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

"Medical car is reporting a significant amount of standing water around the track. Current conditions are not suitable to start the race."

Because no improvement is forecast imminently, the delay remains indeterminate. Customers of South Western Railway in the UK, of course, will be familiar with that dread open-ended 'DELAYED'...

Medical car now out "to assess track conditions" says the FIA.

When we do get going, the grid order had been mildly reshuffled by engine penalties. Hadjar will start P8, Colapinto P21, Lindblad P22. 

Anyway, here's what happened in qualifying:

We can confirm that the start of the race has been delayed, but there is no news yet of when it might actually get going.

In 'nil defecatum Sherlockium' news, race control has announced that the risk of rain for the race is 90%.

All in all, this race could be a lottery. What a shame Andre Lotterer is no longer driving.

The reason everyone is getting agitated about this rain, of course, isn't just because this is the first-ever wet Bahrain Grand Prix. None of the drivers have much experience in the latest-generation cars in properly wet weather.

There is a real concern that the intermediates this year are slightly too hard, and take too long to warm up. As with the dry-weather tyres, the rubber is all new this year because the regulations called for narrower wheels. And almost half the power units' peak output comes in the form of electrical energy, which creates a big whack of torque. Very easy to break traction in the wet.

One feels particularly sorry for Aston Martin personnel because that green garb really does show up the wet patches.

The crowd, of course, has come equipped because this is pretty typical weather for this time of day.

National anthem is proceeding during the thunderstorm. We hope those poor fellows holding brass instruments aloft during all these lightning strikes are being paid 'danger money'.

And a loud peal of thunder has rumbled through the building's structure. We are expecting a delay to the start, but nothing has been communicated yet.

Here's our view from the media centre, where fortunately it's not raining outside.

And with 20 minutes to go before the start, the heavens really have opened above the pits.

In the unlikely event of a dry race, Pirelli's prognostication is that a two-stop race is fastest - medium-hard-hard for those who have two sets of C2s available (that is everyone except Leclerc and Verstappen). Pitstop windows would be laps 12-18 and 32-38.

Soft-hard-hard is also possible, with a slightly earlier initial pitstop window.

Three-stop soft-hard-hard-medium is also possible.

But if the rain continues then this becomes irrelevant since there is no requirement to use two different dry-weather tyres.

The track's abrasive nature will really play a role in the life of any wet-weather tyres deployed. Back in 2009, when the race had to be stopped early, it had actually been raining for 10 laps before the red flag but those who pitted at the outset for rain tyres found it wasn't raining hard enough for those tyres to survive.

Obviously those were different times - and a different tyre supplier - but we note that Lando Norris, who has gone to the grid on intermediates, has reported "These tyres are destroyed already" because not all of the track is wet enough.

The weather radar shows the rain cells are all quite broken up so this presents quite a confusing picture for the race. On the grid itself, it's not raining hard enough to do more than briefly dampen the surface before the heat evaporates it. Turn 1, though, is awash.

And we hear from driver radio that it's still dry around the Turn7-8 area.

This picture is constantly changing because the wind has really picked up today.

HELLO FROM SEPANG

The big news for today is that, as you might expect from a 15:00 start, there is a threat of rain for the race. This was put at 40% for the race start, rising to 50% once it's under way.

But the rain has already started, according to our colleagues who have gone to the grid - and not just the spots we saw earlier, this is the real thing.

And indeed, gazebos going up on the grid.

Let's get you caught up with the story so far...