Thunderstorms to pass before race day in Brazil

Last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix took over three hours to complete as heavy rain caused multiple stoppages. This came after two days of dry running.

We could be in for the opposite this year, as rain and thunderstorms are expected during practice and qualifying but race day is likely to be dry.

Sao Paolo’s weather tends to be volatile and that is likely to be borne out over the next 48 hours. Light rain is expected to begin around noon on Friday, just as first practice is about to start, bringing thunderstorms and intensifying rain throughout the rest of the day. This is currently expected to last well into Saturday and may still be falling when qualifying begins at 2pm local time.

The new steps taken to improve drainage at the track in wet conditions could prove well-timed. The surface has been grooved at several points in turns two, three, 12, 13, 14 and 15 where water collected during last year’s rain-hit race.

Saturday will also be considerably cooler than Friday. Air temperatures are expected to peak at 27C on Friday but will only break into the 20s on qualifying day.

Conditions on Sunday will be very different: Sunshine, cloudless skies and air temperatures of 27C again. That could leave significant question marks over their race tyre performance.

For more updates on the track conditions during each session keep an eye on F1 Fanatic Live and the F1 Fanatic Twitter account.

Location of Interlagos

See the location of every race on the 2017 F1 calendar here:

2017 F1 calendar

2017 Brazilian Grand Prix

Browse all 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix articles

12 comments on “Thunderstorms to pass before race day in Brazil”

hahostolze (@hahostolze)
9th November 2017, 12:57

Shame that it’ll gone by race day, but either way it will make for an interesting race, if practice and quali are rained on there are so many variables and unknowns.
Jere (@jerejj)
9th November 2017, 13:05

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, LOL. These days I tend to avoid reading into the weather forecasts too much as we’ve seen with a few race weekends that things can suddenly change from the initially predicted forecast. For example, in Monza, the unusually heavy-ish rain was supposed to take place on practice day but got postponed to qualifying day same with Singapore where rain wasn’t supposed to come down around the race start time, but it still did, and in Suzuka rain was initially predicted for Saturday morning, but it never came that day and same with the US GP. The Brazilian GP venue like Spa, Suzuka, or Sepang for example, is also a circuit where the weather is a bit unpredictable as things can change quite quickly.
Egonovi
9th November 2017, 13:33

race day is likely to be dry.

Bet you it will not be.
Keep a close look at Massa ;)
Guybrush Threepwood (@guybrushthreepwood)
9th November 2017, 14:16

KEITH, for some reason when I use my android phone to access this site it takes me to Google home page. When I request desktop site it is fine. I have a Googl Pixel XL.
1. Guybrush Threepwood (@guybrushthreepwood)
  9th November 2017, 14:17
  
  Using Google Chrome up to date.
  1. Baron (@baron)
    9th November 2017, 15:48
    
    Cache?
    1. Baron (@baron)
      9th November 2017, 15:51
      
      My name is Keith by the way ;)
  2. lubhz (@lubhz)
    9th November 2017, 17:31
    
    @guybrushthreepwood I’m using Android/Chrome and it’s fine here.
2. grat
  9th November 2017, 17:58
  
  I get the same thing on a Pixel XL with both chrome and dolphin. Dolphin still goes to google in Desktop mode, but Chrome jumps back to F1 fanatic.
  
  Weird.
  
  Works fine from Chromium on my desktop, though.
  1. Guybrush Threepwood (@guybrushthreepwood)
    10th November 2017, 5:37
    
    Fixed now :)
    1. Baron (@baron)
      10th November 2017, 16:18
      
      Please share..
danee
11th November 2017, 0:10

“São Paulo”