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Rain didn’t dampen the mood at postponed quali

  • Katy Fairman

    • Doubts about qualifying were thrown left, right and centre on social media about the likelihood that there would be no qualifying on Saturday, the drivers having to qualify on Sunday morning instead. Although FP3 went ahead, more cars running than expected, Saturday qualifying was delayed by 180 minutes before being cancelled altogether.

    https://twitter.com/andersonlaura12/status/658019612769038337

    Over the weekend, the rain had repeatedly disrupted the usual racing schedule as constant rain fell from Hurricane Patricia meaning that the session was suspended. It was the first time since the 2013 Australian F1 weekend that the qualifying needed to be postponed until Sunday morning.

    The continuous rainfall made the track impossible to drive on and saw the excess water begin to flood out areas around the circuit, including making its way under the media centre door in a large puddle. However the rain certainly didn’t dampen the mood in the paddock and the three hour delay saw the best session of the year – despite no racing taking place. Fans across the world witnessed team engineers breakdancing, bowling with empty energy drink cans, building boats and the two Red Bull Racing drivers taking to the (very wet pit lane) floor and showing the very empty grandstands some of their dance moves.

    After hours of waiting around, the FIA confirmed that if the weather did not clear by 16:00pm at the circuit then the session would be held tomorrow at 9:00am which is what happened. Although we now have to wait 17 hours until we can see who is quickest at COTA, will the rain ruin that session too? Unfortunately it looks likely. The current forecast hints at rain all weekend, typical weather when you are being hit by one of the strongest Hurricanes to hit the America’s.

    https://twitter.com/FakeGhostPirate/status/657998205913661442