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

The Miami Grand Prix hosts the second of six sprint races in the 2025 F1 season

Thursday 01 May 2025 11:08 BST

Mercedes reveal trailer for Kimi Antonelli 'The Seat' documentary on Netflix

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The second of six F1 sprint weekends this year takes place this weekend at the Miami 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 designated as ‘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. That format has remained for the 2025 season.

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.

SPRINT WEEKEND FORMAT

Friday: Free Practice 1; sprint qualifying (for Saturday’s sprint race)

Saturday: Sprint race (Top-eight receive points, finish order has no impact on grand prix grid); Grand Prix qualifying

Sunday: Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton won the first sprint race of the year in China (Getty Images)

How many points are on offer in the sprint race?

P1 - Eight points

P2 - Seven points

P3 - Six points

P4 - Five points

P5 - four points

P6 - three points

P7 - two points

P8 - one point

How many sprint races are there this season?

In addition to China and Miami, four other venues will host a sprint weekend: Belgium, Austin, Brazil and Qatar.

Lewis Hamilton won the first sprint race of the season in China, his first win in the red of Ferrari.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering