Good morning and welcome to our LIVE coverage of Free Practice 1 as the Japanese Grand Prix weekend gets underway.

Thanks for fighting off sleep to join us for opening practice and hopefully you can go the distance with FP2 later today - two hours and 20 minutes in fact - with more LIVE coverage here on Yahoo!-Eurosport.

Webber of Red Bull third though Vettel's own programme took priorty as the German finished 17th. Mercedes took 4th and 5th through Rosberg and Schumacher.

Button's 1'34.507 leaves him top after FP1 with outgoing fellow McLaren man Hamilton second. Of course Jenson has a five place gearbox penalty looming for the race itself.

Second flag is out and the opening practice session is winding down.

The Spaniard isn't the only one sticking with the worn hard tyres as softs stay preserved for FP2. Button looks to be having some understeer on his McLaren.

Alonso isn't having much fun at the moment as his rear tyres look spent.

Glock locks up on the second Degner, just avoiding the barrier on the other side of the gravel trap.

Vettel begins a timed lap as team-mate Webber also heads back out, followed by Maldonado. Last-placed de la Rosa also back on track.

Di Resta and Vettel return too as the track builds up with cars again.

Kobayashi has melted his rear Pirellis, and the two McLaren cars also come back out.

Vergne begins another run with 14 minutes left. He rests 16th at the moment but with most other drivers having already used the best grip for their allocated hard tyres, he will fancy a small climb up the charts.

But Schumacher is one of the few still speeding up, with a 1'35.122 to move fifth behind Button, Hamilton, Webber and Rosberg.

Improved times drying up at the moment as teams undergo serious preparations and durability tests.

Bit of a scare for Perez as he runs wide to the run-off at the rapid 130R.

Grosjean locks up at the hairpin. Both of his front tyres are smoking heavily.

Raikkonen improves to 1'35.691 whilst fine-tuning his Lotus' air ducting and returns to pits.

Vettel and Schumacher join the masses for another run - they're near the back of the pack, two seconds behind the best time.

The circuit now a busy place with less than half an hour remaining.

Hamilton moves back to second behind team-mate (for now) Button with a lap time of 1'34.740.

Button's fresh rubber gets him top with a new fastest of 1'34.507 while Di Resta goes 12th and then 11th with his first two runs.