F1 Brazilian Grand Prix struck by delay after track concerns

Practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix was delayed on Friday, with FP1 not getting underway when it was supposed to.

With this weekend being a sprint weekend, there was only one practice session scheduled before competitive action gets underway with sprint qualifying later on Friday.

Marshals could be seen sweeping the track, with Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft revealing that some classic cars had gone round the track prior to FP1 which may have left bits of oil and debris.

While the reason for the delay has not yet been confirmed, the session did get underway five minutes later than scheduled at 11:35 local time (BRT).

Thankfully for the teams, the timer had not yet started, meaning that no time was taken out of the planned hour-long session.

Why are practice sessions so important during sprint weekends?

On a sprint race weekend, drivers and teams have just one hour to fine tune their setups for the whole weekend, before having to dive straight into a competitive session.

With the championship battle as tight as it is, McLaren and Red Bull have a big hour ahead of them on Friday morning local time.

There is just a point separating McLaren racers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri heading into the weekend, while Max Verstappen is 35 points further back.

There are an increased 33 points available at sprint weekends, making the Brazilian GP a vital weekend in the overall fight for the championship.

Norris, Piastri and Verstappen will be desperately trying to get dialled in to the circuit on Friday.

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