107% Rule Will Not be Reintroduced

The 107% rule will not be reintroduced this year despite a new qualifying system that is set to debut at the British Grand Prix in July, Minardi team principal Paul Stoddart said today.

"There is no 107% rule, and it will not be coming back," Stoddart told Atlas F1 ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix. "It couldn't come back, because how could you have a 107% rule when it says that if you don't take part in one of the sessions, you start at the back of the grid?

"And also this year in particular people have designed their cars in a certain way to run certain strategies, and to change the rules mid season - it can't happen."

Until 2002, any driver whose fastest lap was outside 107 percent of the pole position time was excluded from the race unless there were exceptional circumstances.

Formula One will have a new and shorter qualifying format from next month's British Grand Prix after team bosses agreed to at the last European Grand Prix to scrap the single lap format in favour of two short free-for-all sessions.

Pending official confirmation, team bosses said in Canada the starting positions would now be decided by aggregate times from two 25 minute free-for-all sessions, divided by a 10 minute interval.