F1 Singapore GP live coverage and updates – race

We start lap 19 and Piastri has just done his fastest lap of the race. The game is afoot!

There is a 3.1s gap between Alonso and Hadjar now but if you came out behind Alonso it would still ruin the undercut potential unless he immediately pitted out of the way.

McLaren have radioed to say "Box to overtake Verstappen" but the window clearly isn't open yet. The mechanics go out into the pitlane... then come back in again. A clear bluff to push Red Bull into bringing Verstappen in.

Alonso has lifted his pace slightly, dipping into the late 37s, so the rate of the pit window opening has slowed somewhat.

We typed too quickly – his next lap was an early 38.

Norris now 19s ahead of Alonso so that window is creaking open.

Norris and race engineer Will Joseph discussing the possibility of undercutting Max; "Easy" says Lando.

Colapinto goes onto mediums. That doesn't make him nailed on for a two-stopper – the medium can happily do over 40 laps.

Colapinto gets off the softs after 15 laps.

Tsunoda and Bortoleto are early pit visitors for hards; damage to Gabriel's front wing indicated he has smitten the wall at some point.

Verstappen is running around 19s ahead of the Alonso train and lapping about a second faster than Fernando, so he is four or five laps away from being able to pit and come out ahead – we'd just started lap 15.

The higher speed limit in the pitlane this year has cut the pitstop time loss to around 22s. So Russell is not far away from being 'safe' in terms of pitting and coming out ahead of that gaggle led by Alonso, which is now 24.7s on lap 13.

Antonelli has backed off Leclerc a bit, to the tune of 1.4s. Hamilton now within a second of him.

The gap to the Alonso conga line is now 6.7s.

As we start lap 11, Norris is clearly just marking time and not trying to challenge Verstappen too hard. Piastri also in tyre-management mode.

Red Bull team radio suggests Verstappen is having some difficulty with the quality of his downshifts.

Verstappen clearly having to manage those softs. He needs to go another 10 laps before the window opens for the swap to hards.

Ideally he would want a Safety Car at some point to make that stop cheap, but then everybody else would be in the same boat.

More team radio traffic with Piastri: he's been told to tap the wall and damage his own front-wing endplate to keep things fair and equal between the two McLaren drivers.

Nah, only joking.

Verstappen and Norris separated by 1.9s on track, then there's a 2.7s margin to Piastri, who is in turn 19.s ahead of Leclerc. Charles has Antonelli – whom he demoted at Turn 1 on the opening lap – tucked under his rear wing.

Hamilton is 1.2s behind Antonelli, then there's a gap of 4.2s to Alonso, with the rest of the field in a train behind him.

Russell breaks into the 1m36s bracket with another purple lap. He's now 3.6s ahead of Verstappen.

Replays of the start showing Verstappen had a lot of wheelspin away from his grid spot. The left-hand side of the grid was clearly sub-optimal for traction.

Bearman tried to go around the outside of Hadjar in Turn 1 and ran out of room, forcing him to take to the run-off.

"As a team we can see Lando had to take action to avoid Verstappen. We will take the opportunity to review after the race," Piastri is told.

A portion of his reply is bleeped out...

Alonso has made good use of those softs, mugging Hadjar for P8 on that opening lap. Colapinto too – he's made up three places on lap one and passed Stroll too.

"Control the controllables, mate", Piastri is told. The stewards have reviewed the contact between the two McLaren drivers and declared no further action.

Russell is now 2s clear as of lap four.

Piastri complaining again over the team radio and is told "we're looking at it". Is another page required in the 'papaya rules' book?

Housekeeping note: our data screen has updated itself and shows Albon on mediums rather than hards.

Norris damaged his front wing somewhere on the opening lap - the left wingtip is slightly out of alignment. Piastri griping about the Turn 3 move – and rightly so, the replay reveals Norris went in very hot and gave his team-mate a tap.

The soft is good for about 20 laps whereas the medium can go to the middle portion of the race. A lot depends on the timing of Safety Cars, if any – there wasn't one last year.

Well this is a clear gambit by Max to take track position into the first corner. The rest of the field are starting on mediums with the exception of Alex Albon on hards.

Albon and Gasly starting from the pitlane after making setup changes.

SOFT OPTION FOR VERSTAPPEN

Fascinatingly, as our data screen lights up with the tyre choices, we see Max Verstappen showing up as starting on used softs.

Isack Hadjar (P8), Fernando ALonso (P10), Yuki Tsunoda (P13), Lance Stroll (P15) and Franco Colapinto (P16) also showing up as soft starters.

Obviously there is a high possibility of carambolage at the first corner. Generally speaking in Singapore it's not the denizens of the front row who get involved in this – with the exception of 2017 of course.

So this is the first time George Russell and Max Verstappen have shared the front row of the grid since the Canadian Grand Prix, where Russell also started from pole.

Indeed, the grid is "mostly dry" according to our man Fil Cleeren, who has just been down there rubbing shoulders with celebrities he doesn't recognise.

Some chatter about tyre choice for the start. At the moment it's only wet on the far side of the circuit, so the likelihood is a start on slicks.

George Russell's car also with its nose off, although that has now been remedied.

10 minutes till we roll and the nose of Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes is off, with mechanics clustered around the tip of the monocoque.

WELCOME TO RACE DAY

And as the Singapore national anthem fills the air, it's still wet out there after earlier rain. Catching up with news from overnight? We've got you...