One point in Verstappen’s favour: his teammate Yuki Tsunoda is ahead of him by one place. He is unlikely to mess with Red Bull’s main man.
Sky interviewing Sky now: Gary Neville is with Mercedes.
Karun Chandhok is jumping ahead to 2026, interviewing Adrian Newey about his stepping up to Aston Martin team principal.
There are only 16 cars on the grid. It was another bad qualifying for Lewis Hamilton: after coming 20th and last in Las Vegas, leading to an eighth-place finish in the grand prix, he failed to make it out of Q1 again on Friday. Ferrari have consequently made changes to his setup and so he will start from the pit lane.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and the Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto are all doing likewise.
“We take the learning for tomorrow,” says Isack Hadjar, 11th on the grid. There will be a lot of that.
It’s not all about the drivers’ title: McLaren have run away with the constructors’ gong but Mercedes, with a 40-point lead over Red Bull, will be hoping to seal second place this weekend. Russell can help them achieve that from second place, and Kimi Antonelli will start just behind Verstappen.
Piastri won that day – as he did last year, too. McLaren’s Australian is going for a hat-trick.
Right, just over 20 minutes to go till the sprint race gets under way. Barring disaster, it’s greatest value is as an indication of what is to come, rather than significant in its own right, with only eight points available to the winner. Mind you, second place here was enough for Verstappen to become champion two years ago:
Philip will be here shortly to take you through today’s sprint race (2pm GMT) and qualifying (6pm).
