Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRace weekend

FP2 cancelled in Austin amid thunderstorms

The second practice session for the United States Grand Prix was cancelled on Friday afternoon amid thunderstorms.

With torrential rain battering the circuit, FP2 was delayed "indefinitely" at the Circuit of the Americas, with "marshals unable to work due to the proximity of lightning". After almost an hour of further heavy rain, high winds and lightning, the session was cancelled for the day due to the lack of medical helicopter operations before 5pm local time.

The bad weather is forecast to continue throughout Saturday and in to Sunday morning due to the presence of Hurricane Patricia which is set to make landfall in Mexico. As a result, the rest of the race weekend schedule could change in an attempt to fit in qualifying ahead of the race.

Limited running took place during FP1 on Friday morning in wet conditions before the worst of the rain hit. Nico Rosberg was quickest ahead of the Red Bull pair of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo, with Lewis Hamilton fourth and Sebastian Vettel fifth.

With FP2 cancelled the session will not be rescheduled, leaving teams with a best case scenario of one hour of practice on Saturday before qualifying.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.