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It was announced today that the
World Motor Sport Council had approved all the regulation changes proposed
by the Formula One Commission earlier this month.
The most notable change will take place as of this weekends French Grand
Prix where qualifying will be changed with the final part of the session now
five minutes shorter. Instead of the usual 20 minutes, the final shootout
will last just 15.
The changes weer specified in a document released by the FIA. Below is the
section relating to the new qualifying format.
The qualifying practice session will take place on the day before the
race from 14.00 to 15.00.
The session will be run as follows :
a) From 14.00 to 14.15 (Q1) all cars will be permitted on the track and at
the end of this period the slowest five cars, taking into account only laps
which were completed before the end of the period, will be prohibited from
taking any further part in the session. Lap times achieved by the fifteen
remaining cars will then be deleted.
b) From 14.22 to 14.37 (Q2) the fifteen remaining cars will be permitted on
the track and at the end of this period the slowest five cars, taking into
account only laps which were completed before the end of the period, will be
prohibited from taking any further part in the session.
Lap times achieved by the ten remaining cars will then be deleted.
c) From 14.45 to 15.00 (Q3) the ten remaining cars will be permitted on the
track.
The above procedure is based upon a Championship entry of 20 cars. If 22 are
entered six cars will be excluded after Q1 and Q2 each of the periods a) and
b) and, if 24 are entered, six cars will be excluded after Q1 and Q2 each of
the periods a) and b) leaving 12 cars eligible for Q3 period c).
Reasons : 1) To ensure that each of the three periods of qualifying finish
in the same way, i.e. drivers having started a lap started by the time the
session ends will be allowed to complete it, and 2) To reduce the length of
the third period by five minutes as a number of laps completed in this
period have no relevance to grid positions. |
