The opening F1 Academy race of the weekend at Zandvoort has been delayed to Sunday morning due to unsafe weather conditions.
The event organisers have announced that race one will now take place at 8:30am local time after the original race start was postponed due to heavy rain and winds.The F1 support series – the only category racing alongside the world championship at Zandvoort aside from the Porsche Super Cup – is scheduled to run two races this weekend, on Saturday and Sunday.
The opening race of the weekend was set to begin after the Formula 1 qualifying session. However, high winds and rain hit the seaside circuit just as drivers set off on the formation lap for Saturday’s first race, leading to race control aborting the start of the race.
Following many minutes of delays as rain and strong winds battered the drivers and their crews on the grid, race control eventually decided the start could not take place in the conditions.
The race has now been rescheduled to Sunday morning, before the Porsche Super Cup race and the second race. The race distance has also been reduced from 17 to 13 laps.
Alpine junior driver Abbi Pulling is due to start race one from pole position ahead of Mercedes’ Doriane Pin after setting the quickest time in today’s early qualifying session. However, Pin will start race two from pole position, where the grid is set by each driver’s second-fastest times from qualifying.
It is the third time in the last two months that an F1 support event has been postponed due to weather conditions. The F3 sprint race at Silverstone was rescheduled from early morning on Saturday to 6pm after all other track sessions had been completed due to relentless rain. At the last round in Spa-Francorchamps, the F2 sprint race was postponed after half an hour of rain delays.
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