecclestone hand puppet? Thought you might:

© Sutton Images

If you want to get in touch with us here during FP3 we'd love to hear from you. Comments, questions, jokes, anything. You can do so via the link above or via Twitter @ESPNF1_live

The drivers are getting in to their cars ahead of FP3, with just the one final hour before qualifying. We'll be looking for the low fuel soft tyre runs as the best indicator of who will take pole

Williams will be eager to get out on track this morning. Problems for both drivers yesterday limited its running, with FP2 seeing Rubens Barrichello crashing in to the tyres at Degner One

The session is underway; Jaime Alguersuari leading out a train of cars

I mention Williams; the team completed just 49 laps in total yesterday, while Vitaly Petrov and Daniel Ricciardo both completed 36 laps each in FP2 alone

© Sutton Images

As Perez and Hamilton return to the pit lane the track falls quiet again with all drivers having completed installation laps

Lotus (MyTeamLotus) on Twitter: "Heikki's first back in, his car rumbling in front of the garage as he performs an oil level check. Track reports are "better than yesterday" "

The standard ten minutes of silence has befallen us, with all of the cars back in the pit lane. There's a good turnout at Suzuka today, but the passionate Japanese fans have no cars to watch on track at present

So while we wait for cars back on the track, here's a picture of what Nico Rosberg does in his spare time:

© Press Association

Incidentally, I think Rosberg is doing keep-ups rather than kicking the ball at the fans behind the fence...

As expected, it's a Williams that is keen to get on with things this morning as Pastor Maldonado pierces the silence

Maldonado is on the medium tyre, as he attacks the first flying lap of the day

The first time is Maldonado's 1:41.979

D'Ambrosio soon beats that though with a 1:41.110

Perez now fastest with a 1:36.210

Alguersuari goes top with a 1:36.056, but Button will soon beat that

And Button does indeed beat it by two and a half seconds, a 1:33.493

Vettel begins his first flying lap of the day, as Schumacher goes second with a 1:34.405

Vettel backs off, so his time isn't comparable. The quickest of yesterday, by the way, was Button's 1:31.901

Webber is still in the garage and out of the car. Surprise surprise, the BBC report that it's an engine and KERS problem

Button improves to a 1:33.044 with three new fastest sectors

Vettel is now second with a 1:33.987

Barrichello complains that his Williams is sliding a lot. He'll still be far from the perfect setup

Bruno Senna has hit the wall on the exit of the Spoon curve

The session has been red flagged. Senna is already out of the car and is fine, but he's damaged the left hand side of the car

It's quite strange how the crash ended; Senna had dropped it on the outside of the corner and slid to the inside, bouncing nose-first off the tyres. As it spun back round though, the tyre folded under the car and spat him in to the air for a second before then coming to rest on top of the car.

You have to say that the tether did its job, but that almost made the accident worse in this instance as it folded underneath. Senna visits the pit wall to apologise to Eric Boullier and his race engineer

We're still under red flag conditions, but the clock doesn't stop ticking so there's now less than half an hour of the session to go

Another replay of the incident shows Senna had opened his DRS on exit. He apologises to his mechanics, most of who seem to still be smiling. They'll have a race against time to get the car ready for qualifying

Senna tells the BBC that the car bottomed out on the exit kerb. He was very eloquent and calm speaking straight after the incident, but he'll know he has a tough qualifying session ahead

The red lights have stopped flashing, and the session restarts with di Resta first out

Pirelli (Pirelli_Media) on Twitter highlights one of the unknowns that teams will be working to find out during this session: "Crossover point between soft and medium tyres is very important here. After how many laps does the medium tyre become quicker than the soft?"

RenaultSportF1 on Twitter says: "Electrical issue with Mark Webber's engine now being fixed, should be out at some point during the session" and Webber is now out on track

Poor Tonio Liuzzi. After only completing four laps yesterday before having to stop, he's now been forced to pull over again just before 130R

Eight laps this morning for Liuzzi, so 12 laps in total ahead of qualifying. There's a crane heading to the HRT but the final sector is going to be under yellow flags for a little while

Good work by the marshals, the track is clear already. Vettel on a flying lap, while Hamilton sets the fastest first sector

Rosberg goes fastest after setting the fastest final two sectors. His time of 1:32.878 was set on soft tyres

Alonso has gone third and Hamilton fourth, while Webber is quickly up to speed with a 1:33.689 putting him fifth quickest

Massa says over the radio: "I've got quite a lot of oversteer in the first sector, so I almost spun twice"

And a clear sign of Massa's problems as he runs wide at Spoon

Webber improves to a 1:33.273 and third quickest

McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull have yet to run the soft tyre with 16 minutes left of the session

Alonso sets the fastest final sector, going third with a 1:33.069

Schumacher - on soft tyres - goes quickest with a 1:32.725

Webber goes second quickest with a 1:32.792 on the medium tyre - that's strong pace on the primes

Button is out on the soft tyre now, and winding up to start a lap

Button goes fastest with a 1:31.255, 1.4s quicker than anyone else and 0.7s faster than his best time from Friday

Button pits after just the one flying lap, as Alguersuari attacks a soft tyre lap

Looks like Button's running is done for the morning as he is already out of the car

Alguersuari goes seventh quickest

Alonso, Hamilton and Rosberg out on track on soft tyres at present

Schumacher is also on options again, but his slow first sector appears to point to a heavier fuel load

Hamilton's first flying lap on the soft tyre puts him second, but he is half a second slower than his team-mate

Alonso completes a lap on soft tyres and is a second slower than Button

Vettel and Webber head out for their soft tyre runs. Do they have the pace to match Button?

Hamilton takes an easy lap and then sets off on another quick one

Hamilton's first sector is a second off the pace, so he may have hit traffic. Alonso winds up another lap too

Vettel begins his flying lap, but is half a second slower than Button in sector one

Vettel's time is over 0.8s slower than Button after setting the fastest final sector, but he didn't seem to attack the lap too much

Webber starts a lap before the chequered flag falls, and is 0.2s slower than Button in sector one

Webber loses a bit of time behind Perez though, and ends the lap 1.1s down

So, Button completes a clean sweep of fastest times throughout practice, and two of those have seen a McLaren one-two. Red Bull clearly has some more pace to come, but does it have enough to beat Button or will we have a non-Red Bull pole for the first time this season? Join us for qualifying in two hours to find out