Lap 23/57: Piastri is doing everything to get past Russell, even at the detriment of his tires. And the Mercedes driver is struggling a bit as he is in the pit and on go the hard tires. He was stationary in there for about seven seconds – way too lengthy. It costs him several places and gives an opening for Ferrari. The replay shows that they struggled to get one of the rear wheels off.

Lap 22/57: Bottas is all by himself and he goes wide. All because of the lack of grip that all the drivers are somewhat struggling with.

Lap 19/57: Hamilton is shocked when he is told about the the top six’s pace compared to his own.

“Mid 25s?! That’s a second [faster]!”

Lap 18/57: Verstappen now marks the fastest lap in response. Norris now back to two seconds behind, Russell over four seconds in third.

Lap 17/57: Leclerc asks for a check on his tire pressure, saying that there are likely to be punctures but he is told that it is all good for now. He clearly feels he is being aggressive on the turns.

Lap 16/57: Norris again races the fastest lap. Gap between first and second is now around 1.6.

Lap 15/47: Zhou also passes Tsunoda. He of course does not have a contract for next season.

Tsunoda is struggling, though. He tells his team that he is pushing 100% and he gets a reply to hang in there.

Lap 14/57: Huge from Alonso! Beautifully navigates around Tsunoda when staying on the track to get to 11th.

Confirmed that Hamilton gets a five second penalty.

Lap 13/57: On Norris’s radio, we hear his team say that Verstappen’s tires are in the same condition as his and Russell’s are a bit worse off.

Lap 12/57: Magnussen goes ahead of Tsunoda.

Lap 11/57: Norris has now the fastest lap but Verstappen is still just under two seconds ahead of him.

Lap 10/57: Stroll has officially retired. He rejoined just so he can serve the 10 second penalty so that it would not affect him in a future race.

Lap 9/57: Hamilton has now officially been noted for a false start. That is usually a five second penalty. The replay shows that it is tight and he does apologise on the radio. He is currently in 8th.

Lap 8/57: Alonso is not happy. He swears on the radio, saying that there is issues on the straights. And an incident for him has been noted for rejoining the track unsafely. He might be in trouble for that.

Lap 7/57: Huge gaps between Verstappen, Norris and Russell. Stroll retired but then he rejoins the race.

Lap 6/57: Lawson spins off as he tries to get past Bottas. Lawson lost grip and starting spinning.

Lap 5/57: Verstappen opens up the gap between him and Norris.

Piastri manages fourth from Leclerc – big for McLaren’s chances in securing the Constructors’ Championship today.

Lap 4/57: The safety car is ending … we have only had about half a lap of racing but here we go.

Lap 3/57: Safety car is still out. There are murmurings on the grid about Hamilton and if he made a false start but nothing official yet.

Hugh gets in touch by email:

That was weak by Lando. Roles reversed and Verstappen, quite rightly, would have cut straight across him and taken the inside of turn 1. Far too polite.

Still confused myself as to why he backed off! Did he feel something in his car? Or was he thinking Verstappen would push him off. Very strange.

Lap 2/57: Safety car remains out as we catch some replays of the crashes and the leaders in the race.

Norris looked to creep to first on turn one but he backed off a bit as Verstappen came through. Stroll has had to pitt to change tires.

Lap 1/57: Russell is on the outside line to start. The track temperature is only 23 C, a lot cooler than previous years. Verstappen swoops in and takes the lead within the first turn and Norris speeds to second. Safety car comes out after Colapinto and Ocon, the 16th crash for Williams this season. Hülkenberg also had an incident and he has continued but his rim is popping out of his car.

Qatar Grand Prix race begins

We are a couple minutes away from lights out in Lusail. We have just heard of from the national anthem performed by the Qatar Music Academy Choir.

Here is our starting grid.

1. George Russell – Mercedes

2. Max Verstappen – Red Bull

3. Lando Norris – McLaren

4. Oscar Piastri – McLaren

5. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari

6. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes

7. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari

8. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin

9. Sergio Pérez – Red Bull

10. Kevin Magnussen – Haas

11. Pierre Gasly – Alpine Renault

12. Zhou Guanyu – Sauber

13. Valtteri Bottas – Sauber

14. Yuki Tsunoda – RB Honda

15. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin

16. Alexander Albon – Williams

17. Liam Lawson – RB Honda

18. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas

19. Franco Colapinto – Williams

20. Esteban Ocon – Alpine Renault

The Red Bull team principal Christian Horner tells Sky Sports that George Russell was speeding himself during the sprint, and likens it to a “football player taking a dive in the penalty box”.

“Not quite sure why we ended up with a one place penalty but if Max needed any extra motivation it has given him it for this. He is wound up for this one.”

Our first email of the day! Louise writes:

What is your opinion on Verstappen’s punishment? Both Verstappen and Russell were in a ‘slow’ lap. Normally, you would try to get some clean air in front of you just before starting a fast lap. You can see there is another driver in front of Verstappen and Russell is speeding. It feels like this was a mistake by the race engineers, not telling them what happened, not a drivers mistake? Verstappen said he was preparing his fast lap and suddenly saw Russell on his tail.

The other driver was Fernando Alonso and you are right, he was going the exact same speed as well. Verstappen kept the same distance through both turns, he did not just decide to brake right as he was turning a corner. Certainly bizzare and I think that is why they minimised the penalty for Verstappen. Usually this situation would be a three-place grid penalty.

McLaren could clinch their first Constructors’ Championship since 1998 today if they:

1. Outscore Ferrari by 15 points or more if they do not win the race or outscore Ferrari by 14 points if they do win the race.

2. Not be outscored by Red Bull by 23 points or more.

A look back on how Verstappen became the 2024 champion.

Max Verstappen speaking to Sky Sports on qualifying and his penalty:

Qualifying was very positive. The car seems to be working a bit better. I hope in the race we can be competitive and fight up front.

We will try to fight for the win. I am one place back but let’s see how it goes.

Ben Sulayem: 'None of your business how FIA is run'

Preamble