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Fog cancels first Nurburgring F1 practice
First practice for the Eifel Grand Prix was called off after heavy fog at the Nurburgring grounded the medical helicopter.
No Formula 1 session can run without rapid access to hospital care on safety grounds. The designated facility in Koblenz, some 35 miles from the circuit, was rendered unreachable by air in the low-lying cloud, forcing race control to cancel the session.
“It is a bit challenging,” FIA race director Michael Masi told F1 TV. “With the fog that has come in, the medical helicopter is not able to take off and fly to the hospital. The distance by road is far too far should something occur.
“It’s just the nature of the area and the location. The fog’s come in and it has sort of been going up slightly but then coming down more dramatically.
“Obviously from an FIA perspective the safety of all the participants, particularly the drivers going out, is paramount, and that’s not something that we would compromise.”
The cancellation of the session was particularly bad news for Formula 2 leaders Mick Schumacher and Callum Ilot, who were due to partake in the session with Alfa Romeo and Haas respectively.
Conditions in the Eifel mountains notoriously variable in the fall, and this weekend’s grand prix is forecast to be beset by poor weather
Rain lashed the Nurburgring on Friday morning, with the ambient temperature sitting stubbornly 50 degrees F when FP1 was due to start at 11 a.m. local time. A maximum of just 45 degrees F is expected for Saturday and Sunday.
Conditions are expected to improve in time for second practice later in the afternoon, though it’s unclear whether the fog will subside enough to get the session underway.
Presented by:
Michael Lamonato
Having first joined the F1 press corps in 2012 by what he assumed was administrative error, Michael has since made himself one of the few Australian regulars in the press room. Graduating in print journalism and later radio, he worked his way from community media to Australia's ABC Grandstand as an F1 broadcaster, and his voice is now heard on the official Australian Grand Prix podcast, the F1 Strategy Report and Box of Neutrals. Though he'd prefer to be recognized for his F1 expertise, in parts of hometown Melbourne his reputation for once being sick in a kart will forever precede him.
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