Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix is at risk of being postponed, after heavy rain badly affected the morning practice session

Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, due to be held on Friday afternoon at 4pm BST, is in doubt with the Spa-Francorchamps circuit soaked by rain.

An increasingly grey sky developed during practice, in which Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz set the fastest time, as persistent downfall intensified.

No driver completed more than eight laps during the hour-long session, with Williams’ Logan Sargeant and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu hitting the barriers at the end of the Kemmel Straight.

The weather in the Ardennes is notoriously capricious, but the bad weather seemed well set.

The FIA reacted to the conditions by confirming that they would prioritise qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix over Saturday’s sprint shootout and race if required.

Logan Sargeant’s Williams had to be lifted away by a crane after he crashed into the barriers

Heavy rain meant that the morning practice session was badly disrupted in Belgium

The weather forecast is for more rain on Saturday – meaning both qualifying and the grand prix may be shoehorned into Sunday.

There is a precedent for this, most recently in Suzuka in 2019, when Typhoon Hagibis delayed events and qualifying was staged a few hours prior to the grand prix.

An FIA spokesman said: ‘If it is impossible to run a qualifying session, the grid will be set by championship order.’

Nobody in authority wants to take chances in these conditions with the death of 18-year-old Dutch driver Danilo van ‘t Hoff in wet conditions on the Kemmel Straight at the start of the month fresh in the memory.

World champion Max Verstappen, who receives a five-place grid penalty for taking on a fifth gearbox, completed just two laps in practice and, for once, was bottom of the timing screens – though they revealed nothing more instructive than it was wet.