New qualifying format confirmed

The first session will be held from 1.00-2.00pm on Saturday and will be single lap qualifying, with the cars going out in the reverse order of their finishing position at the previous race. Fuel levels are unrestricted so the cars will run with light fuel.

After the session the cars will go into par ferme before a second session on Sunday morning, between 10.00-11.00am, which will be run with race fuel levels. Teams will be allowed to refuel their cars before this session but will not be permitted to refuel again before the race starts.

The times from the two sessions will be aggregated to determine the grid.

FIA president Max Mosley told autosport.com: "For the first time TV will be able to show all the cars doing a flat-out lap that counts for the grid with minimum fuel and then that will be combined with the other one on the following morning, so the complaint that we never see the cars with minimum fuel going flat-out is answered.

"At the same time, by making them go into Parc Ferme we stop them making qualifying specials, which is important. And on race day, we've still got what we've got now, which adds to the whole prospect. And, because you aggregate the times, you double the chance of somebody messing up and not being at the front of the grid. I was always against aggregated times because it complicates things, but I have to admit that this is a good plan."