Qualifying under threat as thunderstorms forecast in Austria

Formula 1 teams have been warned thunderstorms and wet weather could curtail Saturday running at the Styrian Grand Prix.

In his Friday morning press briefing, McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl confirmed teams had been notified of the 'risk' that Saturday running could be cancelled.

“There are several aspects to figure in today in the run plan," said Seidl.

"As mentioned before, the weather plays an important role, and we’ve got information already from the race director [Michael Masi] giving a pre-warning that there is a risk that no session will happen tomorrow because of thunderstorms or heavy rain."

Should practice three and qualifying be cancelled, teams have been presented with two potential scenarios that could decide the starting order for the second race of the season.

Seidl continued: “It is still open if that would happen, if there is qualifying on Sunday morning or, worst case if that is not possible because the weather could still be bad, then free practice two would count as a qualifying result.

“That is something we need to monitor today and need to figure out how we want to handle that.”

Qualifying was most recently cancelled at the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix as a result of Typhoon Hagibis, with the session run ahead of the race on Sunday morning.

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