At a time the sport is anticipating the new regulations will lead to new lap records, an altogether different record could be broken this weekend.

2011 witnessed the longest Grand Prix in the history of the World Championship when race stoppages due to the weather meant that by the time Jenson Button finally took the flag - having overtaken Sebastian Vettel on the last lap when the German made an unforced error in Turn 1 - 4 hours 4 minutes and 39.537 seconds has elapsed since the field first left the starting grid.

The race, which got underway behind the Safety Car in atrocious conditions saw the Safety Car deployed again when Lewis Hamilton collided with McLaren teammate Jenson Button on the pit straight as they battled for position.

Shortly after the Safety Car had pulled off again a heavy storm hit the track which saw the vehicle deployed once again until, a couple of laps later the race was suspended, finally resuming after a break of over two hours.

With that in mind, Montreal is expecting further storms for this weekend's race.

Friday will begin merely cloudy but thunderstorms are expected to develop over the course of the day. With winds of 5 to 10 mph, temperatures should nonetheless reach 24 degrees C.

Saturday should be altogether better, with intervals of clouds and sunshine though a stray shower or even thunderstorm is possible. The winds of Friday should have dropped while temperatures will be about the same.

On Sunday, storms are expected in the morning but could continue into the early afternoon. Wind speeds are expected to hit 17 mph while temperatures should be the same as the previous two days.

Lewis and Sebastian take note.

Check out our Thursday gallery from Montreal, here.