What is the format for F1 sprint races in 2025?

Max Verstappen fought past Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to win the 2024 sprint race in China, with Lando Norris sliding wide at the first corner

There will be six sprint races in the 2025 season, starting with the Chinese Grand Prix from 21-23 March, 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.

After China, the other sprint races take place in Miami, Belgium, 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?

21-23 March: China

2-4 May: Miami

25-27 July: Belgium

17-19 October: United States (Austin)

7-9 November: Sao Paulo

28-30 November: Qatar