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Singapore Grand Prix Timetable Modified

After the FIA is urged to relook at the timetable of the Singapore Grand Prix taking place this September 28 by Scuderia Toro Rosso's team manager Massimo Rivola, the FIA has agreed to modify the timetable to the following:

Practice 1 Friday 19:00-20:30
Practice 2 Friday: 21:30-23:00
Practice 3 Saturday 19:00-20:00
Qualifying Saturday: 22:00-23:00
Race Sunday: 20:00

Under the original timetable, there would only have been one and a half hours of running in the dark before the night time qualifying session on Saturday. That prompted concerns over the lack of night running to prepare the drivers to their first ever night race. The original schedule was to have the Friday practice session finish by 6pm (which would have been before sunset) and the second session at 8pm. What would have followed would have been the third practice session held in daylight, with the qualifying session in dusk at 8pm. Which meant that the drivers would effectively only have 1 and a half hour of practice in the night.

In the new timetable, however, the teams would be facing a new set of challenges as the time gap between practice 1 and practice 2 would be a mere 1 hour when the current gap is 2 and a half hours.

The qualifying session would now take place at 10pm, which is later than the race starting time and not the usual tradition. Typically the qualifying session would be held at 2pm and the race the next day at either the same time or later.

The new timetable might still be subjected to minor tweakings, with the GPDA pushing for more chances to acclimatize themselves to the new track and asking for some time on Thursday before the race to get used to the track. Whether it would take place in the F1 cars remains to be unknown.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

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