44/57 Norris goes into the pits, having set a fastest lap. Piastri’s pit was quick, too and he’s now fourth behind Russell, who has another pit to fulfil.

43/57 It’s Vertstappen, Piastri and Norris the leading three but Piastri is going into the pits. Norris will get a five-second penalty for going off the track too often.

42/57 In goes Logan Sargeant, his race is done. And his team try to hydrate him as a doctor is brought in. It really does look hot out there.

41/57 Verstappen has the fastest lap. Logan Sargeant says “I don’t feel well, man.” And is weaving all over the track and that’s it for him, surely as he slows down to let someone else drive past.

40/57 Perez got a five-second penalty for going off the track. The pit lane starts to fill up, too.

39/57 Russell has 11 seconds behind Norris in fourth and still needs to make another stop. After this lap, the 18-lap limit on tyres becomes moot.

38/57 Russell is flying along, setting the fastest lap on a track that’s getting quicker.

37/57 Verstappen, having gone on hard tyres, has just under seven seconds on Piastri. His Red Bull team fear the safety car…and we all know what can happen there.

36/57 What with Alonso’s hot bottom and Logan Sargeant feeling sick: are these the conditions to run this race in? “I’m not feeling well at all.”

35/57 Russell pits…so where does that leave Russell and Piastri? Russell comes out in fourth. Williams ask Logan Sargeant to come off. He promises to see it through, even though he is at the back. He’s feeling unwell, say his team.

34/57 Alonso goes off….dust all over the show….down to seventh. His rear might be even warmer now. He lost his bearings and went down the gravel. He cut up Leclerc as he came in. Ooof. That will be looked at in the VAR room. Stewards enquiry!

33/57 Russell is now in second between Verstappen and Piastri. The pit situation means it’s difficult to tell if that’s the true picture.

32/57 Norris sets another fastest lap in his McLaren. He’s a young man with serious speed.

31/57 Verstappen is told to step it up but be careful by his team.

30/57 Piastri has set the fastest lap in winning his duel with Albon.

29/57 Piastri tries to take on Albon. Norris in seventh, speeds past Alonso in eighth.

28/57 Sergio Perez, who has been driving well after his problems yesterday, now faces a penalty for driving off the track during what was a previous fastest lap.

27/57 Alonso comes in, his tyres are changed but he is not cooled down by anything. He is going to have do with having a hot bottom. Will he end up in chillblains?

26/57 Piastri makes his second pit, as does Leclerc. Piastri is in eighth. Leclerc is down to 14th. Alonso meanwhile complains that his rear end is getting hot. We all know the feeling, Nando.

25/57 Scratch that, Norris gets the fastest lap.

24/57 Perez has the fastest lap now: that Red Bull car really is a beast. He’s on the medium tyres.

23/57 Verstappen is back in front, Albon having pitted. He’s got a black and white flag for going outside track limit.

22/57 After a brief lull, it looks like there’s another sequence of tyre changes to come.

21/57 The race now is between Piastri and Alonso. Meanwhile, Gasly and Russell almost come a cropper – and it’s largely Gasly’s fault.

20/57 George Russell is in 10th now. The view from inside Perez’s cockpit is hellish. Meawhile, Lewis Hamilton speaks, and says: “I am really sorry for my team. I don’t think George had anywhere to go. I am happy to take responsibility as one of the older ones. I hope George is able to get back into the points today.”

19/57 “Lance, you need to let Fernando by,” his McLaren team tell him. “He’s on a different strategy.” Lando Norris overtakes Charles Leclerc.

18/57 In comes Count Max, how far ahead of Piastri can he be? Albon is the leader, a novel position for him. Piastri is eight seconds off Verstappen and goes beyond Bottas to take fourth.

17/57 Fastest lap by Verstappen, and the last he can go for with these tyres.

16/57 Perez is in third but like Verstappen needs to come in to change his first set of tyres. Verstappen is ahead of Albon and Perez, but beyond the champ being the quickest in the race, these are a series of false positions.

15/57 Russell comes in for the second pit of his race and comes out 15th. It was a decent pit but the amount of pits will mean the true picture of this race will take a while to shake out. The first four in the race have yet to pit.

14/57 Russell is in second after all those pit stops and has set the fastest lap. Quite the race he’s having. Alonso has passed Leclerc too. The veteran is still one of the best around.

13/57 Piastri pits and comes out in front of Leclerc and Alonso in 13th. Magnussen and Lawson ahead of him slow him down but Alonso still can’t catch up.

12/57 Alonso pits from third. Leclerc and Norris move up, Alonso is down in 15th. Piastri is due in soon.

11/57 Ocon pits, will he have to do four stops? Verstappen holds the fastest lap. Piastri stays ahead of Alonso.

10/57 A view from inside the drivers’ cockpit of Perez is a fine viewpoint on how difficult this sport is. So many lights coming at you.

9/57 Russell takes 11th, past Logan Sargeant. It appears he got away from that prang without too much damage.

8/57 Russell up to 12th. He’s on the march. Alonso’s car looks a bit wobbly and he’s asked if there’s problems. He blames it on a wind that nobody else had noticed.

7/57 Piastri is the quickest man out there, maybe Max Verstappen is holding himself back with that 18-lap of tyre management in mind.

