Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Singapore

Image source, .BBC Sport

This is a brutal race, on a bumpy track, with walls to catch the unwary, in 30C heat and 70% humidity, which runs close - and sometimes up to - the two-hour time limit. No rain is predicted.

The teams will all try to one-stop. Last year, there was a very a slow start to the race, with the leaders managing tyre life, before building speed as the pit-stop window nears. But this year the softest tyre is more durable, so the need for management might not be as high.

For the leader, extending the first stint is key, because there has been a safety car in every race so far, so you want to minimise the risk of having stopped before it comes out, because stopping under the safety car saves 11 seconds of race time, and therefore provides a huge advantage over a car stopping under green-flag conditions. At the same time, the power of the under-cut - stopping first and gaining a position through speed on fresh tyres - is high. So it’s a trade-off.

In terms of the safety car, in Singapore teams generally have two laps to decide whether to stop, because although stopping on the first lap is theoretically slightly quicker, you can gain by doing it on the second because you keep track position and your pit stop time might be slightly faster owing to the less-crowded pit lane.

Not jealous. At all. Honest.

We've been in Singapore for 11 races and we've had the safety car out at least once every time!

"I've had a puncture," says Sergio Perez back in 2011, trying to downplay the absolute mangled wreck of a car after an airborne clash with Schumacher.

This was the reaction from the Ferrari mechanics as Charles Leclerc took his fifth pole of the season. Great scenes.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Singapore

If you get a chance, watch the onboard camera video of Charles Leclerc’s pole lap at Singapore - it’s available on the Formula 1 website - It’s beautiful in its execution, and awe-inspiring in the couple of moments in which he comes so close to stacking it into the wall, especially on the exits of Turn Three and Turn 11.

“It was quite a crazy lap,” he said. “There were quite a bit of mistakes - I lost the car quite a few times and I’ve seen myself in the wall at least twice or three times in the lap, but it felt amazing. The car was great. Exit of Turn Three and exit of Turn 11. These ones were quite big times. I was actually quite surprised I didn’t lose so much time by losing it that much but yeah, everything after that went smooth and I was just giving it all. It felt quite intense in the car but I’m very happy.”

Here are today's top three on the grid waving to the fans at Singapore earlier on.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

That means we start off like this today. We get going at 13:10 BST.

Image source, .

But it was bad news yesterday for Daniel Ricciardo, who had got himself into Q3 only to find out his hard work counts for nothing and he was disqualified from qualifying.

He gets demoted to the back.

Your thoughts are always welcome, so tweet us using the hashtag #bbcf1 on Twitter.

What's going to happen today? Who's going to win and why?

Go.

Who could forget this from 2017? Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen all took each other out at the first corner.

Will we have similar scenes today?

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Singapore

Image source, Getty Images

One of the best qualifying sessions of the year has set up an intriguing race around the Marina Bay circuit this evening. Charles Leclerc surprised even himself and his team and put a Ferrari on pole, and the stage seems set for a third battle in a row between the 21-year-old young pretender and the 34-year-old five-time world champion alongside him on the grid.

Sebastian Vettel is right behind them, with a point to prove after a difficult run, and Max Verstappen alongside him, a little downcast at the Red Bull’s relative lack of pace. It’s a recipe as tasty as a laksa.

Lewis Hamilton is prepared for a fight on his hands today...

Even the main man was surprised...

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Singapore

Image source, Getty Images

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc took his third pole position in a row with a superlative performance in qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The 21-year-old beat Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes by 0.191 seconds as both slipped ahead of early pace-setter Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari on their last laps.

Vettel, who was nearly 0.2secs up on Leclerc after the first runs, aborted his final lap after an error.

Hamilton snuck ahead of Vettel by 0.029secs to join Leclerc on the front row.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fourth, split from team-mate Alexander Albon by Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas.

First up, a quick look at yesterday's thrilling qualifying.

Hello and welcome along to BBC Sport's coverage of the Singapore Grand Prix. I'm Michael Emons and I will be talking you through the action today.

We've been treated to a run of six brilliant races and, under the spectacular lights of Singapore, this could be something very special indeed.

As always, our excellent radio commentary team of Jack Nichols, Jolyon Palmer and Jennie Gow will be on 5 Live Sports Extra from 13:00 BST.

He's been on pole three times in a row and has won the past two races, so can the super-talented Charles Leclerc lead from the front and win today's Singapore Grand Prix?

It's all set up perfectly to be another thriller. We've got the man in form Leclerc and title leader Lewis Hamilton on the front row. Just behind them we have Sebastian Vettel, aiming to shut up his critics, and the always-exciting Max Verstappen.

Image source, Getty Images