🔗 Share this article Qatar's Sprint Race and Grand Prix Grid Setting: Real-Time Updates Preamble Our correspondent will be here shortly to take you through this day's sprint race (14:00 GMT) and grid-setting session (6pm). Real-Time Updates Starting Lap Time The starting lap is underway. Circuit Details There are 19 laps of the longest circuit in F1, the commentator points out. Countdown The last moments is underway. Racer Positions One point in Max Verstappen's favour: his teammate Yuki Tsunoda is ahead of him by one place. He is unlikely to mess with Red Bull's lead driver. Interview Updates Sky speaking with Sky currently: the analyst is at the Mercedes team. The analyst is looking forward to the 2026 season, speaking with Adrian Newey about his stepping up to the team lead role. Grid Details There are only 16 cars on the grid. This followed another poor grid-setting session for the driver: following his result of twentieth and final in Las Vegas, leading to an eighth position in the main race, he failed to make it out of Q1 again on the previous day. The team have consequently made changes to his setup and so he will start from the pit lane. The team's Stroll and the Alpine pair of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto are all starting from the same position. Driver Comments "We take the learning for the next day," states Hadjar, 11th on the grid. There will be plenty of learning. Team Standings It's not all about the drivers' title: The team have run away with the constructors' gong but the team, with a forty-point advantage over Red Bull, will be hoping to secure the runner-up position during this event. Russell can help them achieve that from the front row, and Kimi Antonelli will begin immediately after the leader. Past Performance Oscar Piastri was victorious then – as he managed the previous season, too. McLaren's Australian is going for a hat-trick. Short Race Importance Right, just over 20 minutes remaining till the sprint race begins. Barring disaster, its main importance is as an indication of what is to come, rather than highly important in its itself, with just eight championship points available to the winner. Mind you, the runner-up spot in this race was sufficient for Verstappen to become champion in a prior season. The driver claimed F1 world title following his teammate's accident of the short race.