Superleague in Beijing – another disaster
The area of track in question is between Turns 5 and 6, with its dimensions not allowing the track international status and therefore the non-championship grade being applied in order to avoid a complete cancellation of the event.
Although no points will be racked up, driver prize money can still be received in China, including the 100,000 euro (87,600 pound) gong for picking up the final race honors on Sunday.
The announcement of the non-championship status has since been followed by the cancellation of Friday's second practice session due to loose curbs at Turns 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13.
The second free practice session at the new Beijing International Street Circuit was cancelled on Friday afternoon due to ‘track conditions’.
The brand new venue around the 2008 Olympics Games rowing and canoeing park hosted its first-ever on-track action in the morning with practice for the Chinese Touring Car Championship followed by the main event at 2pm local time as the Superleague Formula by Sonangol cars came out for the first time.
However the second session, scheduled for 4pm, was delayed by 30 minutes and finally cancelled before any of the cars had any track time.
“We had problems with the curbs getting loose at turns 8 to 13, except for turn 10," explained Race Director Bernard Cottrell. “Therefore, we had to cancel FP2 for safety reasons."
That left Craig Dolby (Tottenham Hotspur) as the day’s fastest man around the 2.733 kilometer circuit after he topped Free Practice 1 ahead of Frederic Vervisch (Liverpool) and Franck Perera (Bordeaux).
3 out of 4 free practices were cancelled today.
Remember A1GP in Beijing some years ago? Then there were massive problems with the track as well. It seems the Chinese are not so well prepared for (some) of the international (sports) events, especially motor racing events. Or is it something Asian … The Korean F1 track is also (still) not ready yet and recall the last minute Champ Car race cancellation. Let's not even mention India with the Commonwealth Games, which are being held right now, that was (and still is) a nightmare so far as well!