Qualifying in Brazil only on Sunday
The FIA officially reports:
“Qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix is postponed.”
“This decision was made due to the lack of visibility caused by the heavy rainfall of the last few hours. There is a lot of water on parts of the circuit, making conditions unsafe.”
“As much as we all want competition on the track, the safety of riders, team members, volunteers, officials and spectators is our top priority.”
“A decision on the start time for qualifying tomorrow morning will be made as soon as possible.”
Next cheating dispute in Formula 1?
After Mini-DRS and Bib Trick, now comes the next accusation of cheating in Formula 1. Red Bull currently suspects that competitors could be putting water in the Pirelli tires in order to be able to maintain a better pace for longer in the race.
It is said that several teams – including World Cup competitor McLaren – are supposed to inject water through the valves. This is intended to provide a cooling effect that keeps the tires alive over a longer distance.
You can read all the background information here!
Open session ticker now!
We don’t yet know when exactly it will start, but we’ll move the event to our session ticker. So here’s a break for now, after the end of the qualification we’ll continue with the votes for Saturday.
And if you want to know how you can watch Formula 1 in the live stream this weekend, you can find out here!
How slippery will it be?
At this point we would like to remind you once again of the statements made by Pirelli chief engineer Simone Berra. He already explained that rain today and tomorrow could lead to quite chaotic scenes.
Background: The track in Interlagos has been newly asphalted and, according to Berra, there is still a lot of oil in the new asphalt. “In heavy rain, this oil can escape from the asphalt,” explains the Italian.
“This will create some slippery situations during the race,” he believes. Let’s see. And above all, let’s see when things can actually start here…
Start is delayed
Now it’s official: The start of qualifying has been delayed indefinitely. No surprise. There will be another update from the FIA in 20 minutes.
Nobody drives that fast
It’s not official yet, but take a look at the pictures for yourself. If it stays that way, no one will leave the pits in 25 minutes…
Heavy rain
We’re back with important information from Brazil: It’s raining! Let’s see whether qualifying can even start on time. Because our guys on site say that the rain is so heavy that it probably wouldn’t be possible to drive based on the current situation.
Of course we will keep you updated.
Penalty point
And another small side note: Verstappen also received a penalty point for the action. This means he is now at seven. As a reminder: there is a race ban at twelve.
It already happened to Kevin Magnussen this year…
Norris approaches
Lando Norris moves one point closer to Max Verstappen in the World Cup. 44 points separate the two before the last four races of the season (and another sprint in Qatar).
What is rather bad for McLaren with regard to the constructors’ championship is that Ferrari wins a point as a result. Because Charles Leclerc moves from P4 to P3 due to the Verstappen penalty.
Verdict in verbatim
The race stewards’ justification stated that Verstappen was 0.63 seconds below the prescribed delta time when the VSC ended. A clear violation of the rules.
This gave him “a sporting advantage,” they say. Verstappen himself tried to correct the mistake, but by then it was already too late.
Here is the verdict in full:
“Article 56.5 states in part ‘All cars must also be above this minimum time when the FIA light panels change to green.’ The driver was 0.63 seconds below the minimum time at VSC End when the FIA light panels changed to green.”
“This indicates a sporting advantage gained under VSC. The driver explained that as he was awaiting VSC to end and he got the notification that he was below the minimum time, he attempted to correct the error but failed to do so by the point that the panels turned green.”
“This is a breach and the standard penalty is applied for the advantage gained at that time. The net effect of this put the driver ahead of where he was at the start of the VSC
and not as a result of the car in front falling back.”
Five-second penalty for Verstappen
There we have the verdict: Max Verstappen gets a five-second penalty because he was too fast under the VSC. As a result of the sprint, he falls one position behind Charles Leclerc to P4. More from us soon!
Ralf Schumacher: “What I think is cool about Max…”
While we continue to wait for the Verstappen verdict, I recommend you take a look at our new video. On October 30th, Ralf Schumacher was a star guest at our monthly Formula 1 get-together on the Formula1.de YouTube channel.
You could chat with him for an hour. But to warm things up, it started with an interview with Christian Nimmervoll, which we are now showing as a clip from the regulars’ table, free for all users.
Ralf Schumacher: “What I think is cool about Max…”
On October 30th, Ralf Schumacher was a star guest at our monthly Formula 1 get-together exclusively for channel members. More Formula 1 videos
First McLaren victory since 2012
It was only the sprint, but McLaren celebrated its first victory in Brazil in twelve years. Back then (2012) a certain Jenson Button won the Grand Prix in Interlagos for the team from Woking.
The last double victory was 19 years ago. In 2005, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Räikkönen triumphed for McLaren in Brazil. Let’s see if we can build on that in the main race tomorrow.
You can find more exciting statistics about the Brazilian GP in our database!
© Motorsport Images
In less than two hours…
… we then move on to qualifying. It is still dry in Brazil, but rain is still possible. Let’s hope we get a verdict in the Verstappen case by then.
Marko: Maybe even faster than McLaren
We’ll stick with Red Bull, where Helmut Marko is Sky explains: “I think in terms of speed we were absolutely on par with McLaren, if not faster.”
“The start wasn’t ideal, then… [Max] braked in turn 1, otherwise he might have already caught Leclerc. And by defending himself very cleverly, Leclerc deprived us of the opportunity to attack the McLaren.”
At the end it would have been “possible” to overtake Piastri without VSC, said Marko. “But the bottom line: we have improved significantly compared to training,” he explains happily.
Regarding the possible Verstappen penalty, he says: “It doesn’t matter whether we have one point more or less. The speed was crucial, the tire wear was very positive, so we’ll take that with us.”
hearing
Important information: The Verstappen hearing only begins now (12:45 p.m. local time). Accordingly, it will probably take a while before we get a verdict. Because that has to be written first.
Hamilton: It can’t get any worse
While Mercedes teammate George Russell finished sixth and took three points, the record world champion came away empty-handed in eleventh place – and is a bit at a loss.
It’s one of the worst weekends of the year, he says Sky and explains: “The car didn’t fit at all. It was a real struggle.”
“Our car doesn’t like this track. At least we now have some time to make some changes before qualifying. We definitely can’t do worse,” said Hamilton.
By the way, no news on the Verstappen front yet.
