F1 Qatar GP live commentary and updates - Race

Bearman left without his left-rear wheel being attached. That's generally not a great thing to do. The team managed to attach it, but that has dropped him to 18th.

He is absolutely furious, punching the steering wheel in disgust.

Lap 35/57

The order as it stands, with the two McLaren still due a pitstop. They are now running mediums, Verstappen is on the hard tyre to the end.

1 Piastri
2 Norris 4.5
3 Verstappen 8.5
4 Sainz 27
5 Antonelli 33

No position changes in the top 10, but Bearman has had a disaster, we haven't seen why yet.

Here comes a gaggle of cars streaming into the pitlane, with lots of teams having to double-stack.

Lap 33/57 Verstappen pits

Verstappen pits from the lead with a 15-second lead on Piastri. He comes out in third behind Norris.

This time Antonelli does put up a defence and keeps Norris behind for another lap. But he, Verstappen and Sainz will pit now anyway.

Over to you, Lando. He's now on the rookie's case too.

Lap 30/57 - Piastri passes Antonelli

He's done it straight away! After getting a big tow on the straight, Piastri can brake so much later into Turn 1 to nab third off Antonelli, who doesn't even try to defend.

Piastri is catching Antonelli hand over fist and is going to lose quite a bit of time in the Mercedes' wake unless he can find a way to convert his massive pace advantage into a difficult overtake.

Lap 28/57

1 Verstappen
2 Sainz +14
3 Antonelli +15
4 Piastri +18
5 Norris +22

The top 3 must come in on lap 32, by law!

Lap 24/57

Norris is struggling with understeer, four second behind Piastri, and will take a turn out of the front wing at the pitstop.

Verstappen has stabilised the gap at eight seconds. We're expecting the McLarens in on the next lap.

A Verstappen-Piastri-Norris podium would set up the following Abu Dhabi season finale...

Norris - 411
Verstappen - 396
Piastri - 392

Lap 21/57

Verstappen is now matching Piastri and Norris for pace. It's looking good for Red Bull.

The rest of the top 10 is Sainz from Antonelli, Alonso, Hadjar, Russell, Leclerc and Bearman.

Tsunoda is 12th in the second Red Bull, Hamilton is stuck in 14th after his first-lap gains.

Sainz being fourth in the Williams is working in Piastri's and Norris' favour. They might be able to get in his pit window at this rate.

Verstappen is cutting his deficit to around six tenths per lap, while the rest of the runners are being relegated to a different class. Sainz is already 10 seconds behind Piastri.

Lap 13/57 - Piastri and Norris break free

Piastri gets his two-second buffer back. Verstappen is already shipping six seconds, losing a second per lap.

I mean, if McLaren is going to be this quick, then they will look like geniuses...

So what is the upside for McLaren? Everyone else must do a full 25-lap stint on the mediums, and then another full 25-lap stint on different compound, come what may. McLaren could do a shorter stint on, say, the softs.

Maybe Piastri can use the clear air to bolt away, but not sure how this is going to work out for Norris at all.

Ocon has also pitted now, and has been handed a five-second penalty for a false start.

It means Piastri will lead the restart from Norris and Verstappen. Verstappen has lost one single position for a free pitstop.

Norris is inevitably questioning why he didn't just follow Verstappen in.

"They have lost all flexibility for the remainder of the race," is the reply from his race engineer Will Joseph.

Yes, but... a free pitstop is what, 26 seconds?

And yes, there was a collision between Hulkenberg and Gasly as the German was trying to pass the Alpine driver around the outside.

"This is unbelievable, I gave him loads of space!", Hulkenberg groans.

It looks like Gasly just understeered into the right-rear of the Sauber.

Pretty much everyone has pitted, actually. Other than the McLarens and Ocon. 

Has McLaren messed up here?

Verstappen pits

Now this is interesting. Max Verstappen is pitting from second! We're entering lap 8 of 57, so they can do two more 25-lap stints and get to the end on two stops.

Piastri in control

Piastri takes two seconds on Verstappen, who reports "extreme balance shifts" on his car. Norris is another two seconds behind. As Russell said, there's no chance of even staying within DRS range without hitting dirty air and killing your tyres.

Damage for Gasly

Pierre Gasly has gone onto the gravel and has damaged the underbody of his Alpine car. He is still ninth, for now, but is also being looked at for an unsafe rejoin. 

Hulkenberg - in the Sauber - has snatched 10th way from Leclerc - in the Ferrari. Oof.

So that's half the job done for Piastri, as it stands he would gain 10 points on Norris. Now he needs a clean race and two solid pitstops from McLaren.

Verstappen was worried about being able to keep up given the understeer he is struggling with on his RB21. Can he keep within undercut territory?

Lewis Hamilton has gained three places and is up to 14th.

Verstappen has kept his promise then, but there was no need for any elbow work. He simply got a much better launch from third and had the pass made well before Turn 1.

No incidents that we can see, but it's a poor start from most drivers starting on the dirty side.

Russell has gone from fourth to seventh, Hadjar loses two places and Albon is paying the price for his hard-tyre start by dropping to P17.

Start formation lap

We're off for the formation lap. Lando Norris becomes McLaren's longest-serving driver today with 151 starts. Will he also become the team's first world champion since Lewis Hamilton? Time to find out.

The top 10 will all start on medium tyres, so no surprises there.

Hulkenberg and Hamilton are on softs to capitalise on the start. Albon and Colapinto are on hards.

"Max is probably going to make a big swing around the outside," reckon F1 TV pundit, former F1 driver and two-time Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya, no stranger to some ferocious wheel-to-wheel racing.

Yep, can totally see that.

You do wonder if it that will inspire Max Verstappen, who has little to lose, to make one of his famous Turn 1 lunges.

What are the odds of the Dutchman leading after Lap 1? Would you bet against it?