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

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.

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.

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?