The Brazilian Grand Prix stewards will resolve methods to decide the beginning order for Sunday’s race if qualifying can’t go forward.
Saturday’s grand prix qualifying session has been postponed till Sunday morning attributable to heavy rain on the Interlagos observe. Nevertheless with one other extended downpour forecast on Sunday, there’s a risk the qualifying session can’t happen earlier than the grand prix.
System 1’s plan of action needs to be clearer if not less than a part of the qualifying session is accomplished, as precedent exists for this. Unhealthy climate on the 2015 United States Grand Prix prevented Q3 from going down, so the instances from Q1 and Q2 set the grid. F1 subsequently doesn’t want to carry a complete qualifying session to set its grid.
If qualifying begins however is deserted earlier than drivers set any instances, a mechanism exists for the stewards to make use of the instances from first observe to resolve the grid. The sporting rules state that “drivers who’re unclassified” in the event that they “did not set a time in Q1” might be “allotted the highest positions in accordance with the order they had been categorized in [first practice].”
On the face of it, this specific case appears unlikely. Nevertheless word that in first observe for the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this yr, a part of the session occurred whereas the pit lane exit mild was purple, that means no drivers might be part of the observe to participate. Subsequently race management has an possibility open to them if they should declare a qualifying session has not less than began with out sending drivers onto the observe in unsafe circumstances.
System 1’s sporting rules don’t specify a plan of action if qualifying doesn’t happen. On the face of it, that is stunning, as a qualifying session has already taken place this weekend, for the dash race. Nevertheless there isn’t a provision within the guidelines for it to mechanically be used as a fallback within the occasion the grand prix qualifying session doesn’t occur.
An FIA spokesperson confirmed to RaceFans that, if qualifying can’t go forward, the stewards will decide which technique is used to find out the grid.
This could be a contentious choice for them below any circumstances, and all of the extra so given the championship state of affairs. In the event that they select to make use of the dash race qualifying outcomes – absolutely essentially the most logical possibility – Lando Norris would line up second once more and Max Verstappen, after his five-place grid penalty, ninth. Utilizing the primary observe session to find out the grid wouldn’t go down effectively at Purple Bull as Norris was quickest and Verstappen fifteenth after abandoning his run on delicate tyres, that means he would begin the grand prix from final place.
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