FIA clears up Belgian GP confusion

The Belgian Grand Prix will be finished today after FIA race director Michael Masi confirmed the race clock began ticking at the scheduled start time of the event.

Inclement weather at Spa-Francorchamps forced an initial 25-minute delay to the start of the race before cars left the grid for a formation lap and one 'race' lap behind the safety car.

Conditions were not good enough to begin the race without the safety car with visibility too poor for drivers further down the grid, despite Max Verstappen stating his belief that the track was good to go.

Races are timed to a maximum allotted time of two hours, with the length of any suspensions added to that time up to a maximum of three hours from the scheduled start of the race.

This means that regardless of how much running is possible, the race will end at 18:00 local time [17:00 BST].

Two racing laps must be completed for half-points to be awarded, with full points handed out after 75 per cent race distance or 33 laps at Spa.

Christian Horner had said when asked by Sky Sports F1: "It is a bank holiday isn't it tomorrow so what else are we going to do?

"Yeah, why not? I hadn't even thought about that."

With the clock started, this would now not be possible.

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