🔗 Share this article Qatar's Sprint Race and Main Event Qualifying: Real-Time Updates Introduction The author is about to begin to guide you through this day's sprint race (14:00 GMT) and grid-setting session (18:00 GMT). Live Feed Warm-Up Lap Period The starting lap is underway. Circuit Details We have nineteen laps of the longest circuit in F1, the commentator points out. Final Moments The countdown is underway. Driver Situation An advantage in Max Verstappen's favour: his teammate Tsunoda is ahead of him by a single position. He is unlikely to mess with the team's main man. Media Conversations Sky interviewing Sky currently: Gary Neville is with Mercedes. Karun Chandhok is looking forward to 2026, speaking with Adrian Newey about his promotion to the team lead role. Grid Details There are only 16 cars on the grid. It was another poor grid-setting session for Lewis Hamilton: after coming twentieth and final in Las Vegas, leading to an eighth position in the main race, he failed to make it out of Q1 once more on the previous day. Ferrari have consequently adjusted to his setup and so he begins from the pit lane. The team's Lance Stroll and the Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto are all starting from the same position. Racer Statements "We'll use the experience for tomorrow," states Hadjar, 11th on the grid. Expect a lot of that. Constructors' Championship The focus isn't solely on the drivers' title: The team have run away with the constructors' gong but the team, with a forty-point advantage over their rivals, are aiming to secure the runner-up position this weekend. Russell can help them achieve that from the front row, and Kimi Antonelli will begin immediately after the leader. Past Performance Piastri won that day – as he managed the previous season, too. McLaren's Australian is going for a third consecutive win. Sprint Race Value Right, approximately twenty minutes to go till the sprint race begins. Barring disaster, its main importance is as a preview of future events, instead of significant in its own right, with only eight points awarded to the victor. Mind you, second place here was enough for Verstappen to claim the title in a prior season. The driver claimed F1 world title after Pérez crashes out of the short race.