Daniel Eckersley: Love to see 1, 2 and 3 stops all in the mix

Matthew Murnaghan: I hope Hamilton catches Verstappen. I kinda want to see some action between the two.

Where does the seven-time world champion reappear? Fifth spot on a set of medium rubber.

Lewis Hamilton is the first Mercedes to box.

The only drivers who have not made a visit to the pit lane are Verstappen, Hamilton, Russell and Perez.

Pierre Gasly is hanging about in an effort to recover in this race. The Alpine man has passed Nyck de Vries in the Alpha Tauri, the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and now passes Kevin Magnussen at Turn One in the Haas. P13 now for Gasly.

Marc Priestley
F1 commentator on BBC Radio 5 Live

Great news for Russell that the soft tyre having gone all the way from the start, 22 laps, is still holding out.

There are no rain spots yet falling on the Barcelona track. Max Verstappen is cruising out in front with a 10-second gap over the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.

Image source, Getty Images

Pierre Gasly stopped a lap or earlier but the Alpine change was a slow one. The Frenchman finds himself down in 15th place, with the Alpha Tauri of Nyck de Vries his next target.

George Russell has his strategy head on and is asking whether this race could potentially be a one-stop event. "It's not impossible," says his engineer.

Fernando Alonso is into the pits so drops a few places down the field. The two-time world champion comes out to carry on his race in P10.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

We heading into a really interesting stage of the race Carlos Sainz was questioning the decision to put the medium. The hard tyre was expected to be the favoured tyre in this race and it's obviously what he was expecting. He acquiesced but we will have to see how that plays out with Hamilton who is going to try and overcut Sainz.

Meanwhile they just pitted Leclerc which I really don't understand - he's run a relatively short distance in the race and they've just made him put and put on another set of tyres. Very confusing.

"A lot more pace in these tyres, we need to look forwards not behind."

George Russell feels there is some decent pace in those soft tyres that are fixed to his Mercedes. Carlos Sainz sees a chance to pass Pierre Gasly and he does so to claim sixth spot.

Nulla Pax: Lewis doing personal bests and is happy with his tyres... I must be dreaming

RantingMrP: What took Mercedes so long to move to this car design? Seems to be working!

A mixture of softs, mediums and hards now across the field as we reach lap 19 of this Spanish Grand Prix. Top-five drivers now are Verstappen, Hamilton, Russell, Alonso and Perez.

"Tyres are still really good."

Next Ferrari driver to slip on a new set of boots is Charles Leclerc. Mercedes think Lewis Hamilton is doing a grand job in second place.

Nico Hulkenberg tries to defend from Zhou Guanyu but the Haas eventually lets the Alfa Romeo through. Yuki Tsunoda has also passed the German on track.

Tsunoda is 12th, Zhou 13th and Hulkenberg is in 14th spot.

Carlos Sainz asked why he needs to come into the pits but the Spaniard duly did as he was told. 2.9 second stop and the Ferrari enters the field in ninth place, just behind his team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Marc Priestley
F1 commentator on BBC Radio 5 Live

Ferrari has had pace, we know that, but on race days they've really struggled. They've brought in a big raft of changes, mostly aerodynamic to this grand prix in the hope of making the car more driveable on a Sunday.

The pits is going to be a busy place today and Lance Stroll is the next to come in after Alpine called in Esteban Ocon. The Canadian comes just ahead of the Frenchman in 12th.