🔗 Share this article

Introduction

Our correspondent is arriving soon to guide you through this day's short race (2pm GMT) and grid-setting session (6pm).

Current Events

Formation Lap Time

The formation lap has started.

Circuit Details

We have nineteen laps around the lengthiest track in Formula One, the commentator informs us.

Countdown

The last moments is underway.

Driver Situation

An advantage in Verstappen's favour: his teammate Yuki Tsunoda is in front of him by one place. He is unlikely to challenge the team's main man.

Interview Updates

Sky interviewing Sky now: the analyst is with Mercedes.

Karun Chandhok is looking forward to 2026, interviewing the engineer about his stepping up to the team team principal.

Starting Positions

There are only 16 cars on the grid. It was another bad qualifying for the driver: after coming 20th and last in Las Vegas, resulting in an eighth position in the main race, he failed to advance of the first qualifying segment again on Friday. The team have consequently adjusted to his car configuration and so he will start from the starting area.

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and the Alpine pair of Gasly and Franco Colapinto are all doing likewise.

Racer Statements

"We take the learning for the next day," says Isack Hadjar, starting eleventh. Expect plenty of learning.

Constructors' Championship

The focus isn't solely on the individual championship: McLaren have run away with the team championship but the team, with a forty-point advantage over their rivals, will be hoping to seal second place during this event. George Russell can assist in this goal from the front row, and Antonelli will begin immediately after Verstappen.

Past Performance

Oscar Piastri won that day – as he managed the previous season, too. McLaren's Australian is attempting a hat-trick.

Sprint Race Value

Alright, approximately 20 minutes remaining until the sprint race begins. Unless something goes wrong, its main importance is as a preview of what is to come, rather than highly important in its itself, with only eight points available to the winner. However, the runner-up spot here was enough for Verstappen to claim the title in a prior season.

Max Verstappen claimed F1 world title following Pérez crashes out of Qatar GP sprint race.