Dry sessions forecast but rain could wash away grip before sprint race

Drivers could be facing a challenging first sprint race of the 2024 season in Shanghai as expected rain could wash away rubber built up on Friday.

The Shanghai International Circuit is hosting the Chinese GP for the first time since 2019 this weekend.

The 5.4km circuit was recently resurfaced in many areas and will be the first major international motorsports event held at the venue since work was completed.

The situation is similar to that when the sport returned to Istanbul Park in 2020 for the Turkish Grand Prix after the original calendar was heavily revised due to the pandemic. Istanbul Park was resurfaced just weeks before the event and cold and wet conditions led to extremely low grip levels across the weekend.

Thankfully for drivers and teams, however, conditions are expected to be warmer and drier this weekend in Shanghai. Despite high chance of rain over Friday night and early Saturday morning, current forecasts anticipate that all five track sessions over the first sprint round of the 2024 season should remain dry.

Friday’s practice session should take place in conditions of a comfortable 19 degrees celsius, with the afternoon’s sprint qualifying running in virtually identical conditions. However, the rubber built up on the Racing line on Friday could well be affected by the expected rain overnight.

Saturday’s sprint race will very likely be dry, with slightly warmer conditions of 22C expected. It will continue to warm up for Saturday’s grand prix qualifying, which should also be dry, before the grand prix itself takes place in cloudy conditions of around 19 degrees.

If this forecast proves accurate, Sunday’s race will be run in conditions virtually identical to the last Chinese Grand Prix in 2019, just over five years ago.

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For more updates on the track conditions during each session keep an eye on RaceFans Live and the RaceFans Twitter account.