Late on Thursday afternoon at Interlagos, heavy rain started to fall.

The weather could be a precursor to a wet weekend at the Brazilian circuit, which a year ago hosted a famously drenched qualifying session.

The forecast for Friday is for a mainly fine day, with the chance of showers increasing later on and overnight.

Saturday could be showery and the outlook for Sunday is for better weather, but the conditions in Sao Paulo are often unpredictable — Thursday, for example, was expected to remain dry.

“It’s likely we will have some wet running this weekend,” said Renault driver Robert Kubica.

HRT will publish the names of its race drivers for the Japanese grand prix “as soon as possible”, a team spokesman said on Wednesday.

The struggling Spanish outfit sent out a confusing message on Tuesday by issuing a pre-Suzuka press release that didn’t mention any of its four contracted drivers.

Team boss Colin Kolles later clarified that the lineup will be Bruno Senna alongside Sakon Yamamoto, but declined to guarantee the pair will actually drive all weekend in Japan.

A team spokesman then said that after travelling from Europe to Japan, he will endeavour to provide driver’s quotes to the media “as soon as possible”.

Another team spokesperson told Auto Motor und Sport that HRT is not planning to change its regular driver lineup for Suzuka, after Christian Klien replaced Yamamoto in Singapore because the Japanese apparently had food poisoning.

“As normal it will be Sakon Yamamoto and Bruno Senna,” she said.

Austrian media reports said reserve driver Klien travelled to Japan on Tuesday.

As far as the FIA is concerned, Yamamoto will be at the wheel of one of the Cosworth-powered F110s this weekend, having summoned him to Thursday afternoon’s official press conference.

“But no knowing if that means he’ll be in the car on Friday,” wrote BBC commentator Jonathan Legard on Twitter. “Sushi food poisoning this time?”

Bruno Senna’s earlier fears have come true in Monaco.

After qualifying in Barcelona less than a week ago, we reported that the Brazilian rookie believed his HRT chassis was carrying an inherent problem.

He was the slowest qualifier in Spain, and he remarked that “there is something wrong at the back” of his F110.

Senna retired into the gravel on the opening lap, and then confirmed to France’s Auto Hebdo that the new Spanish team had not identified the car’s problem in the three-day gap before Thursday’s practice running in Monaco.

He was nearly two seconds slower than his teammate Karun Chandhok in the afternoon session in the Principality, where his famous uncle won no less than a record six times.

Senna, 26, won the GP2 race at Monaco in 2008.

“There is something wrong at the back and we still have not found what it is,” he said.

More than 7 seconds further up the timesheets, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was quickest once again on Thursday afternoon, ahead of Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel.

(GMM)

Apr.22 (GMM)  Christian Horner on Thursday said delays caused by the Icelandic volcano will not disturb preparations for next month’s Spanish grand prix.

With the sport’s freight – and all the cars – stranded in China while FOM’s 747s were grounded in Europe, it was feared that teams’ car developments would not be ready for the next race in Barcelona.

Red Bull boss Horner said before departing Shanghai with his travelling companion Mark Webber that an F-duct should be on the RB6 in Spain “providing we make it back to Europe” soon.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh was also worried about the delay, explaining that if it (the delay) is a week or so … it will become an issue”.

We reported earlier on Thursday that the FOM freight has landed in Bilbao, and Horner confirmed that the team’s trucks are due to arrive in Milton-Keynes “today”.

“Thankfully, the way the calendar is with the extra week between the Chinese and Spanish grands prix, it (the delay) has a very limited impact,” said the Briton.

Horner also said the bulk of the race team is also due back in the UK on Thursday afternoon.