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F1 back to use 2015 qualifying format from China GP

Xinhua, April 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Motor racing's governing body FIA announced Thursday that Formula One qualifying set to return to last year's format starting from next weekend's Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

"At the unanimous request of the teams in a letter received today, Jean Todt, President of the FIA, and Bernie Ecclestone, commercial rights holder representative, accepted, in the interests of the Championship, to submit a proposal to the F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council to revert to the qualifying format in force in 2015," read an official statement posted on the FIA's website.

The new qualifying system, which has been used in this year's opening race in Australia and Bahrain last weekend, follows a rolling-elimination format with the slowest driver being eliminated every 90 seconds.

It has been widely criticized for failing to produce the intended change in spectacle.

The 2015 format, which had been in place since the start of 2010, will see the six slowest cars eliminated at the end of Q1 and Q2, leaving 10 to fight it out for pole in Q3, with their grid positions based on their best lap times at the end of qualifying.

"This proposal, if approved by the F1 governing bodies, will take effect as from the Chinese Grand Prix and will apply for the rest of the season," the statement continued.

"Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone welcomed the idea put forward by the teams to have a global assessment of the format of the weekend for 2017," it added. Endit