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Sky Sports have made a late call-up to their presenting team for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix , after planned lead presenter Natalie Pinkham was unable to travel. Veteran broadcaster Pinkham continues to recover from neck surgery and has been off the airwaves since hosting Sky's coverage of the Italian Grand Prix in September. She confirmed in an Instagram post on Thursday that her return to our screens had been delayed. Pinkham wrote: "I had hoped to be on a flight to Brazil yesterday, but the last couple of months have been trickier than I expected following neck surgery; and I am not there just yet. Huge thanks to the Sky F1 team and the wider company for their incredible support." Mirror Sport understands that her absence from the paddock at the Interlagos circuit has led to Sky Sports making changes to their presenting plans. The broadcaster made changes to its presenter schedule as soon as they were aware that Pinkham would not be able to travel, using their pool of on-screen talent and the flexibility that allows. On Friday afternoon, reporter Craig Slater stepped in to take over some hosting duties for the practice session, sharing the responsibility with Ted Kravitz who also fulfilled his pit lane reporter duties. They would be tasked with continuing those dual roles for Sprint qualifying later in the day. For the rest of the weekend, Simon Lazenby has made the journey to Brazil and will take over hosting duties on Saturday. He will lead the coverage for the Sprint race and then qualifying for the main Grand Prix, and will continue in that role for Sunday's main event. It will be a familiar set-up for viewers who have plenty of fans' favourites in action to call and analyse all the action. Lead commentator David Croft was behind the microphone for practice on Friday, joined in the booth by pundits Karun Chandhok and Jamie Chadwick . Martin Brundle was trackside for that hour of practice getting an up-close look at the cars on track, having skipped the last event in Mexico. That means he will be in the hot seat when it comes to the much-loved live grid walk segment in the minutes leading up to Sunday's Grand Prix. Pinkham hopes to rejoin her colleagues on screen soon and, during a podcast appearance last month, told host Gabby Logan how doctors had discovered a congenital issue with her neck, leading her to decide to have surgery. She explained: "They have to actually take your voice box out, which is a bit gross. "You have to sign something to say you might lose your voice. Then, they have to move the oesophagus, trachea and then basically they have taken out the disc and they have fused it, but they have also put in a little cage to try to prop the neck up. "I've never really had [a break from TV work] in the last 20-odd years and it's interesting because when you stop physically, that's often when you stir up the mental noise. It's been a real period of reflection, the last six weeks, which has had its pros and cons. "This is the first time I've spoken a few sentences at a time – it's quite hard to talk because of all the scar tissue. It feels like you eat or drink something and it just stops there, you have to wait a while. So, little snacks throughout the day as opposed to big meals."
