Azerbaijan GP dismiss F1 qualifying/Le Mans start clash concern

Baku City Circuit executive director Arif Rahimov has no concerns over the clash between Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying and the Le Mans 24 Hours start.

The world-famous endurance race in France gets underway as the green light will flash at the end of the Baku pit lane to commence the hour of qualifying, potentially conflicting motorsport fans.

But Rahimov dismissed concerns of losing a television audience, telling a media briefing including GPFans: "To me, to be honest, Le Mans lasts a little bit longer than a typical race, right?

"So I think the most important part of Le Mans is the start of the race but then the most important part of qualifying is the end of the qualifying.

"So I think that we can get the spectators, the TV audience to watch the start of Le Mans and the end of qualifying."

On whether there were any discussions with the FIA and F1 over moving the qualifying slot, which is later than previous years at 18:00 PM local time, Rahimov explained: "Not really, to be honest. I mean the schedule is designed based on a lot of factors.

"It is also our internal factors here, all the other bits and pieces that we have to do on the Saturday, the F2 race, so there is not usually as much choice to move things around time-wise.

"But as I mentioned, I would be disappointed if it was clashing with the end of qualifying. I still think it will bring the spectators in."

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