Rain wipes out Saturday in Barcelona, and the Sprint Cup finale comes down to one race on Sunday evening
The Catalan authorities close the circuit until 14:00, Qualifying 2 is cancelled and the Race 2 grid comes from a wet Friday practice
Persistent heavy rain has wiped out the rest of Saturday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and a directive from the Catalan authorities keeps the circuit closed until Sunday afternoon. The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup finale now ends with a single race at 18:20 local time on Sunday, without a second qualifying session.
The race directors declared that conditions were not safe to continue with Saturday’s schedule, SRO said in an event update on Saturday evening, and cancelled the remainder of the day’s activities. The first race of the weekend had already been red-flagged for the same reason earlier in the afternoon.
The Generalitat closes the circuit until 14:00
On top of the race directors’ decision, a local government directive prohibits all activity at the circuit between 20:00 on Saturday and 14:00 on Sunday. In Bulletin 05, issued at 19:07, the stewards wrote that “due to the restrictions imposed by the Generalitat of Catalonia due to the weather forecast, the event is suspended until Sunday, 04th of October, 2pm.”
The stewards added that they will keep monitoring the weather forecast and the official civil protection warnings, and that the programme can still change. SRO also described the new timetable as subject to further alterations.
No Qualifying 2: Friday’s wet practice sets the grid
The weather has cost the Sprint Cup its second qualifying session. According to the stewards, Qualifying 2 is cancelled and the grid for Race 2 will be set “using the best lap time from driver 2 during the second free practice session”, under articles 437.2 and 435.4.2 of the sporting regulations.
That session, on Friday afternoon, was itself run in the rain: Gilles Magnus and Robin Knutsson topped it in the Boutsen VDS Porsche with a 1:54.557, about fourteen seconds slower than the fastest time in the morning session. Which car starts where on Sunday depends on the second driver’s own best lap, so the order will not necessarily match the overall practice classification. The official starting grid had not been published when we wrote this.
Four races in four and a half hours
The revised programme, the Official Detailed Timetable V2, squeezes four races into the Sunday afternoon:
- 14:30: GT3 Revival Series, Race 2 (50 minutes)
- 15:45: Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Race 2 (50 minutes)
- 17:00: McLaren Trophy Europe, Race 2 (50 minutes)
- 18:20: GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, Race 2 (one hour)
The Sprint Cup championship podiums are scheduled for 19:40, followed by the champions’ press conference at 19:50.
One point fewer for the chasers
The cancellation also changes the title arithmetic. Qualifying 2 would have been worth one championship point for the fastest car. Without it, Sunday offers at most 16.5 points, for the race win.
On our count, Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller have 72 points after pole and second place in Race 1, while Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer, who retired from Race 1, remain on 53.5. Even a win would take the AF Corse pair to 70. SRO has been more careful, writing that the Lionspeed GP crew has “all but wrapped up” the title. The official standings had not yet been updated with the Barcelona points, and the Race 1 classification is still provisional. Our full Race 1 report has the result and the penalties.
Our view
Nobody can argue with stopping a race weekend when the rain makes the track unsafe and the authorities close the gates. But a title finale without a final qualifying session, decided on a grid set in a wet Friday practice, is not how anyone wanted this season to end. For Lionspeed it hardly matters any more. For the drivers fighting for race wins and class positions, a grid from a wet practice session that nobody treated as qualifying comes close to a lottery, and with four races packed into one afternoon there is no margin left if the weather turns again.
Should SRO have set the Race 2 grid from Saturday’s Qualifying 1 instead of Friday practice? Tell us in the comments.
What to watch on Sunday
Whether the forecast allows the programme to start at all at 14:00, how the Race 2 grid looks once the stewards publish it, and whether Buus and Feller can finish the season with a trophy in Barcelona. Read our qualifying report and the title preview, or find out how the championship works in our GT World Challenge Europe explainer.
