Alpine's Esteban Ocon is up in the top 10 along with the two Haas drivers Nico Hulkenberg and the returning Kevin Magnussen.

The Red Bull of Max Verstappen is being drawn to the wall, but the Dutchman is confident enough to catch the slide and avoid any major incident. The reigning world champion is third on the timesheets.

"The rear is sliding a lot."

Alex Albon is joining the big dogs in the top five with his first attempt on the softs. The Williams is quicker than the Red Bull of Sergio Perez and his team-mate Franco Colapinto.

But here comes Lewis Hamilton, who shuffles Albon down the line. However, the seven-time world champion only takes fifth spot, which now becomes P8 by the time the others clock their lap.

"The rear is sliding," says Hamilton.

Sam Bird
Formula E driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

The fight for pole position tonight is going to be between one of the McLarens and one of the Ferraris, but which ones will it be?

The McLaren, with its one-off special livery, is rapid in the hands of Lando Norris today. The British driver was a surprise knockout in Q1 in Azerbaijan last weekend, but he's already put his banker lap in now and it's enough to beat Charles Leclerc's by 0.172 seconds.

The best time now is 1:30.724.

Charles Leclerc has his head down and has already clocked a flyer on the soft compound. The Ferrari is clear of the rest with a 1:30.896.

The Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, the two Ferraris and the Sauber boys are leading the way to get out of the pit lane, which makes the fans cheer in appreciation at the early action. Lando Norris is also trying to get some temperature in his tyres, which are the soft C5, to match the rest of the pack.

Lizard check done. Q1 is safe to proceed.

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If you have a smart speaker, ask BBC Sounds to play Singapore Grand Prix qualifying and the team will also be there to take you through the action.

The reign of Red Bull at the top of the constructors' championship, which has lasted since the 2022 season, has come to an end. McLaren have overtaken the six-time title winners and sit 20 points clear of the field with seven races remaining. Ferrari in third are 51 points off leaders McLaren and 31 behind the now second-placed Red Bull.

Following a double points haul in Baku, Williams have climbed above Alpine and are sitting in eighth place, three points ahead of the French team.

Image source, Getty Images

The lead in the drivers' championship has been cut to 59 points but leader Max Verstappen is still in control from his nearest rival Lando Norris as we head into the final phase of the campaign.

Third-placed Charles Leclerc is right on the tail of Norris after another podium finish in Azerbaijan with just 19 points separating the pair. But look behind you Charles, as Baku winner Oscar Piastri in fourth is only 13 points away.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Singapore

Image source, EPA

McLaren are to modify the rear wing they used to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after rivals raised questions about its legality.

Governing body the FIA said the wing, which was seen on television footage flexing at high speed, had passed all deformation tests. It initially did not intend to require any changes from McLaren.

However, the FIA changed its stance after complaints by rivals, primarily Red Bull, and conversations with McLaren.

A McLaren statement said: "While our Baku rear wing complies with the regulations and passes all FIA deflection tests, McLaren have proactively offered to make some minor adjustments to the wing following our conversations with the FIA.

"We would also expect the FIA to have similar conversations with other teams in relation to the compliance of their rear wings."

Read the full story here

The McLaren rear wing has been front and centre following Oscar Piastri's victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with questions raised as to whether the 'mini DRS', as it's been called, is a design step too far.

CEO Zak Brown told Sky Sports yesterday that the FIA was "comfortable" with all elements of their car, adding the rear wing had passed every test and it was "clever engineering".

However, after a chat with the sport's governing body, McLaren have taken action...

Why have one DRS zone when you can have four?

The FIA has added another speed boost to the Marina Bay Street Circuit for this year's Singapore Grand Prix.

In an effort to aid overtaking, the additional zone will be between Turns 14 and 16 in the final sector.

This was the part of the track that was revised last year, cutting the number of corners by four due to construction work taking place the harbour front.

Image source, Getty Images

Franco Colapinto is three races in to his short stint in Formula 1 and so far, the Argentine is holding his own against the more experienced Alex Albon.

The F2 driver made it through to the pole fight for the first time in Azerbaijan - a track he had never driven on - and out-qualified team-mate Albon to line up ninth on the grid, which was later promoted to P8 because of Lewis Hamilton pit lane start.

Two cars in Q3 was Williams' best result of the 2024 season, but Singapore presents another hurdle for Colapinto to overcome. While the rest of the drivers have been training with one eye on the 62-lap race since the start of the campaign, the 21-year-old will be unacclimatised with the stifling humidity he's about to face on Sunday.

Image source, Getty Images

Charles Leclerc has been consistently quick up until this morning's slip down the order, but he'll still be aiming to topple the McLarens and secure a third career pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Ferrari man took a fourth consecutive front-row spot in Azerbaijan last weekend but he was unable to break the spell of failing to convert any of them into a race victory.

He's in a similar situation here at Marina Bay, with both of those poles - one claimed in 2019 and the other in 2022 - ending with Leclerc finishing second on the podium.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Singapore

Image source, Getty Images

Singapore was the only race last year that Red Bull did not win in the most dominant season in F1 history.

Because their car loses more performance than those of rivals on bumpy circuits that require drivers to use the kerbs, Red Bull were expecting to struggle at this race again.

This has already been seen this year at Monaco, and Singapore is another street track with similar characteristics.

It gives Lando Norris what appears at this stage to be a good opportunity to make significant inroads into the 59-point gap to Max Verstappen - which he needs to do by an average of just over eight points a race until the end of the season if he is to beat the Dutchman to the title.

Image source, Getty Images

The Singapore weekend in 2023 belonged to Carlos Sainz, who took pole position ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Q1 was ended early after a huge crash for Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin. The Canadian slid on to the kerb at the final chicane and spun into the barriers in effort to avoid elimination. He walked away from the crash but went on to miss the following day's race in order to fully recover from the high impact.

Image source, Getty Images

Max Verstappen's qualifying at Marina Bay was one to forget, with the Dutchman failing to make the top-10 shootout and lining up 11th for the 62-lap grand prix.

The unexpected loss of performance caused Verstappen to swear on the radio - something he'll have to rein in after yesterday's FIA punishment.

You can have a read of that story here

Image source, Getty Images

After Friday's practice sessions had wrapped up, the Singapore skies unleashed heavy rain on to the Marina Bay circuit.

The drivers completed third practice under dry, cloudy but still very humid conditions and hopefully, the forecast for qualifying is for much of the same.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff spoke to Sky Sports after FP3, he said: "We turned [Russell's] car upside down literally and it seems to be in a much better balance window, but that whole classification looks a bit odd.

"Norris is so far ahead and then big spreads between team-mates."

On Russell making a few mistakes in that session, he added: "He said he pushed it quite a lot for an FP3 lap, maybe taking a bit more risk to see how the balance was on the car."

On qualifying being a bit cooler in temperature, he said: "I hope we can maintain the speed on both cars is the best case scenario. Yesterday we saw that the Ferraris were tremendously fast, we wouldn't have been able to replicate those times and today they weren't. It's difficult to say what will happen in a few hours."