The start of the F1 Singapore Grand Prix has been delayed owing to inclement weather.

The 2022 Singapore Grand Prix has been postponed due to severe rain that lashed the island city little over an hour before the race's planned start time.

The sky began to darken as the F1 field concluded the drivers' parade upon a fleet of historic vehicles, shortly after the W Series support race.

Rain began to pour in the paddock an hour and 20 minutes before the 8pm start time (local time), with team radar systems predicting a strong thunderstorm at 6.55pm.

It duly did so, swiftly transforming into a violent rainstorm, with the end of the pit straight no longer visible on the TV cameras.

The F1 timing boards showed a notification from the FIA at 7.02pm, formally delaying the start procedure. As the rain continued to fall in Singapore, more delay advisories were issued.

The revised start process was revealed as the rain stopped, with the race due to begin at 9.05pm - 65 minutes later than the initial planned start time.

To comply with F1 rules, the start process stays unchanged: "40 minutes before the planned start of the formation lap, the pit exit will be opened and all cars, including those needed to start the race from the pitlane, will be able to leave the pitlane to cover a reconnaissance lap."

This implies that after the FIA has issued the order to leave the pits, the 40-minute start procedure time will begin following a 10-minute notice period.

Although the storm was expected to pass through Singapore swiftly - the wind is bringing the clouds to the south, travelling backwards down the length of the pit straight - it lasted longer than the normal time the cars would be prepared to leave their garages to take the pre-race grid.

Photographer:Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

Singapore officials have issued flash flood warnings, while a similar rain storm on Saturday left puddles that had not dried for several hours - meaning FP3 was trimmed from one hour to 30 minutes, and qualifying became a wet-to-dry session, with dry tyres only a feasible choice for the final Q3 section.

When the rain began to pour, the normally crowded Singapore paddock soon cleared, with the collected TV crews, event guests, officials, and journalists seeking shelter in the team hospitality units and any covered building.

Because of the rainy FP3 and damp qualifying sessions, the teams only have a limited supply of fresh wet and intermediate tyres to utilize for the race.

AlphaTauri has no new intermediates for Pierre Gasly or Yuki Tsunoda, however Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel, Nicholas Latifi, Alex Albon, and Zhou Guanyu have two fresh sets of inters remaining, while Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas have three.

All but Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso, and Esteban Ocon have one new set of inters, with three new sets of wets to their competitors' two. Those five drivers were the only ones who went out on inters in FP3.