When the Formula E racing world chose Saudi Arabia to host its opening race of the 2018-2019 season, bad weather conditions was probably the last thing they feared.
But heavy rain on Saturday forced the start of Formula E’s fifth season of competition to be delayed, with the first practice session of the Ad Diriyah E-Prix being cancelled.
The opening practice session of the weekend was delayed by 20 minutes due to heavy rain before the 45-minute long session was later cancelled.
Organisers said in a statement: “Following heavy rain in Ad Diriyah, the format of the race day has changed.
“The morning’s first practice session was cancelled while practice 2 started later than billed. As a result, the FIA – motorsport’s governing body – revealed qualifying will be broken into two groups, rather than four groups of up to six cars as originally intended.”
“Rain in the desert. That’s definitely not what I was expecting coming to Riyadh,” Venturi Formula E Team Principal Susie Wolff was quoted as saying following the cancellation of the session.
Weather permitting, the race is scheduled to start at 3pm local time.
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