Formula 1 qualifying could be shifted to Sunday morning in Russia owing to heavy rain that is affecting the Sochi Autodrom on Saturday.
Forecasts had indicated that heavy rain was to strike Sochi through Saturday and significant volumes of water have already gathered on the track surface.
Formula 3’s Race 1 was moved forward to Friday evening in anticipation of the rain.
Formula 2’s Race 1, scheduled for Saturday morning, has already been postponed.
Formula 2 drivers made their way from the support event paddock to the Formula 1 pit lane but went no further.
Formula 1’s third practice session is due to start at 12:00 local time, with qualifying at 15:00, while Formula 2’s Race 2 and Formula 3’s Race 2 are also due to take place on Saturday.
“The procedure for today will be we will aim to start all sessions, get it ready operationally, then judge the conditions at the time,” said Race Director Michael Masi.
“What we have seen from the forecast is we will have this level of rain until about 13:30/14:00 local time, then it decreasing.
“The aim with FP3 will be, we’ll look at what it’s like, we’d have options, we could start it and then red flag to let the clock run down, so let’s judge what the weather is like, or if it is just going to be torrential we can abandon it and aim for qualifying
“The determining factor this afternoon will be the light, sunset is about 18:15, but with weather conditions like this light diminishes far earlier, that will be our cut-off point.
“If we can’t run qualifying today we will re-do a programme and hold qualifying on Sunday morning.”
Qualifying was last held on Sunday at the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix when all track activity for Saturday was cancelled in advance due to a typhoon.
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