The Formula 3 sprint race at Silverstone has been postponed to 6pm local time after extreme wet conditions meant the race was unable to start on schedule.
Race control took the decision to postpone the race entirely rather than continually delay the start as conditions proved not safe enough to race in.
Continuous rain overnight and into the morning at Silverstone meant that the track was saturated in the lead up to scheduled start of the F3 race at 9:20am, the first on-track event set to take place on Saturday.
F3 teams are located in the national pit lane for the Silverstone weekend, situated alongside the former start line of the circuit at Woodcote. Drivers have to travel from the national pits to the international pit lane prior to the starting procedure of the race. However, conditions were so wet for this half-lap journey that Alpine junior Gabriele Mini lost control of his car into Stowe and spun into the gravel, while multiple rivals also ran off track through the gravel.
Mini’s car had to be removed from the gravel by a recovery vehicle, but he was able to join the rest of the field in the pit lane. Race control announced that the start of the race would be delayed, with the Safety Car being sent out to assess the conditions. However, Safety Car driver Bernd Maylander was visibly struggling around the soaked circuit and race control announced that the pit lane would be opened at 9:30am, then delayed that to 9:45am.
After a final tour of the track by the Safety Car led to Maylander reporting that the conditions were still unsafe to start, race control took the decision to postpone the race entirely. The FIA later announced that the sprint race would be rescheduled to 6pm, following the qualifying session for the Porsche Supercup, the last planned track session of the day.
If the sprint race still does not begin, no points will be awarded to any drivers under the F3 regulations.
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