Emilia-Romagna GP called off due to floods

This weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix has been cancelled due to floods in the region that mean the race cannot proceed safely.

Severe weather and heavy rainfall has resulted in a number of rivers bursting their banks, with the Santerno river that lines the Imola circuit also at dangerously high levels and leaving areas of the track flooded. The circuit was evacuated on Tuesday with Formula 1 personnel told to stay away from the track today while the situation was monitored.

After meetings took place on Wednesday morning, the decision to call off the race was made when the race promoter and local authorities agreed that the event couldn’t proceed safely at this time, while F1 also did not want to place further burden on the community and emergency services in the region.

Members of the AlphaTauri team had to leave their homes on Tuesday night due to flooding in Faenza, sleeping in the team’s factory to avoid the rising water levels.

More details to follow.

Topics

emilia-romagna gp

imola

Formula 1

Chris Medland

While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.

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