The sprint race in Brazil is in doubt after a cyclone warning was issued for the Sao Paulo region.

A 'orange alert' has been given for the area as 30 to 60 millimetres of rain per hour and very strong gusts of wind are forecast for Saturday. The Brazil National Institute of Meteorology also issued a severe warning of high coastal winds.

The worst of the weather is expected in the morning, which could put the 11am local time sprint race at risk.

Should the Sprint be cancelled, this could have a big impact on the world championship as the chasing Max Verstappen - a wet-weather specialist - will have one less opportunity to close the gap to Lando Norris. For Norris, he may not have the opportunity to capitalise on his sprint race pole position.

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Will the sprint go ahead?

The FIA and Formula One are closely monitoring the situation. However they have little flexibility as regulations dictate that there must be at least a three-hour gap between the end of the Sprint and the start of qualifying.

With qualifying due to take place at 15:00 local time, the Sprint, which is scheduled for 11:00, cannot be impacted by many delays.

The Sprint could be delayed by two or three hours before the latest possible start time for qualifying starts to become aa risk - it begins to get dark in São Paulo around 5:30pm local time.

Lando Norris qualified P1 ahead of the Brazil GP Sprint - Photo: Race Pictures

The FIA has much more flexibility to move qualifying and could choose to move qualifying to Sunday morning to buy more time to make the sprint happen.

Last year severe weather meant that qualifying had to take place at on Sunday morning at the Brazil GP.

Local weather experts predict that the forecast for Sunday's race will be much more promising.

Until then, the FIA and Formula One will be watching the weather forecast closely.

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