Formula 1 has moved up the start of Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix because of the weather forecast.
The race has been moved from 2 p.m. local time to 12:30 p.m. That means it’ll start at 10:30 a.m. ET instead of at 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 rain is consistently in the forecast throughout Sunday. F1 teams have wet weather tires, but too much rain can cause ponding and make the track unusable. On Saturday, the rain was so hard at the Interlagos circuit that it was impossible to run qualifying.
It is unclear what the starting lineup will be for the race if qualifying is unable to take place on Sunday morning.
Saturday’s sprint race took place as scheduled and was won by Lando Norris ahead of his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri. Piastri led most of the race before he was instructed to let his teammate pass before a virtual safety car for Nico Hülkenberg’s stranded car.
That VSC led to a restart midway through the final lap that 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 after the race because of a five-second penalty.
That penalty cost Verstappen a point. Norris scored eight points to Verstappen’s five in the sprint and is now 44 points ahead of Norris with four Grand Prix races and one sprint to go this season.
