F1 Brazilian GP Live Commentary and Updates - Qualifying

With the report of the official postponement, it's time to wrap up today's live coverage. Thank you for sticking with us throughout this all, and please come back tomorrow for some actual action! 

Until then, thank you for the company!

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-brazilian-gp-qualifying-delayed-by-heavy-storm/10669812/

Marshals sweep water in the pit lane

Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images

It should be said that should qualifying take place in the morning and, knowing how rain is forecast for the afternoon, the grand prix is unable to be run, the FIA will risk getting serious egg on its face.

Should conditions look similarly poor tomorrow afternoon, it would surely be wise to run the GP in the morning instead. 

At least we had an entertaining sprint race this morning, I suppose.

Fans are now beginning to empty from the grandstands and the banks that line the track. Early guesstimations and suggestions are that qualifying could start at around 9am local time, midday GMT. 

FIA president Stefano Domenicali has confirmed that qualifying will take place tomorrow morning and will not run this evening. 

There is no official word on a full postponement to tomorrow, but that will not take long to appear, given the activity in the garages. 

It doesn't look good for qualifying taking place tonight with Mercedes and some other teams beginning to take the cars apart. It doesn't look likely that we will see any action at all. 

Norris and Piastri have made their way onto the pitwall and are waving at the extremely patient fans. 

This doesn't mean it won't happen today, just that there is no longer an estimated start time. 

We're almost at the next update time. Let's enjoy this next delay or, possibly the final postponement call. 

The conditions don't appear to be getting any better and you have to now question, especially with the ever-decreasing light, the logic of the FIA in not calling time on these constant delays. 

The new estimated start time is, as expected, 17:00 local time - 20:00 GMT. 

The safety car is back in the pitlane and it's still not great, as it squirmed around the chicane on entry. Another update is likely in a few moments, with it likely to push the estimated start time back by another 15 minutes. 

Unlike Colapinto, Bearman at least has some experience of wet running, having completed a Pirelli test on wets and intermediate tyres with Ferrari. 

Watching the onboard from the safety car which has headed out again, visibility is poor, and there is significant standing water. The odds of this session taking place don't look brilliant. 

Fans in the grandstands are now waving their phones about with lights on. It's very gloomy and conditions are getting far worse! 

There's the update - 16:45 local time estimated start to qualifying, 19:45 GMT. 

It's still raining and the delays have come almost every 15 minutes. By that timing, the next one should be imminent...

A further problem that is becoming evident from the TV footage is the amount of water running from the crowd banks onto the track. There's no way of stalling that flow. 

There's the expected update - a new estimated time to start qualifying of 16:30 local time, 19:30 GMT.

With teams needing notice before the session begins, it's likely we'll have a further update in the very near future. 

The last we've heard is still an estimated start time of 16:15 local time, 19:15 GMT.

Hang on...the official F1 theme has begun to blare out. Could we be in for some action or is this some kind of cruel trick?

There's around an hour left of daylight in Brazil, but the lights on the safety car show how dark things have got already. 

Sweepers are on track trying to clear the worst of the standing water on the start straight. But with how heavy the rain is, it looks hugely unlikely that this will happen at the advertised time. 

The safety car is heading back out with the race director in tow. Conditions have, sadly, deteriorated once more. 

On a positive note, the thunder and lightning have now cleared.

But it appears the FIA hasn't listened to Horner, with the new estimated start time 16:15 local time, 19:15 GMT.

Despite this positive change in conditions, the rain continues to fall and 'puddles' appears to be an understatement, as the safety and medical cars paddle around the lake, sorry, track. 

The team on the ground in Brazil are reporting back that conditions appear to have improved somewhat, but that there are still significant puddles on the track. 

Here comes the next update...

The medical car is currently on the track, taking a look at conditions before the next update is issued. 

The temperature is beginning to creep back up again, now reaching 24.2C. But humidity remains at 95% and rain continues to fall. 

As things stand, there is less than two hours of daylight remaining, so we really are approaching crunch time for either running qualifying or coming back tomorrow morning. 

12 minutes until the all-important time when we'll get the next delay - I mean - update from the FIA.