Andrew Priestley: Perez could be in danger come the end of the race after asking his soft tyres to do 20 laps. Sainz and Russell will watch on with interest for 2nd and 3rd.

Harry Benjamin
BBC F1 Commentator

He (Daniel Ricciardo) is the only other driver outside the two Red Bulls to go on that soft compound of tyre.

Always a nice battle for the ages to see Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton vying for track position.

Hamilton, in eighth, has his former team-mate in his sights and completes a straightforward overtake down the straight to get up to seventh.

Alice Powell
British racing driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

It appears for now at least Red Bull are slower than 2023 and 2022 in their pitstops, another slow pitstop for Red Bull, usually they are at the 2.1 second mark but that was 2.7, another slow stop. Usually they are the king and queens of pitstops.

Tom Shepherd: At what point does this become boring for Max? No one to actually race. Obviously he has the best car but he gets no coverage on the race as there is nothing to show. Maybe he should move teams for a new challenge?

Max Verstappen pits from the lead and joins his Red Bull team-mate in moving onto soft tyres. He resumes in the lead with a 17-second advantage.

Image source, Getty Images

Sergio Perez pits from second and swaps the hards to softs. He's on the quicker rubber but with 19 laps to go, how long will they last?

Here's how the top 10 looks at the moment, with just Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso yet to make second stops.

1) Verstappen

2) Perez

3) Sainz

4) Russell

5) Leclerc

6) Norris

7) Alonso

8) Hamilton

9) Piastri

10) Albon

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton gets the undercut done on Oscar Piastri and he is up to eighth.

Carlos Sainz pits now from third, with George Russell - fourth - having pitted a lap before him.

Alex Albon is currently 11th but sounds to be having all sorts of issues with his car.

There's a few more stops higher up the field with Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc among those heading in.

Image source, Getty Images

Alice Powell
British racing driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Max Verstappen is 17 seconds ahead, he's having a little look right and a little look left checking out the scenery as he head down into Turn 11, nice, easy and gentle, making sure everything is smooth and looking after the tyres.

Lance Stroll makes a move on the inside of Zhou Guanyu into Turn 3. Stroll has to fight to make the move stick but he finally fends off Zhou and is into 13th.

Image source, Getty Images

Nathan Marzan: We've had periods of dominance before but never this unchallenged. If the other teams can't catch up and Red Bull aren't willing to give Verstappen a rival then this season is over already

Long, long stop for Valtteri Bottas as they struggle with the left front tyre. He's finally back out after a 52 second pit stop...

We're into the window of the second round of pit stops, with some drivers having already gone in for fresh rubber.

Out in front, Max Verstappen is now 16 seconds clear of the field.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Max Verstappen is about 0.8 of a second a lap faster than everybody else in the field.

That's a rare bit of welcome good news for Charles Leclerc, who is fifth.

Zhou Guanyu pits from 10th and is also on fresh set of hard tyres.

Engineer: "Tyre life is longer than expected"

Rich Cassidy: I know you should never make F1 predictions (ever!) but after half a race I bet Hamilton wishes he was in a Ferrari already, Verstappen looks good for 24 wins, Sainz is really improving his CV and Perez is doing everything asked of him.

Lance Stroll makes his first second stop of the race and is back out in 18th on a fresh set of hard tyres.

Image source, Getty Images