Racing Director Michael Masi has called a halt to this morning’s practice session as heavy rain continues to beat down on the track.
In a statement issued minutes ago, he said; “As we can see already this morning, the weather has gone up and down like a yo-yo, the intensity of the rain has been increasing and some thunder has been joining us.
“The procedure for today is that we will aim to start all sessions, get everything ready from an operational perspective and then judge the conditions at the time.
“From what we’ve seen from the forecast side is that we will have this level of rain until about 1.30pm (11.30am UK time) and then decreasing in the afternoon.
“The priority from today’s perspective is Formula 1 qualifying this afternoon – Formula 1 will take priority.”
As for qualifying this afternoon, Masi said with conditions this bad, light is fading quickly and so if Qualifying cannot be done this afternoon, it will go ahead on Sunday morning.
He explained; “The determining factor this afternoon will be the light.
“Sunset locally is about 6.15pm (4.15pm UK), but with weather conditions like this light diminishes far earlier so that will ultimately be our cut off point.
“If qualifying isn’t able to happen today, as we ‘ve seen in the past we will hold qualifying on Sunday morning.”
