Formula 1 has postponed the start of the São Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday due to weather forecasts.
The race has been moved from 2:00 PM local time to 12:30 PM. That means the race will start at 10:30 a.m. ET instead of noon.
Sunday’s Grand Prix will also be preceded by qualifying at 7:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. ET). Saturday’s scheduled qualifying session was rained out and continuous rain is forecast throughout Sunday. F1 teams have wet weather tires, but too much rain can cause flooding and make the track unusable. On Saturday it rained so hard on the Interlagos circuit that it was impossible to drive qualifying.
It is unclear what the starting grid for the race will be if qualifying cannot take place on Sunday morning.
Saturday’s sprint race took place as planned and was won by Lando Norris, ahead of his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri. Piastri led for most of the race before being ordered to let his teammate pass for a virtual safety car in front of Nico Hülkenberg’s stranded car.
That VSC led to a restart halfway through the last lap in which Max Verstappen tried to jump to get past Piastri. Verstappen was a little too anxious and exceeded the minimum delta time between himself and Piastri before the VSC ended. Verstappen finished third, but was relegated to fourth place after the race due to a five-second time penalty.
That penalty cost Verstappen a point. Norris scored eight points compared to Verstappen’s five in the sprint and is now 44 points ahead of Norris with four Grand Prix races and one sprint remaining this season.
