Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, passed away last week at the age of 99. His funeral is set to take place on the upcoming Saturday at the St George’s Chapel, in the grounds of Windsor Castle at 15:00 BST.
The final stages of qualifying were to be held this weekend and they were clashing with the funeral procession. As a mark of respect for the Prince, F1 is set to reschedule the qualifying round.
The qualifying is now expected to take place an hour early as compared to the previous time at 13:00 BST (14:00 local time).
The practice sessions have also been rescheduled with FP1 taking plalce at 10:00, FP2 at 13:30, both on Friday, and FP3 at 10:00 (all times BST).
“The FIA and Formula 1 are today setting out the changes to the Saturday schedule for the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio Del Made in Italy e Dell’Emila Romagna 2021 out of respect to the funeral service of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh that will take place on Saturday 17th April 2021,” confirmed a statement from the FIA.
“As a mark of respect for the Royal funeral, Qualifying will be moved to avoid a clash with the service. This means Qualifying will take place between 14:00–15:00 CET.
“As a result FP3 will move to 11:00–12:00 CET in order to comply with the regulations that state Qualifying must be 120 minutes after FP3.
“On Friday FP2 will move to 14:30-15:30 CET and FP1 will move to 11:00-12:00 CET due to the rules requiring those sessions to be separated by at least two and a half hours and FP3 needing to start no less than nineteen hours after the end of FP2.”
There will also be a minute of silence ahead of the qualifying as a way for people to show their respects.
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Read More: Women’s wildcard: Formula One set to welcome female drivers