Canadian Grand Prix F1 fans hit by 'cancelled' blunder

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 fans hit by Canadian Grand Prix 'cancelled' blunder

Storms and rains affected much of Friday's running

Rhys Thomas

Sunday 9 June 2024 12:58 Updated: 15:24

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Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz has shed light on the difficulties experienced by fans trying to attend Canadian Grand Prix practice.

Rain affected much of the running in FP1 and FP2, with drivers unable to set any representative lap times in the dry and struggling for grip on all tyres.

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The wet weather threatened to return for qualifying, but the absence of any precipitation did not dampen what turned out to be a hectic shootout full of shocks as George Russell took pole from Max Verstappen by the finest of margins.

For Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix, the chance of rain is at 67% for lights out at 2pm local time (7pm BST).

Max Verstappen had to battle the rain in Canada GP practice

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is known for its changeable weather

How did rain affect fans attending the Canadian Grand Prix?

The rain did start to come down after qualifying, and as Kravitz presented his post-session report under an umbrella, he revealed the extent of difficulties suffered by fans trying to attend the Friday's practice sessions.

“The rain has affected the attendance and the organisation of the fans so far," Kravitz explained.

"There was a very unfortunate situation in Friday practice where there seemed to be some sort of breakdown in communication between the organisers, the local Montreal police, and the transportation.

“Effectively, the tube workers on the Montreal metro were informing, wrongly, the fans that Friday’s running had been cancelled and wouldn’t let them get on the metro line down here to the station."

Fans had to deal with downpours across Friday practice

Therefore some fans - albeit a limited number - were unable to make it to Friday practice after being misinformed.

“I have investigated it," Kravitz continued. "The police say it wasn’t their fault. They were supporting the organisation.

"The organisation said they weren’t telling any of the fans that it was cancelled, so it was a very unfortunate moment, but I know the organisation want to apologise to any fans who were affected.

"Formula 1 say that there were only a small amount of fans who were affected, who didn’t turn up, who had valid tickets, but most of them did in the end.”