6/57 It’s Verstappen, Piastri, Alonso, Leclerc and Ocon for the first five. Russell whizzes past Perez. Meanwhile, Nico Hulkenberg gets a 10-second penalty for starting in the wrong place – he used Sainz’s space. Whoops.

5/57 The restart….Verstappen goes away from Piastri, who is clear of Alonso. Russell is down in 14th, as Perez is 13th, and Russell tries to take him and there’s almost contact there, too. Perez started in the pit lane, remember.

4/57 Some pretty long faces in the Mercedes garage, as a few teams take to the pits. Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen get too close for comfort. This has been chaotic so far. “I’m lost for words,” says Russell. “Sandwiched, I couldn’t do anything. Lap one…f**k.”

3/57 Hamilton takes the long walk back, and gets a lift on a motorbike. He’s probably responsible for his own downfall, and George Russell says he’s sorry he wasn’t looking behind him. “He came from nowhere.”

2/57 In comes Russell for a new front wing, and a new set of hard tyres. Will he be able to continue? It seems doubtful. “What the hell,” screams Russell. “Two weeks in a row.” Hamilton had gone for the lunge. No space for Russell to go into.

There’s a crash and the two Mercedes crash into each other. Hamilton is OUT. Russell tries to keep going but his car is damaged. What a disaster. Away goes Verstappen and Piastri is in second as the safety car takes to the track. Hamilton’s car is marooned, and off the track.

In the formation lap, Lewis Hamilton is already complaining about his tyres. Carlos Sainz’s car is sat in the garage, looking pretty forlorn for an F1 car.

Reminder: Ferrari down to one car.

The formation lap takes off, the track lit up by lights, giving it a futuristic look, like that of an arcade game.

There’s six GPs to go for Verstappen to open up an even bigger lead on his rivals. And 57 laps to go, with plenty of pit-lane fun to come. There’s talk of it being a four-stop race for Lewis Hamilton.

As explained by the BBC, here’s why each car will have to pit three times. The mechanics will be working overtime. It’s baking hot in Qatar.

Tyre-life limits have been imposed for Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix because of safety concerns at the Lusail circuit.

Analysis of tyres following Saturday’s sprint race confirmed fears kerb damage at the track could lead to failures.

A mandatory limit of 18 laps of total tyre life has been imposed by governing body the FIA, which will force all teams to do a minimum of three stops in the 57-lap race.

Teams will be told how many laps each set of used tyres may run for.

If teams exceed the maximum tyre life, they will be reported to the stewards and can expect a penalty.

Here’s how the sprint ended.

• 1. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 8

• 2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 7

• 3. Lando Norris (McLaren) - 6

• 4. George Russell (Mercedes) - 5

• 5. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 4

• 6. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) - 3

• 7. Alex Albon (Williams) - 2

• 8. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) - 1

Red Bull’s Adrian Newey, celebrating his 25th championship as the genius car designer, says: “this has been one of the easier ones, Max Verstappen has been absolutely exceptional.”

Here’s the drivers’ standings. Can Lewis Hamilton overtake Perez?

• 1) Max Verstappen - 407 points

• 2) Sergio Perez - 223 points

• 3) Lewis Hamilton - 194 points

• 4) Fernando Alonso - 175 points

• 5) Carlos Sainz - 153 points

• 6) Charles Leclerc - 135 points

• 7) Lando Norris - 121 points

• 8) George Russell - 120 points

• 9) Oscar Piastri - 65 points

• 10) Lance Stroll - 47 points

• 11) Pierre Gasly - 46 points

• 12) Esteban Ocon - 38 points

• 13) Alex Albon - 23 points

• 14) Nico Hulkenberg - 9 points

• 15) Valtteri Bottas - 6 points

• 16) Zhou Guanyu - 4 points

• 17) Yuki Tsunoda - 3 points

• 18) Kevin Magnussen - 3 points

• 19) Liam Lawson - 2 points

• 20) Logan Sargeant - 0 points

• 21) Nyck de Vries - 0 points

• 22) Daniel Ricciardo - 0 points

Giles Richards pays tribute to the 26-year-old champion.

Yes, the Red Bull is the class of the field this year, displaying breathtaking speed through corners and in a straight line. Verstappen would repeatedly race into a three-second lead within the opening laps after which, like F1’s own Keyser Söze, he was gone.

The title is already won, Max Verstappen collecting it via the sprint competition, so Qatar will serve as an extended lap of honour for the now three-time world champion. The rest are likely to be caught up in desert dust as the Red Bull leading man speeds away from the the field. The real sub-plots are likely to be down the field though the Mercedes are in second and third, the struggling Sergio Perez way down in 13th.

• 1) Max Verstappen

• 2) George Russell

• 3) Lewis Hamilton

• 4) Fernando Alonso

• 5) Charles Leclerc

• 6) Oscar Piastri

• 7) Pierre Gasly

• 8) Esteban Ocon

• 9) Valtteri Bottas

• 10) Lando Norris

• 11) Yuki Tsunoda

• 12) Carlos Sainz

• 13) Sergio Perez

• 14) Alex Albon

• 15) Nico Hulkenberg

• 16) Logan Sargeant

• 17) Lance Stroll

• 18) Liam Lawson

• 19) Kevin Magnussen

• 20 Zhou Guanyu