Qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix may go ahead today despite heavy rain but is likely to be delayed to tomorrow morning, Formula 1’s motorsport director Ross Brawn has said.
Heavy rain arrived at the Red Bull Ring this morning which forced the Formula 3 race to be cut short and led Formula 1 to cancel its final practice session.“Austria is always a challenging circuit weather-wise,” Brawn told the official F1 website. “We’ve been here before with this sort of conditions.”
The track is holding its second Formula 1 race in as many weekends following the reorganisation of the calendar due to the pandemic. “We’re just so pleased to be here, even if the weather is lousy,” said Brawn.
“This is a big front coming through and moving slowly but predictably so there’s a chance maybe at the end of today we’ll get some running. But certainly tomorrow looks fine.”
If qualifying is postponed until tomorrow it will mean the cancellation of at least two support races, said Brawn.
“We’ve got a schedule [for] tomorrow which means we only lose the Formula 2 sprint race and one of the Porsche races. So we think tomorrow we can fit everything in so there’ll be qualifying in the morning.
“If we can’t do that then, as you know, the FP2 times become relevant. But I hope we don’t need to do that and I think we’ll have qualifying in the morning.”
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Dan Rooke (@geekzilla9000)
11th July 2020, 11:52
“Heavy rain arrived at the Albert Park this morning”
Incredible storm to affect Austria!
Marvin The Martian (@marvinthemartian)
11th July 2020, 11:53
Albert Park?
Jere (@jerejj)
11th July 2020, 11:57
@marvinthemartian This weather has affected the Red Bull Ring-area all the way from Albert Park.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
11th July 2020, 12:13
It’s so random. Let’s have Austrian GP Round 3 next week.
Chris Lloyd (@chrisr1718)
11th July 2020, 13:11
They can’t, Hungary next week.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
11th July 2020, 12:15
So, Mercedes win confirmed then…
Tomorrow it’s dry, sunny but only 19 degrees. Perfect for them, bad for RedBull.
JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
11th July 2020, 12:29
An actual qualifying is unlikely to be as exciting as the F2 sprint race, and it almost certainly won’t produce as interesting a grid as yesterday’s practice times will. Just leave it as it is.
DeanR
11th July 2020, 13:01
That’s not really fair IMO. The grid in F1 is determined by 3 qualifying sessions. The fastest driver at the end of the third session takes pole position. Every effort has to made to allow this process to play out. Using FP2 to determine the grid is daft and should be used only as a very last resort. Losing the qualifying sessions on a Saturday does not constitute a last resort. We have had qualifying on Sundays before so why the cries of “FP2 results should determine the grid”? We all know why! Because LH would start from 6th! Let’s forget usual procedure!
J_Olivier
11th July 2020, 14:00
What is Brawn talking about? There’s only one Porsche race and if F2 can’t race today that would mean both categories stayed for this weekend for nothing. The guy has no idea of the actual schedule?