Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRace weekend

Drivers excited by 'lottery' of busy race day

40

A number of F1 drivers say they are excited by the challenge of qualifying and racing on the same day at the United States Grand Prix.

Qualifying was cancelled on Saturday after torrential rain battered the Circuit of the Americas throughout the afternoon, meaning the session has been rescheduled for 0900 local time on Sunday morning. With the teams then having to turn the cars round for the race four hours later, Lewis Hamilton says it opens up more opportunities for surprises.

“I think it will be pretty sick," Hamilton said. "I think it will be interesting, hopefully the weather will back off and it will be a little better. You imagine if it’s raining in the morning then it makes the qualifying a little more of a lottery but I’m just hoping for a better day, a bit of sunshine would be great!”

And Jenson Button agreed with his former team-mate, saying the change in schedule should provide added entertainment.

"I think it’s great, a bit of a mix up, it’s different," Button said. "I’ve only had this three or four times in my career - qualifying and the race on the same day - and I think it mixes it up and makes it exciting and hopefully the fans will feel the same."

Daniel Ricciardo spent qualifying dancing with team-mate Daniil Kvyat in the pit lane, and he says he is happy with the laps he completed in final practice as he looks to set his car up on race day.

"We still got some running in," Ricciardo said. "I am happy that we did some laps in P3. The afternoon, it would have been nice to know early about the postponement but you have to wait because you never know what it might do.

"Sunday is going to be busy. I always find on Sunday that you wait around a lot for the race, so there won’t be any waiting around, we will go straight into qualifying and into the race, and I am looking forward to that."

F1 closing on two-tier engine regulations

Technical analysis: Exclusive pictures of the 2015 Honda power unit

Click here for the F1 drivers' girlfriends gallery

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.