If it rains on Friday and stops qualifying, the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix will be set by title order.

In the first practice, which was wet, only 15 cars set a lap time. Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari was the fastest, beating Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in a McLaren.

The FIA, which is in charge, agreed with the teams before the session that the practice scores would not be used to set the grid.

In the rules, this is how things are set up by default for a “sprint” race weekend.

But it was thought to be a safety risk for teams to use first practice as a de facto qualifying session when they had never driven their cars on the track before.

After the death of 18-year-old Dutch driver Dilano Van ‘t Hoff in a junior category race earlier this month, F1 has been focusing on safety at the famous Spa-Francorchamps track, especially when it’s wet. This weekend’s race will be held there.

Drivers have said that racing in the rain at Spa is dangerous because of the layout of the track, especially the run through the high-speed Eau Rouge swerves on to the Kemmel straight.

Van t’ Hoff died in a wet race when he lost control on the straight, hit the obstacles, and bounced back onto the track, where he was hit by another car.

The crash happened a few hundred meters past where Frenchman Anthoine Hubert died in a Formula 2 race at the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix.

Hubert’s accident happened when it was dry, and he ended up in the middle of the track just after the top of the hill at Raidillon, which is the last left turn at Eau Rouge.

He was in a crash with several other cars and was hit in the middle by another car.

Two years ago, the Belgian GP was called off before any laps were run because the weather was too dangerous for racing.

There was a big fuss when drivers were given half points for where they were on the starting line for a race that didn’t really happen. Since then, the rules have been changed so that a race can only be called legal if it has gone at least two laps without a safety car or a virtual safety car.

The rain is expected to keep coming down in different amounts all day Friday.

The biggest problem with racing in the rain is that drivers can’t see as well as they used to. This is because F1 cars now have bigger tires and ground-effect aerodynamics, which soak up more water from the track and make more spray.

George Russell, who drives a Mercedes, said that racing in the rain with a bunch of cars is like going down an interstate highway in heavy rain without windshield fans.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc added, “When we say we don’t see anything, we’re not making it up. We don’t really see anything.”