Russian GP FP3 cancelled with qualifying decision to be made later. Russian GP FP3 cancelled.

The third practice session for the Russian Grand Prix has been cancelled due to heavy rain in Sochi. Rain started overnight and continued in the morning and officials said they decided “in the interests of safety” to call off the session before it started.

FIA race director Michael Masi said that he would try to run qualifying as normal starting from 13:00 BST but he would “judge conditions at the time”.

The forecast is for heavy rain until about 14:00 local time (12:00 BST).

“As we can see already this morning, the weather has gone up and down like a yo-yo, the intensity of the rain has been increasing and some thunder has been joining us. “The procedure for today is that we will aim to start all sessions, get everything ready from an operational perspective and then judge the conditions at the time. From what we’ve seen from the forecast side is that we will have this level of rain until about 1.30pm (11.30am UK time) and then decreasing in the afternoon. The priority from today’s perspective is Formula 1 qualifying this afternoon – Formula 1 will take priority.” – F1 race director Michael Masi said on P3 abandonment and Qualy.