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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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."

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Final practice earlier on saw Lando Norris throw his McLaren hat into the ring for today's front-row spot with a time of 1:29.646 on the soft compound.

The Briton's time was 0.479 seconds faster than the Mercedes of George Russell, with his team-mate Oscar Piastri a further 0.785secs behind.

Meanwhile, Ferrari took a step back on Saturday compared to their pace shown on Friday. Charles Leclerc aborted one of his push laps on the softs towards the end of the session and complained to his team about lack of grip and the fact they were "very slow".

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Hello again, folks. Race control has illuminated Marina Bay with the glow of the 1,600 custom-made floodlights and we're ready to see who has got the makings of Singapore polesitter.

The temperatures have cooled slightly since third practice but the intense humidity is firmly here to stay.

Qualifying gets under way at 14:00 BST.

Commentary is online-only, so you'll need to click the 'listen live' tab at the top of this page to tune in. Alternatively, you can ask BBC Sounds to play Singapore Grand Prix qualifying via most smart speakers.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Singapore

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Lando Norris put in an imposing performance in final practice at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver set the pace, 0.479 seconds quicker than anyone else, as Mercedes’ George Russell was second fastest from Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, whose 59-point championship lead Norris is trying to reduce significantly this weekend, was fourth quickest ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

It was a confusing session that left many questions before qualifying at 21:00 local time (14:00 BST).

Leclerc, who had vied with Norris as pace-setter throughout Friday’s sessions, was struggling, saying: “We are very slow. I just have no grip.”

Mercedes had been uncompetitive on Friday but appeared to have made progress overnight, at least with Russell.

But team-mate Lewis Hamilton was seventh fastest, 1.218secs off the pace, and 0.739secs slower than Russell.

And although Verstappen was 0.894secs off the pace, his fourth place was an improvement after he, too, had struggled badly on Friday.

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All lizards are safe (Larry was an early visitor in third practice and gave the marshals a decent workout).

The McLarens look strong.

Mercedes and George Russell have found some pace.

Ferrari have dropped off and were "slow", said Charles Leclerc.

What on earth is going to happen in qualifying? Well, we don't have to wait long to find out.

Let's take a break and then come back together for build-up at 13:30 BST.

See you shortly!

Harry Benjamin
BBC F1 Commentator

Ferrari will be left with their heads being scratched slightly, I think there's more to come from them. They won't be happy to be down in fifth and sixth behind Verstappen, I wonder if the picture might change for Ferrari as we head into qualifying.

I don't think we've seen quite their full potential in this session.

11. Yuki Tsunoda (RB)

12. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)

13. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

14. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

15. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

16. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

17. Daniel Ricciardo (RB)

18. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

19. Valtteri Bottas (Sauber)

20. Zhou Guanyu (Sauber)

Rosanna Tennant
5 Live F1 reporter in Singapore

The McLarens look like they are the ones to beat this weekend.

1. Lando Norris (McLaren) - 1:29.646

2. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.479

3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.785

4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.894

5. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.913

6. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) +1.161

7. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) +1.218

8. Alex Albon (Williams) +1.303

9. Franco Colapinto (Williams) +1.343

10. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 1.436

Sam Bird
Formula E driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

The Red Bull car is effectively designed for Verstappen's driving style. Perez prefers a more understeer-type car, Verstappen's is extremely direct and dance around a lot more.

Ferrari have tinkered with Charles Leclerc's set-up and now the Monegasque driver is heading back out for another flyer before the session's end. There are no purple sectors so far, and as Leclerc crosses the line and the chequered flag falls, he stays in fifth place.

Sam Bird
Formula E driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Perez is more comfortable with where the car is at now in comparison to Max because the car isn't dialled in. Max isn't happy and he can't extract the pace out of it that we're used to seeing.

I don't think Perez is necessarily driving miles better than before, it's just Max isn't as happy.

The previous lap has not left Charles Leclerc in a good mood. He's on the team radio to his Ferrari pit wall - and drops a naughty word - to explain his frustrations with how the car is performing. He then comments a few moments later the lap was "very slow".