The Saudi Arabia Grand Prix is underway!
Lewis Hamilton started the race on pole position and is competing with Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing for the driver's championship.
If the Dutchman beat Hamilton by 18 points or more, he could win today's championship.
Hamilton is currently eight points behind in the standings, with the finals of this game and Abu Dhabi remaining.
Follow all the actions here via SunSport's live blog.
Hamilton is in the pit now, Verstappen is still outside.
Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez did enter the pits and now uses hard tires.
Mik Schumacher hit an obstacle on lap 10 and lap 21 and was out.
The German is okay and apologizes to his team.
A safety car is now on the track.
Hamilton continues to expand his lead and is now 2.5 seconds ahead of his teammate.
The British set a new fastest lap on the eighth lap.
Daniel Riccairdo surpassed Pierre Gasly, and Carlos Sainz jumped into another position with his latest victim, Fernando Alonso.
Lando Norris also had an excellent start and jumped to sixth place.
So far, Bottas has set the fastest lap-1:33:45.
Under Hamilton's leadership, he did a good job of maintaining the distance between himself and Verstappen.
The game has settled under the full control of Mercedes.
Hamilton leads Bottas by 1.4 seconds and opponent Verstappen by one second.
Leclerc almost lost his fourth position to Perez, but the Mexican was suddenly forced to break through and the Ferrari eliminated him.
Carlos Sainz defeated Kimi Raikonnen and after 15th on the grid, he now rises to 13th.
At the same time, George Russell was the biggest loser, dropping 3 places from the 14th grid and from 17th to 17th.
Sergio Perez almost hit his teammate Verstappen, who was focused on maintaining his position before Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Mercedes made a perfect start, Hamilton and Bottas maintained their leading positions.
In front is the Mercedes men's formation circle in progress.
Second place Valtteri Bottas will start his 100th Mercedes game. His goal is to keep Verstappen out.
The Red Bull man ranked third in Mexico, but managed to surpass Bottas and Hamilton at the first corner, and then went on to win.
Since 2010, the pole position on the new circuit has been winning competitions.
It's a good sign for Hamilton, and then...
David Croft hoped that Verstappen would challenge Hamilton from the beginning.
He said: "I don't think he is (conservative), I think attacking is his nature.
"If he sneers at Lewis, beware."
15 minutes before the green light, the Saudi Arabian national anthem sounded and Raddah created a gorgeous atmosphere.
This is the country's first grand prix and is expected to be a dramatic competition.
The formation circle is complete.
A reminder of the situation between Hamilton and Verstappen:
Red Bull boss Christian Horner said: "It passed all the tests we usually do.
"There is no pressure to take additional risks...We have to trust our tools and the analysis we have.
"We have to go all out. Max can still see his main competitor right in front of him. He drove beautifully this weekend, so it's a shame that he couldn't switch that lap yesterday.
"But there are still a lot of games to be done."
It seems that Red Bull is taking certain risks with Max Verstappen's gearbox.
Adrian Newey of Red Bull Racing said: “We [on Verstappen's car] did all the checks we could do, and everything we saw was no problem.”
Admit that they cannot be sure because they cannot disassemble the gearbox without being punished.
Verstappen avoided five penalties by insisting on using the same gearbox.
Legendary tribute
Before the lights were turned off, the entire paddock gathered to celebrate the true legend of the Formula One driver. The team members and the world champion stood together to observe a minute of silence for the only Sir Frank Williams ❤️#F1 pic.twitter.com/Df6vCCPZm0
Can't stop him
With 35 minutes left before the start of the game, Verstappen is already practicing!
Red Bull said that after yesterday's crash, his gearbox was not damaged and it can still be used so far.
Unable to match the maximum
If there is any progress in qualifying, Hamilton is expected to have a tough game.
He said: "This track is very difficult.
"The wind direction has changed a bit, so we have a tailwind into Turn One, and Friday is a headwind, but it slightly changed the balance.
"I don't understand, but in the last race, the tire crawled super slowly to prepare for the first lap, and then here we performed super fast laps, weaving and trying to get the tires ready.
"It means you reach the first turn, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not, you're just skating, balance is everywhere, the whole circle.
"It's difficult to put a circle together. I can't match what [Verstappen] did in the end, but we stayed away from the wall and finished the work."
Here is how Max Verstappen won his first world championship in Saudi Arabia, and only needs to participate in one more competition next week:
After Hamilton and Verstappen matched each other in qualifying, former F1 driver Martin Brundle could not predict the outcome of the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.
He said: "What will happen next? This is how I feel at this World Championships.
"It looks like Max has maintained his speed throughout his lap. 26 of the 27 laps are beautiful for him. He is about to regain pole position from Lewis Hamilton.
"But he tried to stay strong and hit obstacles.
"Fortunately, he doesn't need to change the gearbox."
The team paid tribute to F1 legend Sir Frank Williams, who died last Sunday at the age of 79.
In addition to being the founder of the Williams team, he also oversaw 9 constructors' championships and 7 driver's championships.
Verstappen is directly behind Hamilton, who won pole position for the sixth time this year.
The British teammate Valtteri Bottas (Valtteri Bottas) is in second place. If the Mercedes team defends its position, Hamilton will jump to the top of the leaderboard and lead by two points, if he records the most Fast laps will get three points.
If Hamilton wins in Saudi Arabia and Verstappen takes second place, his opponent can maintain the lead by just one point, depending on the fastest lap time.
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