Japanese Grand Prix 2019: Qualifying cancelled and moved to Sunday morning as Typhoon Hagibis nears

Saturday's running at Suzuka has been cancelled completely with 160mph winds and heavy rain set to batter Japan this weekend

Saturday’s qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix has been postponed due to the imminent threat of Super Typhoon Hagibis, with the day’s entire programme at Suzuka scrapped.

The approaching typhoon has already caused havoc across the country, with two games at the Rugby World Cup including England vs France abandoned and more across the weekend under threat.

The Japanese Grand Prix is the latest event to be hit, and with Hagibis expected to be the worst tropical cyclone to hit the country in 60 years, the FIA, Japanese Automobile Federation and Liberty Media have made an early decision to move qualifying from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning ahead of the race.

“As a result of the predicted impact of Typhoon Hagibis on the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix 2019, Mobilityland and the Japanese Automobile Federation (JAF) have decided to cancel all activities scheduled to take place on Saturday, 12 October,” a statement from the race organisers read.

“The FIA and Formula 1 support this decision in the interest of safety for the spectators, competitors and everyone at the Suzuka Circuit.”

As a result, qualifying will start at 10am on Sunday local time [2am BST], with the race set to get underway at 2:10pm Japan Standard Time [6:10am BST].

It is not the first time that the Japanese Grand Prix weekend has had to be altered in such a way, with qualifying also held on Sunday in 2004 and 2010 due to typhoons.

With Sunday’s shootout to be held just four hours before the Grand Prix itself, teams will also see their practice running heavily affected, with third practice cancelled completely meaning that teams have just the two Friday sessions to prepare for qualifying.