Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the Miami Grand Prix sprint in May, but finished seventh in the shorter race after running wide at the first corner
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, while McLaren’s Lando Norris won in Miami in May.
The next sprint takes place in Belgium, on 26 July, before three more towards the end of the season, at the US Grand Prix in Austin, Sao Paulo and Qatar.
How does the F1 sprint race work?
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.
What were the previous formats?
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.
When are the sprint races in 2025?
25-27 July: Belgium
17-19 October: United States (Austin)
7-9 November: Sao Paulo
28-30 November: Qatar
