It has been confirmed by F1 and the FIA that qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix will start at 07:30 local time on Sunday, five hours prior to an earlier-than-advertised lights out for the race in Brazil.
As per the F1 sporting regulations, the grid-setting session must be completed at least three hours before start time of the grand prix.
The race had been scheduled for 14:00 local time, but due to more bad weather forecast, that start time has been brought forward 90 minutes, to 12:30 local time.
That means that qualifying will take place at 10:30 UK time (11:30 for mainland Europe) and the race will start at 15:30 (16:30 for mainland Europe).
Original scheduled to take place on Saturday at 15:00 local time, the session was initially delayed by 45 minutes, before it was pushed back multiple times.
Due to F1 being unable to find a break in the extreme weather conditions, and with fading light, the decision was made for the session to be postponed until Sunday.
If it could not find time to run the hour-long session, the starting grid for the race would have been determined by the results from FP1.
FIA and Formula 1 statement
Following the conditions in São Paulo today the decision was taken not to proceed with Qualifying due to poor visibility, standing water on the track and fading light. Safety is always the paramount consideration in such circumstances and while as much time as possible was given to allow conditions to improve they sadly did not. We have huge appreciation for all the fans that stayed at the circuit in hope of seeing cars on track today.
Therefore the decision has been taken, after consultation with the stewards, to schedule Qualifying for 07:30 local time on Sunday morning ahead of the Grand Prix at 12:30 local. This will ensure we maximise the chances or providing the fans with a day of racing action and both the FIA and Formula 1 believe this time change is necessary and the right thing to do for all our passionate fans.
We thank everyone for their patience today including the fans, drivers, teams, marshals, circuit staff and media and hope to give everyone an exciting event on Sunday.
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