Live
F1 LIVE | Sprint race during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend in Baku
- GPblog.com
It's time for the first F1 sprint race of the 2023 season. With the liveblog, you won't miss any of the on-track action during the first race moment in Baku. Two qualifying sessions are already complete, and now it's 17 laps of racing. Charles Leclerc will start from pole position, alongside Sergio Perez who beat Max Verstappen in the sprint shootout.
F1 LIVE | Sprint Race in Baku
First sprint race of 2023, in Baku
Max Verstappen lost to Charles Leclerc on Friday and is therefore not upfront at the start of Sunday's race. With the new sprint weekend schedule, the main race on Sunday and the sprint race on Saturday no longer have anything to do with each other.
The result of the sprint race is no longer the starting grid for the following day's race. With its own qualifying, the sprint race now stands on its own. The length of the sprint race is a third of the length of the race on Sunday. The maximum points to be gained on Saturday are, therefore, about a third. P1 picks up eight points, P2 picks up seven points and so on.
The reason for no longer making the sprint race the starting grid for Sunday is so that drivers dare to take a little more risk during the sprint race. A crash during the sprint automatically means a start from the back for Sunday. With Sunday's starting grid already confirmed, one concern is gone. We will see in this session if it has helped.