FP3: A complete washout with more to come

Michelle Foster
F1-rain-board-PA

F1-rain-board-PA

FP3 for the Styrian Grand Prix was a non-starter as Race Control announced a delayed start, and eventually called it off as rain pelted down at the Red Bull Ring.

The rain set in at the Red Bull Ring after just a few laps of Saturday morning’s Formula 3 race, which had to be red flagged 14 laps into the 24-lap race.

Such was the downpour that Race Control opted not to restart with Frederik Vesti taking the victory but only with half points.

With Formula 1’s FP3 scheduled to start an hour later it was clear that even if FP3 did get the green flag, there wouldn’t be much running.

Race Control announced 10 minutes before the start of FP3 that it would be delayed “indefinitely”.

That was good news for Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris, both of whom were feeling a bit battered after Friday’s running and would have appreciated the extra recovery time.

While Ricciardo bruised his knee when he hit his steering column in an FP2 crash, Norris complained of chest pain that made it hard for the McLaren driver to brake.

The rain continued to fall throughout the hour set aside for practice with the session eventually being called off.

The rain is expected to continue throughout Saturday afternoon putting qualifying in doubt.

Should the session not take place this afternoon, qualifying will be moved to Sunday morning.

However, if the rain persists into Sunday, the grid will be based on FP2’s timesheet.

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