Plans for qualifying shake-up

Following the success of the system adopted at the Japanese Grand Prix, after the forced cancellation of Saturday's schedule because of the threat of a typhoon, motor sport's governing body has already approved plans for two aggregate sessions to be introduced next year.

The new plan would involve one qualifying run on the Saturday of a grand prix weekend, with another on Sunday morning. The times for the two sessions would then be added together to decide the grid slots. First qualifying would run with light fuel, while race fuel and settings would be required for the second session.

The plans are set to be decided on by a fax vote of the Formula 1 Commission later this week, although it is unclear yet whether teams are in favour of the new system.

There could be resistance because Sunday qualifying would give the teams less time to make repairs to their cars or finalise strategy if there is any problem in the morning run.

This year's qualifying system, with two sessions taking place back-to-back on Saturday has been widely criticised, but the teams could not reach agreement on a replacement format.