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

The rest of the top 10 apart from Gasly and Lawson have clearly decided they're safe, and not wasting another set of tyres.

We're quite surprised to see Gasly going out; 1m37.174s seems relatively comfortable, the cut-off should be four tenths north of that unless the track evolves significantly. 

Lindblad also heading out.

Team-mate Lawson is currently on P10 with a 1m37.835s. Gasly (P8) on 1m37.174s.

So that gives you an idea of what the likely cut-off time will be.

Yes, the Alpines and the Williamses are queuing to get out of the pitlane as well.

Ocon heading back out as he bids to avoid the drop. Lawson, Stroll, Bottas, Perez and Alonso also going out for another run.

Questions now over who among the frontrunners will feel they need to do another lap.

Everyone from Ocon downwards (Albon, Bearman, Stroll, Bottas, Perez) are over 2s off Verstappen's benchmark.

Ocon improves to 1m38.595s - not enough to escape the drop zone.

Ah, Bearman locks up into Turn 1 at the beginning of his second push lap and has to bail out. He's P19 now.

So after the first runs Antonelli (1m37.041s) and Russell (1m37.264s) are P6 and P9, with Norris P7 on 1m37.092s.

Leclerc now crosses the line P2, 0.253s off Verstappen's pace, but he went very wide at the final corner. Let's see what Hamilton can do... yes, he's cleaner through that hairpin and goes P2 with a 1m36.595s, 0.118s off Verstappen. Good work by the Ferrari drivers on the C3 there.

Hadjar P5 after the first runs because Piastri has just popped in a 1m36.852 to go P4.

So Max P1 at the moment on 1m36.477s.

Antonelli goes quickest in the final sector, but then is trumped there by Russell and Verstappen.

Antonelli purple in the second sector - but Verstappen then goes faster still!

Verstappen on a quick one, purple in the first sector.

Everybody out! Now the track is getting busy. Fascinatingly, Ferrari and Audi going for mediums rather than softs.

1m38.879s for Ocon; Bearman crosses the line seconds later with a 1m38.994s.

Now the rest of the cars begin to enter the fray...

And it's a very simple out-lap-push-lap plan for both Haas drivers.

Expect to see teams conserving tyres and aiming to do minimal running in this session, given that the soft isn't really a race tyre on this abrasive surface.

2013 and another two Red Bulls on the podium. By all accounts, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber had to do a forfeit after Vettel disobeyed team orders and Webber then made a colossal deal of it on TV afterwards...

Photo by: Getty Images

Here's how the last race around Sepang ended, with Max Verstappen winning from Lewis Hamilton.

Can you name the driver in the second Red Bull?

Photo by: Getty Images

WELCOME TO THE SHARP END

Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia is about to begin and the final pieces of the strategic picture will fall into place as we see who uses what tyres through the early phases.

In FP3 we saw Mercedes pull its usual stunt of finding half a second or more down the back of the sofa. Too early for you? Catch up here...