Japanese GP qualifying washed out

It would be out of the ordinary for AUSmotive to feature an image gallery on a Grand Prix weekend before the race had been run. It would be out of the ordinary for qualifying to be cancelled due to heavy and persistent rain. But these extraordinary events have happened today, and when you see the pictures, mostly taken during this morning’s Free Practice 3 session, you will see why.

Heavy rain started to fall this morning at the Suzuka circuit and barely abated all day. Despite several delays to allow conditions to improve qualifying was eventually called off and is now scheduled to be run tomorrow morning at 10am Japan time (midday AEDT). The race will go ahead as scheduled at 3pm (5pm AEDT). Weather conditions are expected to improve.

As well as the pics below you can also read the concise and somewhat humourous qualifying report from Lotus Racing.

LOTUS RACING – JAPANESE GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING

Suzuka, Japan 9th October 2010

After qualifying was postponed until Sunday in Japan due to the torrential rain, Lotus Racing has nothing to announce for the first time in several weeks.

Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-01) “Nothing to say.”

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-04) “Nothing to report.”

Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne: “Nothing from me.”

Riad Asmat, Chief Executive Officer “Nothing from me either.”

Ends

[Pics: Red Bull Racing/Getty Images; Vodafone McLaren Mercedes; Ferrari; Mercedes GP Petronas; Renault/LAT; Force India F1; Sauber; Toro Rosso/Getty Images; Lotus Racing; Virgin Racing]