Lap 13/50: A bit of a rally from Hamilton, who jumps Norris at the final corner to go 11th. Nobody out on track can match the seven-time champion’s four overtakes.
Good news for Leclerc, team radio tells the second-placed driver: “We are going Plan A and our tyre degradation is better than Red Bull.”
Sainz is told to stick to Plan B, however.
Further back, Hamilton has jumped Stroll for 12th with Ricciardo dropping right back to last after an early stop.
F1 correspondent Matt Majendie
This has got all the makings of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso taking each other out – the pained expressions in the Alpine garage say as much.
Love that the team have given them the all clear to race each other… for now. Valtteri Bottas is the interested observer just behind them.
Lap 10/50: The duelling Alpines temporarily swap places before Ocon, who went off the track, allows Alonso back in front. In fact, they have allowed Bottas and Magnussen to catch up in a four-car battle for sixth!
Otmar Szafnauer, Alpine team principal, tells Sky Sports: “We’ll let them race.”
Alonso prevails, eventually and not with much room to breathe! That’s P6 for the Spaniard and his teammate may well have a go back at him…
Out at the front, 2.3 seconds is the gap between Perez and Leclerc, while Verstappen is about 1.5 seconds behind the Ferrari and complaining the battery-charging lights on the car in front are not working.
Lap 6/50: The best of the action is the fight for sixth as Ocon continues to defend rather sternly against his own teammate!
No major movers or shakers in terms of overtakes so far, although Zhou is down from 12th to 15th after a poor jump off the line.
Oof! Alonso almost hits the wall on the start-finish straight as he looks to overtake Ocon, and spits up a lot of dust as he pulls out at the last moment!
The Alpine pit wall were not pleased with that.
“No grip on this tyre,” says Hamilton, meanwhile.
Lap 4/50: A comfy 1.3-second lead for Perez over Leclerc, who is also a second clear of Verstappen as DRS becomes available.
What can these new cars produce on this tight, power-heavy track?
Well, Russell is enjoying it! He sweeps around Ocon on the final turn to take fifth!
Hamilton, starting 15th on the Hard tyres, sat back and watched Ricciardo and Stroll battle in front of him on Turn 1. The veteran is playing the long game.
Lap 1/50: An ideal start for Red Bull, who have first and third with Leclerc in between them.
Ocon has held fifth over Russell with Hamilton still back in 14th…