Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

Hulkenberg pits, I think he hit the rear tyre of Sainz. They've changed the tyres onto the hard.

Hulkenberg has to come into the pits on lap two. This is looking like a miserable day for Renault, with Daniel Ricciardo starting at the back, although the Australian has gained five places already.

The top six are as we started - Leclerc, Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen, Bottas, Albon.

Image source, Getty Images

Puncture for Sainz. Damage to George Russell's front wing.

Leclerc gets away cleanly, Vettel has a nibble at Hamilton, but the Brits defence is good.

Image source, Getty Images

No crazy first-corner crash this time.

Leclerc with a good start.

This race is 61 laps. It will take two hours. It is some of the toughest conditions of the season.

Don't go anywhere. This is going to be excellent.

Formation lap.

All the top nine drivers are on the softs. It would've been 10 but Ricciardo's qualifying then did not count so he's at the back. Pierre Gasly in 11th starts on the hards.

A reminder that this is how we line up.

Image source, .

Alhaji: Hamilton jumps Leclerc at lights out. Safety car within 30 laps. Max Verstappen benefits from a brilliant strategy call.

We're live so listen to Jack Nicholls, Jolyon Palmer and Jennie Gow on 5 Live Sports Extra, or via the play button at the top.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Singapore

Image source, Getty Images

There was an animated discussion in the drivers’ briefing on Friday arising from the controversial incident between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton at Turn Four during the Italian Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver was given the black-and-white flag for failing to leave a car’s width when moving to defend against Hamilton on the outside, but sources who were in the meeting said the majority of the drivers felt it should have been a penalty. Moving under braking - as Leclerc did - is a big no-no for most of the drivers.

And Lewis Hamilton said to race director Michael Masi that he wanted to know what the rules were. The concern among the drivers is a lack of clarity at what is acceptable in terms of racing, under the team boss-driven new approach of “let them race”. Does the use of the black and white flag in this manner mean all drivers have one ‘bye’ per race to break the rules? Max Verstappen - who stayed silent through the discussion, perhaps unsurprisingly given his history of moving under braking - said: “Yeah.” And you’ll use it? "Everybody will."

Pierre Gasly, starts in 11th, and is focusing on making up a few places to finish in the points. He says: "It's going to be a long race in Singapore and as always anything can happen. I'm happy in the way we work in the team and the direction we are taking so we need to score points here."

Max Verstappenis hoping to maximise on the opportunities from a safety car. He says: "Start is always important there are a lot of things that will come into play, tyre management and safety cars so we will see."

"I'm not impressed" says Daniel Ricciardo, "but I'll try and do what I can for the nest two hours to make something happen."

Blackburn Lad: OK you math guys, how many points does Ham need to win the championship...my head hurts.

Right, some more very quick maths. Another 182 points up for grabs for one man, if Bottas (closest to Hamilton in the points) gets all 182 - seven wins and seven fastest laps - that would take him to 403 and means Hamilton would need to get to 404. He is 120 off that at the moment. Obviously that figure gets reduced if Bottas does not win today.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Singapore

Image source, Getty Images

Alexander Albon has had a trying weekend so far on his first experience at Marina Bay. A messy Friday, including an off in which he took his front wing off, was followed by a Saturday in which he was a long way off team-mate Max Verstappen.

But a good effort on his final lap of qualifying found him more than 0.5secs and he handed up 0.6secs back. It was a creditable effort in the circumstances, but Albon judged it: “OK, not great, though. I would want to be doing better than that.” Red Bull boss Helmut Marko said this weekend that the choice for next year is between Albon and Pierre Gasly, who has already been dropped back to Toro Rosso after a difficult first half-season. Gasly has impressed since returning to the junior team, out-qualifying Daniil Kvyat for three races in a row now. But the word inside Red Bull is that it will probably be Albon as long as his progress continues in the next two or three races.

Busy, busy on track. Fifteen minutes time all these people will have cleared off.