The rules, schedule, how points will be awarded

Here’s the rules, the schedule, and how points will be awarded…

Sprint races will feature at every round

The Sprint race will be on a Saturday afternoon at every round. It will NOT replace the normal Q1 and Q2 qualifying sessions, which will decide the grid for both the Sprint and Sunday race.

How many points in the Sprint race worth? How long is it?

The Sprint race is half the normal race distance, and half points will be awarded (12 points for a win, 1 point for 9th).

Do Sprint race results count in the MotoGP record books?

No, the Sprint results will be listed separately.

Dorna’s Sporting managing director Carlos Ezpeleta said: “In the end, this is not another Grand Prix race that we’re adding to the weekend, to the format.

“We’re basically changing one practice for a sprint Race which will give points, meaning that from now on for the historical data, it will be the Sunday that continues to give the GP winner. So the winner of the grand prix will be the winner of the race.

“Then historically the riders will have one more row of data on, let’s say, on their profile. So a rider will have a number of fastest laps, a number of poles, a number of podiums for which it will only count the podiums of the Sunday, and a number of victories. And from now on, they will have a number of sprint race victories. That will be one more row on their profile.

“There will be a podium for the sprint race, but it will not count for the total number of podiums that the rider has. And you know, finally will be the GP winner, will be the one that wins the race on Sunday will be exciting for the fans.”

How does it affect other MotoGP sessions?

The two Friday Practice sessions will be extended (currently 45 minutes) and the combined times used to determine direct access to Q2 (instead of waiting until after Free Practice 3 on Saturday morning).

FP3 will now be reduced from 45 to 30 minutes – thus effectively becoming FP4 (albeit at a different time to the races) which has been dropped from the schedule – and directly followed by Q1 and Q2. The Sprint race is then the last Saturday MotoGP action.

What about Moto2 and Moto3?

Moto2 and Moto3 will continue to have a single, Sunday, race. The order of the track action and Sunday races will also be ‘standardised’ next season with Moto3 followed by Moto2 and finally MotoGP whenever possible, ‘allowing for an improved podium ceremony, on-track celebrations and the possibility of fan track invasions at each venue’.  

Why are Dorna introducing Sprint races?

“You already know that we are going to introduce: Starting next year, a sprint race on the Saturday afternoon of every Grand Prix; not like in Formula 1, but in every Grand Prix,” said FIM president Jorge Viegas.

“We think that after two years of Covid, when all of us made incredible sacrifices to keep having this important…