Rain washes out final practice for Styrian GP

The track hosted the Formula One opening Grand Prix last weekend where despite fine weather nine of the 20 cars failed to complete the eventful race won by Valterri Bottas of Mercedes.

But the second date on the calendar at the same track has been hit with heavy rainstorms, widely forecast on Friday, swept through the region early Saturday and led to the abandonment of a Formula Three feature race after only 14 of a scheduled 24 laps.

The conditions were declared as too dangerous to allow racing to continue. Rain is expected to continue falling throughout the day and is a threat to the running of the qualifying session later on Saturday afternoon. Race Director Michael Masi said Friday that one of the contingencies was to postpone qualifying until Sunday morning or to take the second practice times to decide grid positions.