Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRace weekend

Drivers back decision to postpone qualifying

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F1's drivers backed the FIA's decision to postpone qualifying for the Untied States Grand Prix until Sunday in Austin.

Torrential rain throughout Saturday afternoon made conditions treacherous and resulted in race director Charlie Whiting delaying the start of qualifying on numerous occasions before it was finally cancelled at 16:00 local time, three hours after it was due to start.

Fans had been unable to watch FP3 due to the circuit being closed to spectators, but those who were still present after qualifying was postponed were invited in to the pit lane. Jenson Button believes the FIA took the right approach in trying to wait as long as possible before finally calling off the session.

"It was the right thing to do," Button said. "Practice this morning was initially okay and then it got very wet and nobody could run because it was too wet, too much aquaplaning and you’re not in control at all. I think this afternoon it was the right thing to do.

"Maybe if we’d decided to do it three hours earlier it would have been better for the fans in one respect, but also we wanted to get out there and drive and put on a good show for the fans so delaying it every half an hour wasn’t a lot of fun, I’m sure for the fans, but hopefully they’ll be back tomorrow."

McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso agrees the FIA could not call off running too early.

"It is obviously easier now that the conditions stayed similar all day long and it kept raining all day to say that this delay was possible to say earlier," Alonso said. "But if you say at 11 a.m. that qualifying will not happen and then there is a stop of rain for one or two hours, everyone will say why did you decide so early? It is easy always afterwards, but hopefully we can put on a good show for the fans tomorrow."

And Lewis Hamilton says the track conditions were too dangerous to contemplate running in the afternoon.

"The tyres have a limit on how much they can disperse the water," Hamilton said. "We are going fast, but there are puddles, aquaplaning, and it is dangerous. When you are doing 200 mph and you aquaplane, someone is going to get hurt."

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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.