Timo Glock will decide tomorrow if he will participate in the race

Arriving in Valencia with stomach pains, Timo Glock chose to skip the qualifying sessions. Constantly within the rhythm and under the critical 107% mark during various free practice sessions, the Marussia driver has been exempted by the FIA and will indeed be able to participate in the race.

But the German’s participation in the European Grand Prix remains contingent on the progress of his health condition, and according to the Marussia team director, a decision should be made tomorrow: « We cannot draw any conclusions regarding the race until tomorrow morning, so we hope that Timo will be better. Our objective for the race, whatever happens, will simply be to do the best possible job given the circumstances. »

For the record, Article 19 of the Formula One sporting regulations stipulates not only that the same team can only call upon four different drivers during a season but also that changes can be made before the start of qualifying provided that any changes made after 4 p.m. on the day of technical inspections [editor’s note, Thursday] have the approval of the stewards. Consequently, if Timo Glock is unable to participate in tomorrow’s race, the Marussia team will not be able to field a replacement.

The Anglo-Russian team might therefore only have a single car on the starting grid tomorrow, that of Frenchman Charles Pic, as was the case for Sauber in Monaco in 2011 after Sergio Pérez’s accident in qualifying, or for Ferrari in Hungary in 2009 after Felipe Massa’s accident.

However, if Marussia had feared that Timo Glock would not be able to participate in the race, they could have called upon a replacement for the qualifying and the race, provided, of course, that the replacement held a Super License, which is mandatory to participate in a Grand Prix.