F1 rookie Liam Lawson starts P10 for today's race. He told Sky Sports: "It was a good session yesterday but today it's a very very long race.

"It's about being there at the end honestly. I would have loved to do a few more grands prix before [the Singapore Grand Prix] but I'm as ready as I can be."

National anthem time in Singapore but before that, all the drivers came together on the grid to observe a moment of silence for the victims of the earthquake in Morocco and the floods in Libya.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports on the grid: "The reality is that the car that won in Monza two weeks ago, it won in Zandvoort the week before and in fact it's won all the other races.

"Other than the wing level nothing has changed, the only thing that is different is the track so we need to understand it coming out this weekend."

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Candles and birthday greetings at the ready for Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman turns 27 years old today.

Ocon can afford to indulge in as much birthday cake as he likes, as by the end of the long and physically demanding Singapore Grand Prix, he and all the other drivers will lose as much as 3kg.

This year has been an up and down season for Ocon at Alpine. The high of a podium finish in Monaco has been contrasted by back-to-back retirements at Silverstone and the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Still, Estie Bestie is a Formula 1 race winner, taking a brilliant maiden victory at the Hungaroring in August 2021.

Happy birthday, Esteban!

Sequins? In this heat? Lewis Hamilton is a brave man.

The Mercedes driver is a four-time winner in Singapore and the fans were clamouring to get his autograph earlier on.

Hamilton will start in fifth spot tonight and joins fellow Brits George Russell and Lando Norris in the top five. The 38-year-old has been on the podium four times this season but the elusive 104th career victory is still to be claimed by the seven-time world champion.

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The softest tyres in the Pirelli range are the compounds available for a night race at Marina Bay, with teams able to call upon the C3 (white, hard), C4 (yellow, medium) and C5 (red, soft).

With temperatures consistently high in Singapore, the risk of overheating that delicate rubber is increased at the longest race of the season.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

George Russell is taking his place on the front row alongside the polesitter for the second time this season and the Mercedes man thinks he and the team may have an ace up their sleeve to put pressure on the two Ferraris he's sandwiched between.

"Really happy with this weekend as a whole," said Russell after qualifying. "I feel really confident in the car.

"We have another set of medium tyres tomorrow, which nobody around us has had, so to get to Q3 and be on the front row with a strategic advantage tomorrow is an exciting place to be."

Russell has only graced the podium once this season; his excellent drive from 12th on the grid to third place at the Spanish Grand Prix his only top-three finish this year so far.

Sergio Perez is the first driver spotted in an ice bath as the grid prepares for an extremely long and hot Singapore Grand Prix.

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Image source, Getty Images

Sergio Perez reaches a milestone in Formula 1 in Singapore as the Mexican driver celebrates his 250th grand prix around the street circuit of Marina Bay.

Perez made his debut at the Australian Grand Prix in 2011 for Sauber and his career stats so far stand at six race victories, three pole positions and 34 podium places.

Rewind to 2020 and Perez, driving for Racing Point in his 190th F1 race and without a seat for the 2021 season, finally stood on the top step of the podium for the very first time after winning the Sakhir Grand Prix.

Starting 13th on the grid probably isn't the best position to celebrate such an occasion but Checo has been the street king of late, taking an impressive victory here last season, so maybe fate can give him a helping hand on such a special day.

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While Daniel Ricciardo continues his recovery from a broken hand (he is here in Singapore but only with Alpha Tauri in a technical capacity), Liam Lawson gets to show off his talents and outline why he could be a good candidate for one of the team's two seats that are available for the 2024 season.

The 21-year-old can at least put on his CV that he knocked out two-time world champion in Q2 to progress to the top-10 shootout for the first time.

Lawson still had a few critiques about his performance, though. "I feel like qualifying slipped away from us, especially at the end," he said in an Alpha Tauri video.

"We didn't quite extract and maximise Q3. Obviously we made a big improvement but still more to come."

Lawson's first job on his to-do list is to stop Verstappen passing him at the start, then try and keep in close contact with the likes of Nico Hulkenberg's Haas and Esteban Ocon's Alpine who are lining up just in front of him.

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Starting from outside of the front rows and taking a race victory is something Max Verstappen has done on a few occasions during his dominant run but with overtaking opportunities at a premium on the streets of Singapore, is this the day we see the Red Bull driver watching on from the sidelines as others celebrate on the podium?

Choose the left thumb for 'yes, Verstappen will definitely pop up on the podium'.

Or hit the right thumb for 'no, the winning streak and podium party ends today'.

Max Verstappen starts 11th on the grid in the Red Bull after a tricky qualifying, he told Sky Sports: "I mean realistically it's going to be a long afternoon and evening for us, it's hard to pass round here but it's the beauty of a Grand Prix, it's a long one, a lot of things always happen around here so I hope we can score a few points out there."

