Canadian Grand Prix practice is CANCELED after just four minutes due to faulty CCTV due to punters paying £300 for tickets… before FP2 was extended and brought forward
- The first practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix was interrupted after just four minutes
- The red flag was waved as the CCTV system went down in front of 90,000 people
- The second session was extended by 30 minutes and brought forward
Formula 1 was left red-faced as the first practice for the Canadian Grand Prix came to a halt after just four minutes of practice.
In front of an estimated crowd of 90,000 – some of whom paid £300 to watch the weekend’s action – the red flag was raised when the CCTV system failed. The network provides images of each area of the track and is essential for security reasons.
The FIA issued a statement, effectively blaming local organisers, who they said were “working to resolve the issue and until then we cannot restart”.
In a separate statement, the governing body added: “The delay will be longer as CCTV is not synced properly and until this issue is resolved we will not be able to operate on track.” The system is a local install and they are continuing to work to resolve the issue.
“The clock will continue to run on FP1 and the session will not be extended as there must be two hours between the end of FP1 and FP2. We are looking at options to extend FP2.’
The first practice for the Canadian Grand Prix was interrupted after just four minutes of practice
The red flag was waved as the CCTV system went down in front of 90,000 people
At 2:20 p.m. local time, 10 minutes before the scheduled end of the session, it was announced that the session would not resume. No one had managed more than three laps, putting a massive dent in the teams’ preparations.
The second session was extended by 30 minutes and brought forward from 5:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The suspension was criticized by former driver Karen Chandhok, who said: “I would say there are races in the world where they don’t have CCTV cameras and they rely on messages marshal to report the incidents over the radio and then you can use the TV cameras to watch it I think we have to get on the right track here.
