Formula 1 has delayed the start of today’s qualifying session for the Brazilian Grand Prix so the circuit can be cleaned after drivers suffered punctures during practice.
Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton suffered tyre deflations during the single hour of practice for this weekend’s sprint event earlier today.Pirelli’s head of motorsport Mario Isola confirmed they had asked the FIA to clean the surface of the Interlagos track.
“We had a couple of puncture due to the debris and we also found some cuts on the tread,” said Isola. “And obviously we are going to inform the FIA to clean the [track].
“I believe that the problem is in the pit lane more than on track. But we have to pay attention because we had a couple of genuine punctures on the track.”
Aston Martin’s performance director Tom McCullough said Alonso said the debris hadn’t been apparent when they inspected the track yesterday.
“It was very dirty as far as the rainwater has [been] running across the track with the mud,” he said. “You can see that as you going round.
“We always report back what we think [of] the track to the race director. We said it was dirty, we didn’t actually notice any debris – like Mario was saying maybe in the pit lane.”
However Alonso reported the debris on track before picking up a puncture. “When Fernando did his first run, the first comments he had were ‘lots of stones, I feel like I’m being sandblasted as I’m driving’.
“We could see the front wing, the front of the car taking a hard hit. So we then subsequently ended up with a puncture, unfortunately, on the left-rear tyre. So that curtailed some of his running and we had to adjust the plan to save that.”
Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington also noted he suffered a tyre deflation during practice.
Two practice sessions for Porsche support series took place after F1 practice, the last finishing an hour before qualifying was due to begin. The start of qualifying has been delayed by a quarter of an hour and is now due to begin at 3:15pm local time.
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Jere (@jerejj)
3rd November 2023, 18:10
Incompetence
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
3rd November 2023, 19:25
The downpour that put an early end to Q3 should give the track a good old clean!
Sumedh
3rd November 2023, 19:54
How big and sharp were these debris? Or is it a case of Pirelli’s tyres not being good enough