F1 Bahrain GP in Malaysia: Follow the race at Sepang with live timing

Norris pitting from P6 at the end of lap 34.

"This tyre feels terrible" says Hamilton. We refer readers to five comments ago.

Piastri has also pitted and emerged on new hards.

The undercut is quite powerful around this circuit so no point in hanging around.

Russell wanting to know "why have we pulled the trigger so early?". I refer him to the comment above.

Verstappen now pits at the end of lap 33, as does Antonelli. Scrubbed softs for both of them.

Russell pits at the end of lap 32. Soft tyres going on, confirming that the C4 is the favoured race tyre - especially now the fuel loads have gone down.

Hadjar and Hamilton pit at the end of lap 31. Hadjar on another set of scrubbed softs, Hamilton on scrubbed mediums.

Another Ferrari strategy blunder?

Ocon has overcooked it into the pitlane and bumped alonfg the grass en route to taking on a new set of hards. He emerges in P14.

It seems to be the case that, as with Baku last week, the soft has proved to be a better race tyre than expected and the medium considerably less good.

Although actually the soft tyre for this race is the C4, which was the medium in Baku. Funny how things work, eh?

Piastri duking it out with Lawson into the final corner of lap 29, and the battle rages until Turn 1 as Oscar makes P6 stick.

Hadjar has been on scrubbed softs since the safety car. Speaking of which, Leclerc has just pitted and taken on scrubbed softs.

Hadjar is apprised of this and is predictably huffy in response.

In terms of net gains, Hamilton is catching Hadjar and Russell but not Antonelli and Verstappen, by the way.

Russell lost a second to Antonelli on the last lap as he cleared Perez's Cadillac.

Piastri goes by Ocon for P7 into Turn 1 at the beginning of lap 27.

Leclerc and Norris also past Lindblad now, but Ocon is hanging on ahead of Piastri.

So Antonelli is now 8s in arrears to Verstappen, with Russell 1.7s further behind.

Russell discussing strategy with the pitwall - the team want to extend his pit window because another rain cell is incoming.

Antonelli lost two seconds to Verstappen on lap 24 - he slid wide at the final corner and almost ran into the pit entry, smiting the bollard which demarcates the dividing line.

Piastri gets by Lindblad into the final corner at the end of lap 23, but Hamilton is now seven seconds and three places ahead.

We get a replay of the Bortoleto-Sainz shunt, and Gabi's response to the penalty. "He gave me no space!" complains the Audi driver.

He made an opportunistic send up the inside at Turn 2 and collected the left-rear wheel of the Williams.

"I gave him all the space in the world," lamented Sainz. That is not what Louis Armstrong sang, Carlos...

Hadjar falling off the battle for the podium positions at over a second a lap.

Antonelli may be quicker than Russell, but he's got no answer to Verstappen's pace - three tenths off around lap 21.

Antonelli sweeps by Russell at Turn 4 on lap 21.

Make that P6 because Hamilton has just dispensed with Ocon.

Piastri loses a place to Hamilton and is told to stay with him as he cuts through traffic. That means "Get by Lindblad as well" since Lewis has just done that to claim P7.

Mercedes is going to have to make a call soon because Russell is now 3.6s off Verstappen and Antonelli is knocking on the back door.

Perez pitting after eight laps on mediums.

"I have more pace," Antonelli says on the radio, which is of course the coded language for wanting a swap of positions with his team-mate.

It's getting quite tasty in Lindblad's wake as Hamilton shadows Piastri.

Bortoleto and Sainz are now 'under investigation' for that restart kerfuffle.

Take note! Stroll was four tenths quicker than Alonso on lap 16.

Lawson has Ocon's Haas 1.8s behind him, then there's a veritable conga line of traffic: Lindblad, Piastri, Hamilton, Hulkenberg, Norris and Leclerc.

The top three are beginning to pull away, with Hadjar gradually falling off in P4, then Lawson in P5 dropping at two seconds a lap compared with Verstappen.

Overtake mode is now enabled, says race control. Russell currently half a second away from having access to that.

Russell now more than a second behind  Verstappen - Max was three tenths quicker around lap 14.

A collision between Bortoleto and Sainz at the restart has been 'noted' by the stewards. Sainz has dropped to P18.

Verstappen has pulled out almost but not quite a second already over Russell, who now has Antonelli right under his rear wing. How will Mercedes manage this?

Russell showing his experience there.