Welcome back to ESPN's live commentary of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend. Next up is qualifying and after FP3 we have a slight twist in the usual tale.

Sebastian Vettel suffered a KERS issue in final practice, and although we expect it will be fixed for qualifying, he missed out on his qualifying simulation run. Now, Vettel being Vettel, he may well still take pole position, but it's a little interruption in his weekend that could just be enough to let the Mercedes drivers or Mark Webber have a sniff at pole position.

Adrian Sutil was the other driver to suffer a setback in FP3. He crashed on the exit of Spoon corner, taking the nose off his car and damaging the rear suspension. The latter impact has resulted in a gearbox change and that will mean a five-place penalty.

It's a headache Sutil could have done without as the Force India looks off the pace again this weekend.

He was the latest addition to a long list of drivers to lose car parts around the circuit or spin into the gravel. It just goes to show that even the more experienced drivers can make mistakes around here and that could be at the back of a few of their minds over the qualifying hour.

At the top of the timesheets, Mark Webber led Lewis Hamilton by over a tenth of a second in FP3. On the face of it that suggests Vettel may come in and just blitz them all, but Mercedes often run a little heavier in practice so there could be more to come from them.

We're just a few minutes away from the start of the session. A contrast between the front and back of the grid as Max Chilton gets ready to head out in the cockpit of his car while Nico Rosberg chills out at the back of the Mercedes garage.

The track has ramped up quite a lot overnight. There is now a tail wind down the pit straight and into 130R that has helped, but the track surface is definitely evolving as more rubber goes down.

Gutierrez is the first car on track on hard tyres. We usually see most drivers head out on hard tyres first in this session and then go for the softer compound at the end if they need to to make Q2.

No rush from Vettel at the start of this session despite missing the end of FP3. The KERS battery has been replaced on his car, but he seems relaxed at the start of this session.

Gutierrez sets a 1:33.547. A few more cars out on track now, including the Lotuses on hard tyres, no sign of the Red Bulls yet. Mercedes are getting ready for their cars to go out.

The key for the likes of Vettel, Hamilton and Raikkonen is to make Q2 on hard tyres to save two sets of medium tyres for Q3. That's possible as the peformance gap between hard and medium tyres is relatively slim.

Raikkonen's Lotus is scraping along the ground at high speed. Not an unusual sight for a Lotus on Saturday, but that car is due to have an extra 150kg of fuel put in it for the start of the race, so it always seems surprising to see it bottoming out on low fuel in qualifying.

There's a flash fire in the Sauber garage at the back of Gutierrez's car. Quickly dealt with by a mechanic with an extinguisher but could there be damage to his car? It looked like something set fire around the exhaust so it may have been a bit of spilt fuel.

Meanwhile, Alonso is fastest with a 1:32.371. Button is second fastest on a 1:32.606.

Hamilton clocks a 1:32.526 so Alonso's time is proving pretty handy at this early stage. Expect everyone to improve on their second flying lap on the hard tyres though.

Gutierrez is back in his Sauber now, so the fire has been dealt with and the team looks set to send him out again.

Maldonado locks up into the final chicane. He goes 12th fastest but it should have been quicker and now he has a flat spot on his front right.

Hamilton goes fastest with a 1:32.340, Vettel goes third fastest on a 1:32.397. Alonso splits the two.

Gutierrez is back on track with no obvious damage to his Sauber from that flash fire.

Webber is now fastest with a 1:32.271.

Hulkenberg is out on medium tyres now so that will set down a marker for other drivers to match on hard tyres. Webber is told he will do one more lap as the wind change may improve the times.

Vergne's rear brakes are on fire. They caught fire in the first Degner and he didn't stop until after the hairpin. The marshals were quick to respond but the heat of the brakes seemed to keep them on fire. Quick decision to throw a red flag.

Bad timing for Grosjean and Raikkonen as they had just set out on medium tyres.

Vergne's car is still smoking away as it gets lifted away by a recovery vehicle.

2m55s remain in this session, so enough time to get out and set a lap, but it's going to be busy out there.

Vergne is currently just out of the drop zone in 16th and Sutil and Gutierrez are set to drop unless they improve.

Rosberg is out to queue early in the pit lane to guarantee track position. He's currently 11th and has taken the medium tyres to make sure he gets out.

12 cars leave the pits in a long queue. The top five in the timings have stayed in the garage.

Raikkonen passes Gutierrez on track as they squabble for position, that could be an important move for the Lotus driver.

Grosjean is on hard tyres. Raikkonen is on the medium, a sign of who is more confident in the Lotus camp over one lap.

Ricciardo has set a bad first sector and could be at risk of dropping out with his team-mate here.

Gutierrez goes ninth fastest, di Resta makes the top three on medium tyres - impressive.

Massa goes second fastest.

Sutil drops out with Vergne in the end as Maldonado and Ricciardo both sneak through.

