The FIA have issued a rare ‘level 4’ rain weather warning for Saturday at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Last year’s event in Sao Paulo was impacted by wet weather, with qualifying cancelled and moved to Sunday morning as a result of torrential downpours.
A similar scenario could play out this year, with running on Friday - including the one and only practice session and sprint qualifying - unlikely to be affected by rain.
Yet on Saturday, an ‘orange alert’ weather warning has been issued for the Sao Paulo region - indicating an extratropical cyclone - with rain in the region of 60mm/h, alongside intense winds of 60km/h.
There is extremely heavy rain on the forecast, with the sprint race at 11am local time (2pm GMT) showing a “high chance” of showers, up to level 3/4.
For context, level 4 is the highest level of rain on the weather system of F1’s governing body. The FIA has issued an 80% chance of rain on Saturday morning.
For qualifying at 3pm local time (6pm GMT), the chance of rain decreases to 40%, though the weather is known to change rapidly around the Interlagos circuit.
On Sunday, there is a moderate chance of rain - around 20% - but conditions will remain overcast, with a chance of one light shower during the race at 2pm local time (5pm GMT).
