Japanese Grand Prix race – F1: Live timing and lap-by-lap updates as Max Verstappen looks to convert pole position into a race win

Lap 22: Fernando Alonso is the next driver past Lewis Hamilton, while Carlos Sainz is ahead of George Russell.

Still over 30 laps to go but not sure Mercedes’ strategy has worked out.

Expect Sergio Perez to be back ahead of Lando Norris soon – just three tenths between the pair now.

Lap 20: Max Verstappen swoops back into the lead of this race past Charles Leclerc.

He didn’t want to repeat Perez’s moves into 130R and waited for the safer option with DRS into the first turn.

Carlos Sainz meanwhile is now all over the back of George Russell in the battle for 5th.

Lap 19: Carlos Sainz is now past Lewis Hamilton into sixth place – will be interesting to see how long they keep the Mercedes drivers out.

Charles Leclerc meanwhile still leads the race but is yet to stop and is only 1.4 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen. Interesting strategy by Ferrari.

Sergio Perez is a man on a mission and he picks off the second Mercedes of George Russell again going into 130R.

Meanwhile the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz is now all over Lewis Hamilton who said front tyres are ‘dead’.

Yuki Tsunoda in 13th attempts a brave move around the outside of Logan Sargeant into the first corner but he has to back off.

What a move from Sergio Perez past Lewis Hamilton into 130R! Even with the tyre advantage that’s brave stuff from the Mexican driver at high speed.

Lando Norris meanwhile is ahead of George Russell now and is only two seconds behind Max Verstappen.

Lap 17: Max Verstappen pits and rejoins behind George Russell in third while Lando Norris makes a nice move around the outside of Lewis Hamilton.

He needed that did the McLaren driver with Perez and Sainz now on the chase.

Lap 16: Sergio Perez pits from second, while Carlos Sainz also comes in from third.

It’s great pit-stops from the pair of them, who come out behind the McLaren of Lando Norris!

However, they have much fresher tyres than the McLaren driver who is right behind Lewis Hamilton who is holding him up massively on his older tyres!

Lap 15: Fernando Alonso has come into the pits and is out on mediums and crucially for him is still ahead of Oscar Piastri.

The two Red Bulls and Ferraris lead the way though they haven’t pitted, neither have George Russell or Lewis Hamilton in P5 and P6.

The second McLaren driver comes outin 12th behind the likes of Ocon and Sargeant.

Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton is asking his team whether he should let George Russell by.

The younger Mercedes driver appears to be the quicker of the two at this moment, with just eight tenths between the pair.

And he is told to swap positions with his team-mate which he quickly pulls aside going into the final chicane.

Zhou Guanyu meanwhile pulls out and is the third retirement of the day with a gearbox issue.

Lando Norris is the first of the front-runners to come into the pits.

Carlos Sainz stays out and will be looking to do the overcut in his attempts to jump into a podium position.

Lap 10: Fernando Alonso doing a great job on the soft tyres to hold off those behind him on much more durable tyres.

Logan Sargeant and Pierre Gasly get very close towards the end of the lap as they battle for 13th place, before the American pulls off a move with DRS into Turn 1.

Lap 9: Max Verstappen on the radio is reporting that he has some understeer.

Sainz is getting very close to Norris in some corners and he gets DRS going into the first corner and it looks like he wants to pull off a move but decides against it.

George Russell reporting vibrations in his Mercedes.

Lap 8: Carlos Sainz reports that Lando Norris ahead of him in third is struggling a fair bit. He is closing up on the McLaren driver who is now 2.7 seconds behind Perez despite the Mexican’s error the other lap.

Kevin Magnussen is getting very racy and he gets past the Alpine of Pierre Gasly.

Lap 7: Verstappen now has a two second gap over Perez while Yuki Tsunoda is now in the pits.

Seems like the soft tyres aren’t going too long though Fernando Alonso is still going strong in fifth.

Lap 6: Sergio Perez makes a small mistake which will have caught the attention of Lando Norris behind him. He recovered well but he can’t make many more mistakes like that.

Replays show that he had understeer going into the corner and he took a slight bit of grass, any more and he could have been sent spinning.

Lance Stroll who started 16th is up to 11th, while Valterri Bottas and Nico Hulkenburg have made early pit-stops interestingly.

Lap 5: Verstappen has pulled out a 1.1 second lead over Perez – handy since the DRS has just been opened.

