Qatar's Short Race and Main Event Qualifying: Real-Time Updates

Opening Notes

The author will be here shortly to guide you through this day's sprint race (14:00 GMT) and grid-setting session (18:00 GMT).

Current Events

Starting Lap Period

The warm-up lap has started.

Circuit Details

There are 19 laps of the longest circuit in F1, David Croft reminds us.

Final Moments

The countdown is underway.

Racer Positions

An advantage in Max Verstappen's favour: his fellow driver Tsunoda is in front of him by a single position. It's improbable to interfere with the team's lead driver.

Interview Updates

Sky's internal discussion currently: Gary Neville is with Mercedes.

Karun Chandhok is looking forward to the 2026 season, speaking with the engineer about his promotion to the team team principal.

Grid Details

There are only 16 cars on the grid. This followed another bad qualifying for Lewis Hamilton: following his result of twentieth and final in Las Vegas, leading to an eighth-place finish in the main race, he did not manage to make it out of Q1 once more on Friday. Ferrari have consequently made changes to his setup and so he begins from the starting area.

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

Racer Statements

"We take the experience for the next day," states Isack Hadjar, 11th on the grid. Expect a lot of that.

Team Standings

It's not all about the drivers' title: The team have dominated the team championship but the team, with a 40-point lead over Red Bull, are aiming to seal second place during this event. Russell can assist in this goal from second place, and Kimi Antonelli will start just behind the leader.

Previous Results

Piastri won that day – as he did last year, as well. McLaren's Australian is going for a third consecutive win.

Sprint Race Value

Right, approximately 20 minutes remaining till the sprint race gets under way. Unless something goes wrong, it's greatest value is as a preview of what is to come, rather than highly important in its own right, with just eight championship points available to the winner. However, the runner-up spot in this race was sufficient for the driver to claim the title two years ago.

The driver claimed F1 world title following his teammate's accident of the short race.