F1 changes Imola schedule to avoid clash with royal funeral
FORMULA One will shift practice and qualifying for this weekend’s second race of the season at Imola in Italy to avoid having cars on track during the funeral of Britain’s Prince Philip today.
The sport and governing body FIA said on Tuesday that qualifying for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix will move forward to 2-3pm (local time) as a mark of respect for the royal who died last Friday aged 99.
Final practice will be brought forward to 10-11am to comply with regulations that state there must be at least a two hour gap between the sessions.
Friday times have also been changed in accordance with rules requiring final practice to start no less than 19 hours after the end of second practice.
The funeral at Windsor Castle starts with a national minute’s silence at 3pm.
Formula One said it will also hold a minute’s silence ahead of qualifying “as an opportunity for
people to show their respects”.
Seven of the 10 Formula One teams, as well as the sport itself, are British-based including champions Mercedes and
Prince Philip was president-inchief of the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) for 42 years.
Mercedes’ seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, who leads the championship, was awarded a knighthood in December’s UK honours list.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth attended the first world championship Formula One grand prix at Silverstone in 1950.
Other sporting events in soccer, rugby, and horse racing in Britain have been rescheduled to avoid clashing with the funeral.
In the Premier League, Sheffield United’s trip to Molineux to take on Wolves has been moved to an evening kick off today, having initially been scheduled to take place at 3pm.
The English Football League also confirmed that it would move all of its 3pm kick offs today, while Premiership Rugby said it was also planning to move at least three of its four fixtures.
The Coral Scottish National meeting in Ayr and the Dubai Duty Free Classic Trials in Newbury will be run next Sunday rather than in their initial slot today, while The British Horseracing Authority said there will be no racing today between 2.45pm and 4.15pm.
Cricket’s County Championship is also set to pause between 2.50pm and 4.10pm today.
It is also expected that Manchester City’s FA Cup clash against Chelsea today will not be made to kick-off at an alternative time from its original 5.30pm start time.