Good morning, and welcome to our LIVE coverage of the Japanese Grand Prix. If you're a fan of the safety car, this is certainly the race for you - it's pouring it down.

Yes. And he is.

Hamilton's closing in on all that traffic now. Can he maintain this sizeable advantage? He's over 18 seconds ahead of Ricciardo - but should he be pitting now?

Button's looking to claw back some of that time lost in the poor pit - fastest lap so far for him.

And Rosberg is called into the pits. Ricciardo is 14 seconds behind him in third at the moment.

Vettel gets himself the fastest lap so far - he's looking to get past team-mate Ricciardo again.

Terrible pit stop for poor Jenson Button. Vettel goes in front of him. What a disappointment.

Hamilton is now pulling away - five-second gap between him and Rosberg now, and he's preparing to start cutting a swathe through the back of the field.

Hamilton's already moved three seconds ahead of Rosberg.

Hamilton had been closing in all through the previous lap, waiting for his chance, and one has to wonder how much Rosberg could actually see of his team-mate, who stayed in close behind him before whipping out wide.

Round the outside, and Hamilton moves out of Turn 1 into the lead!

Hamilton skews wide into the first corner! He's back on the track but that gives Rosberg a bit of space.

Hamilton's jabbing at Rosberg now. The race leader is complaining about oversteer.

Rosberg is struggling for grip on the track - he was right, he really has been going flat out on those tyres.

DRS enabled, and Hamilton's immediately eating in to Rosberg's lead.

Awful pit stop for Kimi Raikkonen, who falls down the field.

Rosberg’s team ask him how much he’s putting in. “I’M FLAT OUT!” comes the reply.

The Red Bulls are fastest on track at the moment. But then the Mercs are only racing each other, really, not the rest of the pack.

The McLaren of Jenson Button is still sitting happily in third.

Hamilton is told there’ll be no more rain but that’s “low certainty”. How very definitive.

Brilliant driving from Daniel Ricciardo - in fact, both the Red Bulls are driving fantastically today. He goes past Bottas who can parry his first attempt but not the second.

Vettel goes round the outside of Bottas, up into fourth, and Ricciardo now has another Williams to get round to keep up with his team-mate.