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.
Safety car – and Sainz has also hit the wall, at Turn 14!
That’s Doohan! His Alpine is missing a rear wing, and it’s sitting in the middle of the road.
Verstappen starts well, but Norris holds on to the lead. The Dutchman passes Piastri for second.
Right, everyone seems to be lining up relatively unscathed…are we ready to go?
Formation Lap 2 begins. Keep it on the road, folks.
Right, a couple of minutes to go – let’s hope for no more incidents for the time being! We’ve not woken up at silly times for safety cars…
That’s very sweet – Hadjar’s made his way back to the pitlane, and is being comforted by Anthony Hamilton.
The difficult bit about actually getting going, as Hadjar has proved, will be the white lines. Fiver says Martin Brundle says something about “eyes on stalks” as the drivers try to account for all four tyres.
The new formation lap will begin in 10 minutes. That’s 15:15 local time, that’s 4:15 GMT.
Hadjar’s crash has delayed proceedings – hopefully Lando Norris has been reading the rules on this over the off-season; everyone has to switch off, and the mechanics return to the circuit.
Hadjar’s in the wall! The Frenchman has had a spin at Turn 2 and has backed his Racing Bulls car into the wall – and he’s broken his rear wing. So much for that previous post.
We’ll be getting a standing start after all – lots of drivers on intermediates, so clearly everyone’s satisfied that things have dried up sufficiently!
Just as a sidenote: Lance Stroll’s little sidestep in the intro sequence will remain funny throughout the year.
Five minutes until we get rolling here in Melbourne – likely that it’s not going to be dry enough for a standing start…initially, at least.
This is going to be an old school splashathon – Turn 5 looks pretty damp out there, there’s a fair whack of wind – but it’s not actually raining at the moment.
In other news, Liam Lawson and Ollie Bearman are both set to start from the pitlane – Bearman didn’t set a time in qualifying, while Lawson has changed rear wing specification to something more suitable for wet weather.
