Qatar's Short Race and Main Event Qualifying: Real-Time Updates
Opening Notes
The author is about to begin to cover this day's sprint race (14:00 GMT) and grid-setting session (18:00 GMT).
Real-Time Updates
Starting Lap Time
The starting lap is underway.
Circuit Details
We have nineteen laps of the longest circuit in F1, David Croft reminds us.
Countdown
The last moments has begun.
Racer Positions
An advantage in Verstappen's advantage: his fellow driver Yuki Tsunoda is ahead of him by a single position. It's improbable to interfere with the team's main man.
Media Conversations
Sky speaking with Sky now: the analyst is at the Mercedes team.
Karun Chandhok is jumping ahead to the 2026 season, speaking with the engineer about his stepping up to the team lead role.
Starting Positions
There are only sixteen vehicles on the grid. This followed another poor grid-setting session for Lewis Hamilton: after coming twentieth and final in Las Vegas, leading to an eighth-place finish in the grand prix, he failed to make it out of the first qualifying segment again on Friday. The team have as a result made changes to his setup and so he will start from the starting area.
Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and the Alpine duo of Gasly and Franco Colapinto are all doing likewise.
Racer Statements
"We'll use the experience for the next day," says Isack Hadjar, starting eleventh. There will be a lot of that.
Constructors' Championship
The focus isn't solely on the drivers' title: McLaren have dominated the constructors' gong but Mercedes, with a forty-point advantage over Red Bull, are aiming to secure the runner-up position during this event. George Russell can help them achieve that from second place, and Kimi Antonelli will begin immediately after Verstappen.
Past Performance
Piastri won that day – as he managed last year, too. McLaren's Australian is going for a hat-trick.
Short Race Importance
Right, just over 20 minutes to go until the short race begins. Unless something goes wrong, it's greatest value is as a preview of what is to come, instead of highly important in its itself, with only eight points awarded to the victor. However, the runner-up spot in this race was sufficient for the driver to become champion in a prior season.
The driver wins the championship following Pérez crashes out of the short race.
