What is the format for F1 sprint races in 2025?

There are six sprint races in the 2025 season and the format is the same as 2024.

Sprint qualifying takes place on Friday, after the only practice session of the weekend.

The 100km sprint is the first track action on Saturday.

Qualifying for the main race is in its usual spot as the second session on Saturday.

Sunday's race remains unchanged.

Lewis Hamilton secured his first Ferrari victory in the China sprint in March, McLaren's Lando Norris won in Miami in May and Red Bull's Max Verstappen was first in Belgium in July.

The next sprint is at the United States Grand Prix in Austin on Saturday, before two more events in Sao Paulo and Qatar in November.

Sprint qualifying has three sessions, where the five slowest cars are eliminated from the first two - like normal qualifying.

These sessions, known as SQ1, SQ2 and SQ3, last 12, 10 and eight minutes respectively.

This will make up the grid for the sprint race, which is 100km.

The top eight finishers score points, from eight for first place to one for eighth spot, which will get added to the overall drivers' championship standings.

In 2023, both sprint sessions took place on Saturday, becoming a standalone event.

Sprint qualifying was the earlier session, followed by the sprint race.

Qualifying for Sunday's main race took place on Friday.

The original format for sprint weekends, introduced in 2021, had the Friday qualifying session setting the grid for the sprint and the result of the sprint establishing the grid for the main grand prix.

Sprint races were introduced to the Formula 1 calendar in 2021 with races designed to be short and fast-paced.

It is less about the strategy and offers something different to the traditional Sunday race.

Why is there not one at every race? Well, not all circuits are suited to the sprint format.

Tracks with overtaking opportunities are often picked out.

Points towards drivers and constructors' championships are also on offer for the top eight.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri said he felt "a little bit weird" having the sprint race before preparing for the qualifying session on Saturday.

"It kind of feels like the race should be [at] the end of the day," he added.

Formula 1 introduced sprint races with the idea of providing audiences with more competitive action over the course of a three-day grand prix weekend.

F1 has numbers that it says prove that more people watch over a sprint weekend than a regular grand prix.

But, in the way of broadcasting statistics, it's not entirely clear whether this is more actual people, or just the same people watching more of the on-track action. Rather like claiming 500,000 people attended the British Grand Prix, but that being a cumulative figure over the weekend.

Sprints have been through a number of formats, a reflection of the fact that it was an experiment that F1 did not get quite right initially.

The bigger audiences have led to F1 wanting to increase the number of sprints in the future.

There will be six again in 2026, but the feeling is the number could double to 12 - or half the calendar - in the near future.

Many drivers still do not want sprints to become the default format, but even arch-critic Max Verstappen has mellowed on them now.

17-19 October: United States (Austin)

7-9 November: Sao Paulo

28-30 November: Qatar

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