F1 News
Qatar Grand Prix weather forecast | Hot and windy for qualifying
- Toby McLuskie
Friday in Qatar will be extremely hot and it will reach 40 degrees Celsius during the first sessions of Friday and Saturday. It will be windy during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix.
Two F1 sessions in wind chill of 40 degrees
The only free practice session available on the Qatar sprint weekend will be a very hot one. FP1 kicks off at 16:30 local time and by then it is still expected to be 36 degrees. The same goes for Saturday's sprint shoot-out which takes place half an hour earlier, at 16:00 local time.
These two sessions will demand the utmost from the drivers, but will also put the Pirelli tyres to the test as the cars will make their laps on the asphalt that will be warmed up by a blazing hot sun all day. During Friday's qualifying and Saturday's sprint race, the temperature drops to 32 degrees. A small relief, but still a high temperature.
Similar temperatures are expected during Sunday's race. It will be around 38 degrees all day, but that will have dropped somewhat at the start of the race at 20:00 local time. The sun will set a little after 17:00. The strong winds predicted for this weekend will remain on Friday and Saturday. However, wind speeds do decrease drastically on the Sunday for the race.