Sports News | Russian Grand Prix 3rd Practice Canceled Amid Heavy Rain
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. Heavy rain caused the third practice session for the Russian Grand Prix to be canceled Saturday and raised doubts over whether qualifying can be held as scheduled.
Sochi, Sep 25 (AP) Heavy rain caused the third practice session for the Russian Grand Prix to be canceled Saturday and raised doubts over whether qualifying can be held as scheduled.
It rained overnight in Sochi and on Saturday morning, with some lightning. The track is laid out on a flat part of the Black Sea coast, making it harder for water to drain away. That causes areas of standing water on the track and low grip. Visibility was expected to be poor because of the dark skies and the spray thrown up by cars
The stewards agreed to a request from race director Michael Masi to cancel the practice session on safety grounds.
Masi said that light levels would be crucial to deciding whether to hold qualifying Saturday afternoon.
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“With weather conditions like this, obviously light diminishes far earlier (than sunset), so that will ultimately be our cut-off point,” Masi said.
"If qualifying isn't able to happen today, as we've seen a few times before in the past, then we will redo a program and hold qualifying on Sunday morning.”
Sunday is also likely to have some rain. The last race to have qualifying on a Sunday was the Japanese Grand Prix in 2019 after a typhoon meant all events on Saturday were canceled.
Valtteri Bottas was fastest and Lewis Hamilton second in both Friday practice sessions. Those were dry. Max Verstappen leads the championship standings but will start from the back of the grid in the race Sunday because he changed his engine. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)