Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

Worry for Aston Martin in Q1 here - and Sebastian Vettel has just confirmed that worry by posting a lap time slower than both Alfa Romeos on the first lap.

It's softs everywhere else, but some teams may be tempted to have a look at the mediums after those early McLaren times.

The McLaren pair have tried their luck on the mediums in the early stages of Q1 and Lando Norris is the fastest so far, with Daniel Ricciardo two places further down.

Drew: Sprint qualifying, no, reverse grids even worse. F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport so fastest and best driver/car combo get pole and win. No gimmicks, no games, no.

We're on time for qualifying so here we go. Eighteen minutes for Q1, everyone gets out there and the top 15 advance into Q2.

That 30-second penalty for Kimi Raikkonen two weeks' ago dropped him from ninth to 13th, with Esteban Ocon moving from 10th to ninth and Fernando Alonso up into the points from 11th to 10th.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Alfa Romeo have lodged a request for a review of the 30-second penalty given to Kimi Raikkonen at the end of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix two weeks ago. Stewards penalised Raikkonen for failing to enter the pit lane before the restart after the mid-race crash between George Russell and Valtteri Bottas brought out the red flag.

But the verdict pointed out what the stewards themselves said were a number of contradictory aspects of the sporting regulations regarding required actions if a driver spins and loses positions behind a safety car, as Raikkonen did, and emphasised that the penalty was "mandatory" and they had "no alternative than to apply this penalty for reasons of consistency". Alfa Romeo said they were "dumbfounded" by the penalty, and their appeal will be heard later this afternoon.

Of the 99 times Lewis Hamilton has started a race out in front, he's ended there on 58 occasions.

Here's how he has performed at McLaren and then at Mercedes.

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Lewis Hamilton was on pole 10 times out of 17 races in 2020 and has been there for one of the two events in 2021. In 2016, he started 12 races out in front, although the title that year went to then-Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

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Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton says he intends to remain in Formula 1 for at least another season after this year.

The seven-time champion signed a one-year deal with Mercedes at the start of 2021 but said on Thursday that he "plans" to be in the sport next season.

He said he was "enjoying" his title fight with Red Bull's Max Verstappen and was determined to continue to fight against racism and for diversity.

Hamilton added: "I don't know how long I can stay, though. We will see."

His revelation about his wish to continue in F1 came in answer to a question about his participation in a tyre development test last week.

"I plan to be here next year and I want to help Pirelli in helping them towards having a better product," he said. "I am pretty spontaneous so it could always change. I am enjoying this battle we are having. It is getting more exciting. It has been even more of a challenge.

And he's going to have plenty of time to stretch those numbers further...

As we have said, Lewis Hamilton needs just one more pole position to become the first (and maybe only driver ever) to reach the 100 landmark.

He has 31 more poles than any other driver in history. Just staggering numbers.

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We've got 20 minutes to go before qualifying but there is some late panic in the garage of Valtteri Bottas as they are working frantically on his car.

He was fastest in practice session one, third in session two and third again earlier today.

So this is now how the F1 schedule looks over the next four months...

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The Canadian Grand Prix has been cancelled and will be replaced on its 11-13 June date by a race at Turkey's Istanbul Park track.

It is the second successive year the Montreal event has been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Travel restrictions made it impossible to enter Canada without a mandatory 14-day quarantine, said an F1 statement.

Meanwhile, the contract for a race on Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has been extended by two years to 2031. Canada is experiencing a rise in cases, with Ontario - neighbouring province to Quebec - particularly badly affected.

Turkey returns for a second successive year as a stand-in race because of disruption caused by the pandemic.

Last year, it returned to the calendar for the first time since 2011, and was the event at which Lewis Hamilton clinched his record-equalling seventh world drivers' title.

Shorter 'sprint' races will be introduced to Formula 1 this year to set the grid positions at three grands prix, series bosses have agreed.

Points will be awarded to the top three finishers - three for first, two for second and one for third. Grid positions for the shorter race - to be called 'sprint qualifying' - will be set by moving qualifying to Friday.

Avoiding calling the event a 'race' is to ensure that the grand prix remains the main focus of the weekend. It will be the first time in history that the grand prix is not the only race on an F1 world championship weekend.

The shorter 'sprint qualifying' race will run to about one-third of the distance of a grand prix, which has a maximum length of just over 305km (190 miles).

The move will involve a series of other sporting changes to the standard race weekend and is intended as an experiment to see whether it introduces extra levels of uncertainty and interest to the weekend's action.

The British Grand Prix on 16-18 July will be the first event to host the new format, followed by the Italian race on 10-12 September. The third to host 'sprint qualifying' has not yet been announced.

Before we dive into qualifying, a quick look at a few of the recent stories from the Formula 1 world.

We're still after your thoughts on qualifying and also your favourite Lewis Hamilton pole positions. The way to contact us this weekend is via text, 81111.

Hello again and thanks for joining us in what could be another amazing afternoon in Lewis Hamilton's incredible career.