On his expected race performance, he added: "I expect it to be tough but hopefully we will get a surprise and still have a decent result."

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Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

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Max Verstappen and Red Bull have been struggling all weekend but few expected them to fail to make the grid's top 10.

All year, the car's strength has been its gentle tyre wear in races, but this has meant its advantage has been reduced in qualifying, because it struggles to get the tyres into the right temperature window.

In Singapore, Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez have both complained of a lack of rear grip, and in qualifying the runaway championship leader looked uncompetitive throughout.

The car is incredibly gentle on its rubber, which means it suffers less from what is known as tyre degradation and therefore can run faster for longer than any other car. Rivals have often talked with wonder and admiration about the car's "zero deg" in races.

But the corollary of that is that the Red Bull sometimes struggles to get the best out its tyres in qualifying, for which a driver needs to bring them up to temperature quickly, and that brings it back towards the rest of the field on Saturdays.

It's why Red Bull have swept all the races so far, but not all the qualifying sessions - before Singapore, Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton had all scored pole positions.

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Max Verstappen held up all 10 digits after surpassing Sebastian Vettel's 2013 record of nine consecutive victories at the Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago but yesterday in Singapore, the Dutchman's head was in his hands after a disastrous qualifying session for Red Bull.

Championship leader Verstappen was booted out in Q2 by the Alpha Tauri stand-in Liam Lawson and called his running an "absolutely shocking experience".

To make matters worse, Verstappen also had three separate investigations for alleged impeding incidents during qualifying hanging over him. Luckily, he doesn't have to move down the grid, as he was given reprimands for two of the offences and no further action over the third matter.

He wrote on social media: "So far, it's a difficult weekend here in Singapore, resulting in a disappointing Qualifying. We go again tomorrow."

While we build-up to the night race under the lights, Rosanna Tennant and the 5 Live F1 team look back at an extraordinary qualifying session in Singapore on the Chequered Flag podcast review.

Have a listen as we go along here.

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Carlos Sainz, who starts on pole for the second race weekend in a row, told Sky Sports: "So far so good. When you prepare well and you stick to your routine and stick to the things that you know that work normally tends to pay off, or at least I'm a strong believer of it, so let's see. But so far so good."

On his biggest threat for today's race: "I think the Mercedes and Lando, we are all going to have very similar race pace, even Fernando if he manages to get past the Haas at the start, he will be in our race and it will be about tyre management and strategy, safety cars, when to pit, when not to pit, tyre degradation. Singapore is quite a special so it will be an interesting one."

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Carlos Sainz had nothing left to give after pushing himself to the limit to claim back-to-back pole positions for the first time in his Formula 1 career.

The Spaniard beat Mercedes' George Russell by just 0.072 seconds, with his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc a fraction behind in third.

After he had taken on several bottles of water, Sainz said: "Like in Monza, we know our weakness is always the race pace and we always pay a price.

"But everyone has been doing a great job over the last couple of weekends to understand the package and understand the car and I think we are definitely making a bit of progress."

Italy's pole turned into a third-placed finish last time out when Sainz had to defend heavily from the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, plus a team-mate scrap with Leclerc in the closing stages.

With Lance Stroll out of the Singapore Grand Prix, that means only 19 drivers will contest today's race, as it's too late for another driver to step in for the Canadian as they would not have completed a practice or qualifying session.

The top five is made of two Ferraris, two Mercedes and the dark livery of Lando Norris' upgraded McLaren.

Kevin Magnussen will start sixth for Haas and Liam Lawson and his Alpha Tauri will line up in 10th - with world champion Max Verstappen right on his rear wing in 11th.

Image source, FIA

Image source, Getty Images

Alfa Romeo will have one car start from the pit lane in Singapore, as Zhou Guanyu has to move from his P19 spot because of a new power unit and set-up changes.

The starting position may not be ideal but Zhou is at least safe in the knowledge he has a race seat for 2024, after the team confirmed this week he will parter Valtteri Bottas again next season.

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On Saturday, Lance Stroll was involved in a heavy crash during the first session of qualifying and while the Canadian was able to get straight out of the car following the impact, Stroll and Aston Martin have agreed he will not participate in today's grand prix.

In a statement, Aston Martin said: "The team face a huge job repairing the car today and Lance is still sore following such a high impact. Lance's focus now shifts to fully recovering ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix."

Team principal Mike Krack added: "The whole team are relieved that Lance was able to step out of the car after yesterday's accident – however, he is still feeling the after-effects of such a high-impact crash."

Stroll's car slid on to the kerb and spun into the barriers, tearing a wheel off the car and badly damaging it. He was taken to the medical centre for checks but soon released uninjured.