How do F1 sprint weekends work?

What a Sprint is

A Sprint is a second, shorter race held on the Saturday of selected weekends. It covers roughly 100km, about a third of a Grand Prix distance, and there is no mandatory pit stop, so drivers tend to push flat out from lights to flag^[1]. Six rounds are Sprint weekends in 2026: China, Miami, Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Singapore.^[3]

How the weekend is rearranged

A normal weekend has three practice sessions before qualifying. A Sprint weekend compresses that to a single practice, then doubles up the competitive sessions^[1]:

• Friday: one practice session, then Sprint Qualifying, a shortened three-part knockout (SQ1, SQ2, SQ3) that sets the grid for the Sprint.
• Saturday: the Sprint race, followed later by normal Grand Prix qualifying (Q1, Q2, Q3), which sets the grid for Sunday.
• Sunday: the Grand Prix as usual.

The key thing for fans to remember is that the Sprint result does not set the Grand Prix grid: Sunday's order still comes from Saturday's traditional qualifying^[1].

Parc ferme and the setup lock

The compressed schedule comes with a catch. Cars enter parc ferme, the rule that freezes each car's setup, as soon as Sprint Qualifying begins on Friday, so a team cannot change the setup between then and the Sprint^[1]. Teams are released from parc ferme after the Saturday Sprint, giving them one short window to adjust the car before Grand Prix qualifying that afternoon^[1].

Points and stakes

The Sprint awards championship points to the top eight finishers, on an 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale, with no fastest-lap bonus^[1]. Those points are added to the same drivers' and constructors' tallies as the main race, so a strong Sprint can quietly swing a title fight. See how F1 points work for the full breakdown.

Why it changes the racing

Where to go next

• The Sunday format: how F1 qualifying works
• The scoring: how F1 points work
• The wider game: what are the strategies in F1?