Gp Baku sprint race: how it works and timetables

There Sprint Race from the Formula One sheds skin and “moves” on Saturdays. This is the big news approved by the F1 Commission on Tuesday 25 April and which will already make its debut over the weekend of Baku. The mini-race, inaugurated in 2021 and used also in MotoGp from this season, will take place on Saturday afternoon, preceded by the newborn Sprint Shooutout, which will determine the starting grid. But this is not the only novelty decreed by the Council.

Sprint race, the Saturday revolution

We go day by day. Friday does not change the program dedicated first to free practice, then to the traditional Q1, Q2 and Q3 sessions which will determine the starting grid for Sunday’s official Grand Prix and no longer for the Sprint Race. In Azerbaijan it was the Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc to conquer the pole position. However, the real revolution concerns Saturday: goodbye to the second free practice, replaced by the brand new Sprint Shooutout, a session of three shorter practice sessions (Q1 twelve minutes, Q2 ten, Q3 eight) which will establish the starting order of the Sprint Race, the 100 km race which will start on Saturday afternoon. The assignment of points to the first eight classified remains unchanged, respectively decreasing from 8 to 1 point. In both Saturday appointments, the riders will have to use the following tyres: Q1 medium, Q2 medium, Q3 soft.

The 2023 Sprint Races

This season there are a total of 6 Sprint Races on the calendar:

Baku (Azerbaijan) April 29
Spielberg (Austria) July 1st
Spa (Belgium) 29 July
Lusail (Qatar) 7 October
Austrin (United States) 21 October
Interlagos (Brazil) November 4th