Chapter 01

Your first race

First, the big picture: what happens across a race weekend, how the grid is decided, what the flags mean, and why a safety car can turn a race upside down.

The weekend

A grand prix weekend is three days. Friday and Saturday morning are practice, where teams learn the track and tune the car. Nothing is at stake. Saturday afternoon is , and Sunday is the race.

On 6 weekends a season the format changes. Two practice sessions make way for a short extra race, the , with its own mini qualifying.

  • Practice
  • Qualifying
  • Race
  1. Friday
    1. Practice 1An hour to learn the track and check the car.
    2. Practice 2Long runs on heavy fuel to see how the tyres wear.
  2. Saturday
    1. Practice 3The last chance to fine-tune before qualifying.
    2. QualifyingThree knockout rounds decide the grid for Sunday.
  3. Sunday
    1. Grand PrixThe main event: about 305 km, up to two hours.

Qualifying

Overtaking is hard, so where you start often decides where you finish. Qualifying is a knockout. Each driver tries to set their fastest single lap, and after each round the slowest drop out.

With 22 cars on the grid, 6 are knocked out after Q1 (18 minutes) and 6 more after Q2 (15 minutes). The top 10 fight it out in Q3, and the fastest lap of all takes . The lap times below are made up.

An example session: the real 2026 drivers, made-up lap times.

Q1: all 22 cars. The slowest 6 are knocked out and will start P17 to P22.

  1. P1Piastri1:28.377
  2. P2Russell1:28.490
  3. P3Norris1:28.525
  4. P4Antonelli1:28.550
  5. P5Hadjar1:28.634
  6. P6Hamilton1:28.832
  7. P7Verstappen1:28.909
  8. P8Sainz1:29.056
  9. P9Albon1:29.086
  10. P10Lindblad1:29.110
  11. P11Leclerc1:29.186
  12. P12Hülkenberg1:29.283
  13. P13Alonso1:29.325
  14. P14Lawson1:29.390
  15. P15Bearman1:29.398
  16. P16Stroll1:29.481
  17. P17Câmara1:29.500Knocked out
  18. P18Colapinto1:29.604Knocked out
  19. P19Gasly1:29.611Knocked out
  20. P20Bottas1:29.631Knocked out
  21. P21Pérez1:29.774Knocked out
  22. P22Bortoleto1:29.789Knocked out

Lights out

The cars line up on the grid in qualifying order. Five red lights come on, one a second. Then, after a pause that nobody can predict, they all go out at once, and the race is on. Move before they go out and it’s a jump start and a penalty.

Tap start, then tap again the instant the lights go out.

Points

The top ten in a grand prix score points, from 25 for a win down to 1 for tenth. In a sprint, the top 8 score, from 8 down to 1. There’s no longer a bonus point for the fastest lap. Points add up across the season into two championships: one for drivers, and one for teams, which counts both of a team’s cars.

Grand prix

  1. 25P1
  2. 18P2
  3. 15P3
  4. 12P4
  5. 10P5
  6. 8P6
  7. 6P7
  8. 4P8
  9. 2P9
  10. 1P10

Sprint

  1. 8P1
  2. 7P2
  3. 6P3
  4. 5P4
  5. 4P5
  6. 3P6
  7. 2P7
  8. 1P8

How it adds up: the 2025 title

  1. P1Norris7 wins423 points
  2. P2Verstappen8 wins421 points
  3. P3Piastri7 wins410 points
  4. P4Russell2 wins319 points
  5. P5Leclerc0 wins242 points

Verstappen won the most races, eight, but Norris took the title by two points. Scoring every weekend counts as much as winning.

Flags

Marshals around the track, and light panels at the side of the circuit, use flags to tell drivers what’s happening ahead. Most are warnings; a few are orders. Tap one.

Yellow flag

Danger ahead, such as a car stopped beside the track.

What the driver does

Slow down, no overtaking, and be ready to change line.

Safety car and VSC

After a crash, race control can slow the race down while marshals clear the track. A makes every driver slow to the same pace, so the gaps stay as they are. A real drives onto the track and leads the field, and everyone queues up behind it. Try both and watch the gap from leader to last.

Racing. Each car runs at full speed, so the gaps between them stay roughly the same.

Leader to last35.8s

Pit stops

Tyres wear out, and in a dry race every driver must use at least two different , so everyone stops at least once. The tyre change itself takes about two seconds. The real cost is the pit lane. It has a strict speed limit, usually 80 km/h (60 at Monaco), so a stop costs around 20 seconds in total.

When to stop is strategy. Stop before a rival and use your fresh tyres to jump them, and that’s an . Stay out longer and hope the clear track pays off, and that’s an .

  1. 9.5 s Pit lane in
  2. 2.4 s Stopped
  3. 9.0 s Pit lane out

In the pit lane0.0s

Stopped0.0s

What to watch for on race day

  • The timing tower down the side of the screen in . Watch the drop-out zone at the bottom of Q1 and Q2. Drivers in it have one last lap to escape.
  • A or mid-race. Teams often dive into the pits under one, because a costs far less time while everyone else is going slowly.
  • Who pits first. If a driver stops early and comes out ahead once the car in front makes its own stop, you’ve just watched an .
  • Blue flags. A car about to be lapped is shown one and has to let the leaders by, which is why a slower car sometimes moves aside without a fight.