The top 10 are all pretty much following each other – about one second back – except for Lewis Hamilton who is just six tenths behind Leclerc.

Lap 4: Verstappen sets the fastest lap while Ocon is reporting that he got a hit from team-mate Gasly at the second start – replays show it was a pretty hefty hit but they are both fine.

Russell makes light work to get past Tsunoda and move back into ninth.

It’s another fantastic start for Verstappen and there is no change in the top six but Charles Leclerc has jumped Lewis Hamilton for seventh!

Leclerc on his softer medium tyres was able to jump Hamilton on his hards which could be important for his race.

Meanwhile, Tsunoda has jumped up to ninth! The timings said he had dropped to 17th initially but he infact jumped from 12th to 9th ahead of Russell.

Max Verstappen leads the 18 drivers still in the race back out onto the track as they make their way to the grid for a second standing start.

Interestingly, some drivers have switched onto a new set of hard tyres – including the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

That could be a make or break for their respective races.

Ocon, Gasly and Sargeant are also on hards while Hulkenberg, Bottas and Tsunoda have switched to softs.

There might be a halt to the action but the Japanese fans at Suzuka are going crazy with lots of people waving a flag with home hero Yuki Tsunoda’s face on.

We are seeing replays again of the crash with Albon and Ricciardo

Albon nearly came into contract with Yuki Tsunoda at the first corner was then side-by-side with Ricciardo who must not have seen the Williams driver in his blind-spot.

The Williams driver tried to take to the grass but was too late. Onwards and upwards to the Chinese Grand Prix for the pair, but a whole race to come for the other 18 drivers on the grid.

Mail Sport’s Henry Clark has commented

We’re almost ready to get back underway here and when we do, there will be no change to the top nine. This will, essentially, be a 50-lap race now.

Or 6.32am UK time so you have time to make a brew.

The drivers are getting back into their cars and they will soon be heading back out onto the track and take their place on the grid for a second time.

The Australian was one of those I highlighted before the race who was in need of a good result today but he is out before the first sector of the first lap is completed.

You have to say the fault does fall more on his shoulders than Albon if you had to apportion blame.

It will be investigated after the race but it would be no surprise to see it judged as a racing incident.

It was a brilliant start by the Dutchman but he’s got it all to do again when the race does get restarted.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was told that the repairs could take 15-20 minutes.

There are recovery vehicles at the corner though a lot of them have driven away, hopefully meaning we should have some news soon.

Mail Sport’s Henry Clark has said;

Early drama at Suzuka involving Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon has brought out a red flag. The very slightest of touches between their cars has sent both careering into the tyre wall heading into turn 3. Max Verstappen got away well at the front of the grid while Lando Norris did well to defend third from Carlos Sainz.

What this means is that the likes of Perez and Norris will get a second chance at getting ahead of Verstappen from a standing start.

There was no change in the order in the top nine from the original start, with the big movers being Nico Hulkenburg and Valterri Bottas who jumped up to P10 and 11.

There is a mess down at Turn 2 with two smashed up cars and a lot of damage to the tyre barrier which will take some time to get back in order before we get going again.

It was a massive crash involving Alex Albon in his Williams and Daniel Ricciardo in the AlphaTauri at Turn 2.

Both drivers are out of their car.

It was a decent get-away from Albon but he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as Daniel Ricciardo looked to go for the racing line, veered right into the London-born Thai driver who had nowhere to go.

Lance Stroll was just behind Ricciardo at the time and saw the Australian spin off right in front of him.

Brilliant start from Verstappen who leads the way from Perez and Norris but there’s a big crash towards the back involving Alex Albon!

Mail Sport’s Henry Clark is at Suzuka for today’s race. He expects that the high temperatures could play havoc.

It’s significantly hotter today than it has been at any point throughout the weekend, which will play havoc with race strategies. Teams will have to react off the cuff, which sets up a fascinating race. Overtaking isn’t easy around Suzuka, making this opening lap particularly intriguing. Enjoy the race!

The drivers are off on their formation lap with Max Verstappen leading the way from Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.

It is warm out there – 40.3 degrees track temperature – drivers will be going into the unknown in terms of their strategies as they did not expect this type of heat at this time of year at Suzuka.

The top-four are all on the medium tyre, Alonso is on the softs in fifth – giving him a slight advantage getting off the line heading into the first corner – or so it should!

Everybody else from Oscar Piastri in sixth to Daniel Ricciardo in 11th start on the mediums.

