The McLarens take the hard tyres – Verstappen has mediums. Containing the Red Bull driver will be key for the McLaren duo on the restart.
Norris is given the call to pit, and Piastri has dropped back slightly to double stack. Everyone’s stopping.
Alonso hits the wall at Turn 7! This might be the switch point to move to slicks – Ferrari and Mercedes bung some slicks on.
Lap 33: Lawson is getting lapped by the two McLarens. “We’re free to race – you know the rules”, Piastri is told.
Lap 32: The McLaren drivers now appear free to race, but Piastri went wide at Turn 6 and he’s shipped about 1.5s to Norris! That’ll ease the pressure somewhat chez McLaren.
Lap 30: Norris gets some respite with DRS as he laps the two Haas drivers, while Piastri’s been told to hold position for the transition to dry tyres. It’s not an un-sensible move as the team tries to preserve its 1-2.
Lap 29: Piastri is in DRS range of Norris now – as Antonelli is in DRS range of Alonso. Things are starting to hot up now as we hit half-distance.
Lap 28: Just 1.2s between Norris and Piastri now. Verstappen has stabilised an 8s gap to Russell behind.
Lap 26: At the front, the gap is: Norris – 1.4s – Piastri. Russell is now closing on Verstappen.
“The seat is full of water”, Leclerc reports. “That must be the water,” replies engineer Bryan Bozzi – even in these conditions, Leclerc finds time to make a snide reply. “Let’s add that to the words of wisdom,” the Monegasque retorts.
Hamilton had a good look at Albon into Turn 11, but the Williams driver holds the line.
Lap 24: Piastri is now just 1.8s behind Norris. Verstappen is a further 10 seconds back, but still lapping faster than Russell in fourth.
Lap 23: Antonelli puts a move on Stroll and moves up to 11th – he was running well over a second faster than the Canadian. Alonso’s next on his list.
Lap 23: Hamilton reported that he lost gear sync – engineer Riccardo Adami offers him a fix to the solution. He’s still on Albon’s tail, so it seems okay for the time being.
Lap 22: Piastri is finding time on Norris, he’s just 2.1s behind at this juncture. Verstappen has fallen to seven seconds behind the two McLarens.
Norris is told that McLaren would like to stick with the current tyres if a safety car emerges and the rain stays at the same intensity. The Briton agrees, feeling the ‘slicktermediate’ is the best for business.
Lawson passes Ocon for 15th, and just about hangs onto it as he slips off at Turn 9.
All four drivers under investigation – Alonso, Hamilton, Albon, Tsunoda – have been given the all-clear. As you were, then.
Lap 19: Verstappen is itching for a switch in tyres, but he’s been asked if he can hang on as the light rain is expected to clear up.
Lap 18: Antonelli has repassed Hulkenberg now, repeating his move into Turn 11.
Verstappen just locked up, and that was enough for Piastri to reclaim second. Meantime, Hamilton and Albon have also been noted for safety car infringements.
Lap 17: Piastri was right on Verstappen’s tail through Turns 9 and 10, and the Dutchman makes an uncharacteristic error into the next corner to allow Piastri to make the pass for second!
Phwoar – Antonelli did a Russell and spun at Turn 4, which gives Hulkenberg 12th place back. He did well to keep it out of the wall, and resumes in 13th once again.
Lap 16: The times are dropping at the front; the front three are in the 1m30s. Shed a couple more seconds and we’ll start to reach the crossover point for slicks – but that’ll be tricky as drizzle is starting to appear.
Lap 15: We have a pass – Antonelli has cleared Hulkenberg for 12th. Nice, clean pass from the Mercedes rookie.
Lap 14: Norris is told that “class 1” rain might be on the way a little bit later – that’s relatively light rain, I believe.
Lap 13: Hamilton is finding the car a little bit on the snappy side; he’s asked where he’s slow as he seeks to find a way past Albon. Turns 11 and 12 is the answer.
Piastri can benefit from this, as he’s got within DRS range of Verstappen. Antonelli’s right on Hulkenberg’s tail as he seeks to claim 12th from the experienced German.
Lap 12: Lots of drivers hunting for some wet patches now to cool their intermediates. DRS is now enabled.
Lap 11: Norris has found a 1.1s lead over Verstappen for the time being. Piastri is trying to reclaim the time he lost to the Red Bull driver, and Russell is a further 2.4s behind.
Alonso is under investigation, as is Tsunoda, for a safety car infringement. More on those investigations as we have it.
Lap 9: Turn 3 looks very slippery – Verstappen seems to have shaken off the Piastri pressure and he’s going after Norris again. Alonso has been noted for a safety car infringement.
Lap 8: Norris holds the line from Verstappen and keeps the lead. Piastri is seeking retribution and wants to reclaim second.
“Little bits in last sector have dry patches but it’s 100% inters”, says Norris. He reckons it’ll dry soon if rain holds off.
We’ll resume racing on lap 8.
No more rain expected for at least 30 minutes, and we’re on lap 6. Hopefully we can get rolling soon.
Some dry lines are starting to form – but equally, it’s still very slippery on the painted lines. Ocon, Lawson, and Bearman have thrown on new sets of intermediates.
Amid all the madness, we missed a few positional changes; Leclerc got ahead of Tsunoda and Albon to sit fifth, and Hulkenberg has passed Antonelli and Bortoleto on his way up to P12.
Keeping the safety car out won’t be such a bad thing; gives the drivers a chance to displace some water and help the track dry out.
“Massive torque surge”, Sainz reports. The safety car brings the field through the pitlane.