Sutil had to have his car rebuilt after FP3 and faces a five-place grid penalty so he will start from the back of the grid.

So once all penalties, including the ones for Pic and Bianchi after their third reprimands in Korea, have been applied, the bottom six will look like this:

17. Vergne
18. Chilton
19. Van der Garde
20. Pic
21. Bianchi
22. Sutil

So despite 10-place penalties for Pic and Bianchi, Pic will start from the same place he qualified and Bianchi will start one place forward.

Di Resta heads straight out on the medium compound tyres at the start of Q2.

Di Resta kicks up a little bit of dust through the first sector on his first attempt in Q2. He went third fastest in Q1 so will be hoping to get close to that lap time again in this session. He may have to wait until he puts on a new set of mediums for it to happen though.

Di Resta's lap is 0.8s down on his Q1 time, which is not great but almost as expected from used mediums.

Raikkonen leads the way ahead of Grosjean by just 0.059s.

Alonso has set a good first sector. It looks as though he has finally got his Ferrari hooked up around here after looking slightly lost in practice.

Alonso beats Hamilton's best by 0.024s.

Button is also on the pace and third fastest, just 0.061s off Alonso. We've yet to see times from Vettel and Webber.

The Red Bulls are now on track so expect to see times flash up soon.

Lots of work on Ricciardo's Toro Rosso, presumably to prevent a repeat of the issue Vergne had in Q1.

Vettel looking very quick now on his first lap on medium tyres today!

He sets a 1:31.290, 0.6s quicker than Alonso.

Webber goes second fastest, 0.223s down on his team-mate. He ran a little wide of the first apex in the final chicane so it looks like he could go quicker.

Ricciardo is back on track now. He hasn't set a time yet and has Williamses, Saubers and Perez between him and a place in Q3.

Grosjean is third fastest with a 1:31.565. Hamilton and Rosberg are going to go again on fresh mediums, so we could yet see a threat to the Red Bull pace.

Di Resta is back in the pits. He's seventh fastest at the moment but that time might be beaten yet and send him out of the top ten.

Hulkenberg goes fifth fastest. Good lap.

Rosberg goes fifth behind Raikkonen.

Ricciardo will drop out, as will Gutierrez and Maldonado.

Perez knocks di Resta out of the top ten, but is then knocked out himself by Massa.

Perez, di Resta, Bottas, Gutierrez, Maldonado and Ricciardo drop out in that order.

Perez was 0.14s off another cracking lap from Hulkenberg to put the Sauber in the top ten.

A very close Q2 session there with just over a tenth of a second separating Perez in 11th and Maldonado in 15th.

Di Resta says he is very happy with 12th, which considering Force India's pace at recent races is not bad at all.

The green light is on for the start of the session. Vettel is the first out on medium tyres.

Alonso also out on medium tyres, but I suspect those are used.

Button heads out on the hards, which I suspect may mean he does two laps and returns to the pits. He may then choose to do a lap depending on what Hulkenberg does as he is unlikely to make it higher than eighth.

Button heads out on the hards, which I suspect may mean he does two laps and returns to the pits. He may then choose to do a lap depending on what Hulkenberg does as he is unlikely to make it higher than eighth.

Vettel told KERS shut down, three clicks forward (on the brake balance).

Vettel sets a 1:31.312 as a result, that is off the pace of his Q2 time.

Webber goes fastest with a 1:30.975

A replay shows Vettel also made a mistake on the exit of Spoon.

Hamilton set a 1:31.952, but I suspect that was on used mediums with some performance taken out of them. There will be new mediums for his final attempt.

New mediums also going on the Lotuses and Ferraris.

Button did not set a time, nor did Grosjean, but that was due to running wide at the second Degner.

Vettel has gone back out for another run, but without KERS he may struggle for pole position.

Raikkonen starts his attempt on fresh mediums, his one and only hot lap in Q3.

It seems Vettel has KERS back and he sets a fastest first sector.

But a bad middle sector with a missed apex at the hairpin means Vettel can't beat Webber's time.

Webber improves to a 1:30.975.

Hamilton can't beat Vettel and goes third fastest. Grosjean fourth.

Hamilton can't beat Vettel and goes third fastest. Grosjean fourth.

Great lap by Webber to take pole position ahead of Vettel. Hamilton was nearly two tenths off Vettel, but not bad considering the Red Bull had its KERS back working for that final run.

Great lap by Hulkenberg too. He beat Alonso, Raikkonen and Button.

Alonso mist have made a mistake as he was 0.3s off Massa, who he appears to have had the edge over in the earlier sessions.

It's Webber's first pole position since Korea 2012. Great lap and puts him in prime position for tomorrow's race when he will chase his tenth career win. A milestone he is very keen to reach before he retires at the end of the year.

Thanks for joining us in this session as we saw Vettel's run of three consecutive pole positions come to an end. The big question tomorrow is whether anyone can bring an end to his run of four consecutive race wins tomorrow. Make sure you join us for the race.