Sprint races explained

Published Invalid Date · figures as of the 2026 season.

A sprint is a race of about 100 km, roughly a third of a Grand Prix distance, run on the Saturday of six weekends a year. It has its own qualifying session, pays points to the top eight, and has no effect on the grid for the Sunday race.

The 2026 sprint weekends

Rounds 2, 4, 5, 9, 12 and 17 on this site’s calendar: China, Miami, Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and Singapore. Each race page says whether its weekend has a sprint, and the sprint result appears on the page with the race result.

How the weekend runs

Day	Sessions
Friday	One practice session, then sprint qualifying
Saturday	The sprint, then qualifying for the Grand Prix
Sunday	The Grand Prix

Sprint qualifying is a knockout in three shorter parts, with the tyre compound for each part fixed by the rules. The sprint starts from a standing start, runs without a required pit stop, and finishes after the set number of laps, usually between 17 and 24 depending on the circuit.

Points

Place	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Points	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

Sprint points count in both championships. On this site they are added to a driver’s championship points but kept out of the records for race wins, podiums, poles and fastest laps, so that a “win” always means a Grand Prix win and a 2026 driver can be compared with one from 1986.

How the format changed

2021: three events ran “sprint qualifying”, 100 km on Saturday, which set the Sunday grid. Points 3, 2, 1 to the top three. Friday qualifying set the sprint grid.
2022: points to the top eight, 8 down to 1. The sprint still set the Sunday grid.
2023: the sprint became a stand-alone event with its own qualifying (“sprint shootout”) on Saturday morning; Friday qualifying set the Sunday grid. Six events.
2024: the weekend was reordered so that both sprint sessions finish on Saturday morning before the Grand Prix qualifying, which allows set-up changes between the sprint and the main qualifying.

The rules timeline on this site lists each of these with its source.

What the figures say

A sprint win is worth less than a third of a Grand Prix win in points, but over a season the six sprints offer 48 points to one driver, almost two race wins. In the title arithmetic on the scenarios page, each remaining sprint weekend adds 8 to what a chasing driver can still score.