What is a sprint race in F1 and how does qualifying…

What is a sprint race in F1 and how does qualifying shootout work?

The first of six sprint weekends this year takes place this weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix.

The sprint was first introduced in 2021 at Silverstone as a way of making more sessions over the course of the weekend competitive, with the target of driving interest in F1. In 2021 and 2022, there were three sprints a year.

The 2023 season introduced a new format. The number of sprint races were doubled to six, while Saturday was designed ‘sprint day’ - with a new “sprint shootout” qualifying session determining the grid for the sprint race.

In addition, the result of the sprint race had no bearing on the grand prix on Sunday.

However, the format was tweaked again in 2024 so that sprint qualifying took place on Friday afternoon instead of grand prix qualifying.

How does the sprint race work?

The F1 Commission and the FIA approved a modification to the sprint format last year.

The order of play sees the ‘sprint qualifying’ take place on Friday afternoon instead of a second practice session, with traditional qualifying in its usual spot on Saturday afternoon.

It means there will be just one practice session over the course of the weekend, while Saturday is no longer designated as a ‘sprint day’.

The result of the Saturday morning sprint – a 100km dash, roughly a third of the distance of the grand prix – will not impact the grid for Sunday. Points will be awarded to the top-eight, as was the case in 2023 and 2024.

The sprint race result will not have any impact on the grand prix qualifying on Saturday or the grand prix on Sunday.

Sprint qualifying will follow the same Q1-Q2-Q3 format but the session times will be shorter than traditional qualifying: SQ1 (medium tyres) will be 12 minutes, SQ2 (medium tyres) will be 10 minutes and SQ3 (soft tyres) will be eight minutes.