Hamilton battens down the hatches
FORMULA ONE
Surging waves hit town of Kiho, above, while shops run out of essentials LEWIS HAMILTON’S plans to explore Tokyo in his unexpected downtime were thrown into disarray after Super Typhoon Hagibis wreaked havoc on Japan’s transport system.
With the 140mph storm looming, F1 officials at Suzuka moved today’s qualifying session to the morning of tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix when conditions are forecast to have improved.
The decision comes a day after England’s Rugby World Cup match against France was cancelled.
Hamilton, who is on the brink of his sixth world title, had planned to spend his day off in Tokyo, 250 miles to the north-east of Suzuka.
But the Briton abandoned the idea when it became clear the storm could be the strongest to hit Tokyo since 1958.
The country is putting plans in place to prepare for the typhoon and Japan’s transport system is set to be on lockdown from this morning with 1,600 domestic planes grounded and train services cancelled.
There were fears last night that damage caused by the typhoon might prevent the race from being staged, with thousands of sandbags arriving at the track to prevent the 3.6-mile course from flooding.
Fingers are crossed that the storm will pass by, because there is no chance of the race being rescheduled for Monday.
After yesterday’s two practice sessions, organisers prepared for the worst. Starting lights and broadcast screens around the track were taken down, the broadcast centre was dismantled and the equipment moved to the main pit building.
If the track remains too dangerous to run in qualifying early tomorrow, the final running on Friday will determine the grid.
Typhoon Hagibis has led to today’s qualifying session being shifted to 2am tomorrow morning UK time, with the race due to start at 6.10am. If the track is still unfit, times from practice yesterday will decide the grid order, meaning Valterri Bottas will start on pole ahead of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.