1. Max Verstappen
2. Sergio Perez
3. Lando Norris
4. Carlos Sainz
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Oscar Piastri
7. George Russell
8. Charles Leclerc
9. Lewis Hamilton
10. Yuki Tsunoda
11. Daniel Ricciardo
12. Nico Hulkenberg
13. Valtteri Bottas
14. Alex Albon
15. Esteban Ocon
16. Lance Stroll
17. Pierre Gasly
18. Kevin Magnussen
19. Logan Sargeant
20. Zhou Guanyu

Sergio Perez (pictured below) will be looking to get the jump on his team-mate at the start. It has been around a year since he last finished on the top step of the podium.

The drivers are now getting into their cars following the Japanese national anthem and it’s not long before we get underway.

Ferrari team-principal Fred Vasseur has some concern over Fernando Alonso, who starts just behind Carlos Sainz – the race-winner in Australia.

He has told Sky Sports;

It will be important to have a decent start and to also protect from Fernando who has a set of softs.

But then I think the degradation will be important – it’s much hotter than it was yesterday morning. Yesterday the deg was under control for us but it will be another game today with track temperature. Let’s see, it could be a good one.

It makes sense at the start [for Alonso] as you can make a position, but we’ll see.’

We are less than 15 minutes to go until lights out, what are your predictions?

There are a number of drivers you feel are in need of a big performance today.

Lance Stroll qualified all the way down in 16th compared to his team-mate Fernando Alonso in 5th. The Canadian whose father runs the Aston Martin team continues to struggle to keep up with his 42-year-old team-mate and needs to show much better pace today.

Also Daniel Ricciardo has had a tough start to the season. He was close to his team-mate Tsunoda in qualifying but is yet to score a point this season.

Also Lewis Hamilton in P7, Charles Leclerc in P8 and Lewis Hamilton in P9 – not the best of Saturdays for them but watch out for those three trying to get get through the field this morning.

It has been a horrendous start to the season for Mercedes, so much so, that team principal Toto Wolff had to cancel his planned break off to travel with the team for this weekend’s race.

Lewis Hamilton is suffering his worst ever start to a season with just eight points to his name, while George Russell has 18 – but crashed last time out in Australia while chasing Fernando Alonso.

Both drivers have said that the car is handling much better this weekend and seem to be optimistic that they have made progress.

P7 and P9 in qualifying doesn’t truly reflect that, though Lewis Hamilton was just five tenths off Verstappen compared to 1.1 seconds last year in Japan.

Question today is do they have the pace to beat the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and even the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

A fortnight ago in Melbourne, the Brit became the unfortunate holder of a dubious honour, that being the driver with the most podium finishes without a single race win to their name.

It is going to be a big ask to stop Verstappen and Red Bull, but the McLaren star is dreaming of a first victory.

Click below to read more…

The atmosphere is building at Suzuka and the drivers have already been around the circuit to be introduced to the fans ahead of the race.

Max Verstappen looks calm and composed. Things didn’t exactly work out for him last time in Australia when he suffered a DNF due to a brake issue.

He will be determined to extend what is a four-point advantage over Charles Leclerc, with victory in Japan today.

And what about Yuki Tsunoda, the only Japanese driver on the grid, who qualified an impressive 10th in his AlphaTauri.

He has comfortably had the better of experienced team-mate Daniel Ricciardo so far this season and he would love some big points today.

As the off-track drama continues at Red Bull, on track they continue to look the dominant force, as shown by qualifying for today’s race.

Max Verstappen made it four poles in as many races, though team-mate Sergio Perez – who hadn’t been on the front row for the last 20 races – was incredibly close to pipping his team-mate.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell feel better about their Mercedes challenger this weekend, though it didn’t exactly show in terms of their placing on the grid for today’s race.

Meanwhile, it was Lando Norris who was best of the rest, to finish ahead of the likes of Ferrari, Aston Martin, Mercedes and his team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Click below for our full report of qualifying yesterday

And welcome to Mail Sport’s live blog for the Japanese Grand Prix!

Thank you to all of you who have joined me bright and early for what hopefully should be a cracking race to get Sunday underway!

We are just under an hour away from lights out and we will be bringing you all the build-up to the race and the lap-by-lap updates from the race at the iconic Suzuka circuit.

Ferrari managed to stop Red Bull last time out in Australia, can anyone do the same today?