Great doubt about qualifying; race against the clock for F1 in Istanbul

The third free practice for the Grand Prix of Turkey was held under appalling conditions. The rain was not too bad at first, but the slippery track slowly became a real ice rink. Now that it's raining really hard over Istanbul Park, the question is if qualifying can go on.

If it rains as hard at the start of qualifying as it did at the end of free practice just now, the race management will almost certainly choose to postpone the start of Q1. The circuit was virtually undrivable with drivers even drifting down the pit lane.

Martin Brundle already said in his comments for Sky Sports that the session should be postponed if there is no improvement and his colleague Karun Chandhok also thinks it could turn out to be a red flag situation.

Sun sets relatively early in Istanbul

However, the problem with Formula 1 is time. You can choose to postpone qualifying, but at a quarter to six the sun is already setting in Istanbul. Qualifying is scheduled at 15:00 local time. In the extreme case, they have one and a half hours to finish qualifying safely and probably less in bad weather.

In that case there is still the possibility to postpone the qualification to Sunday morning, but even then Formula 1 is stuck to a tight schedule. The race is scheduled for 13:10 local time, two hours earlier than normal.

Sunset at Istanbul Park at 17.45. Qualifying scheduled for 15.00. Limited scope to extend if there are any delays. #TurkishGP

— Phillip Horton (@PHortonF1) November 14, 2020