Heavy rain postpones Sao Paulo GP qualifying

Qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix has been called off amid heavy rain at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace. The grid-setting session for the grand prix will instead be rescheduled for Sunday morning, though rain is forecast to fall all night and into the final day of the event. The sporting regulations do not specifically deal with qualifying being unable to be held at all, though Article 39.4(b) suggests the order set during first practice could be used to set the grid when drivers have “failed to set a time in Q1.” However, use of either the Sprint shootout or the Sprint results is considered more likely if running can’t get underway before the grand prix. If qualifying does run, it would be the first time it has been held on the same day as the grand prix since last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, when qualifying was held on midnight Saturday morning and the race at 10pm later that day. Though the Sprint was completed in dry conditions, a thunderstorm descended on the Sao Paulo circuit around 40 minutes before the start of qualifying, with lightning immediately putting the running of the session at risk by grounding the medical helicopter. Lightning ended up being the least of the sport’s problems, however, with heavy rain making running impossible regardless. The session was delayed by an initial half-hour and then another 30 minutes in pursuit of a break in the weather, in which time the thunder and lightning had moved on but the rain had barely subsided. Race control began working in 15-minute intervals, with the safety car regularly lapping to assess conditions, with sunset at 6:20pm the hard cut-off time. But with standing water stubbornly refusing to drain despite the circulation of a sweeper truck and with light already low owing to the heavy cloud cover, it was a forlorn hope, and the day was called off at 4:45pm local time.