Formula 1 returns from its summer break and heads to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix – for the final time – from 21-23 August.
Mercedes George Russell claimed pole position for the sprint race on Saturday, beating world champion Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Russell’s team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who leads the drivers’ championship by 50 points, will start in fifth place.
The maiden 24-lap sprint at Zandvoort starts at 11:00 BST.
Lights out for Sunday’s 72-lap main grand prix is at 14:00.
More than 300,000 spectators, many of them supporting Max Verstappen, attended last year’s race weekend in Zandvoort [Getty Images]
The Dutch Grand Prix returned to the F1 calendar in 2021 after a 36-year absence but this year the circuit is taking its final bow.
The 4.259km track, in a holiday town on the North Sea coast, had been struggling to make the event work financially despite sellout crowds attending to support home hero Verstappen.
The four-time world champion is always greeted by a mass of orange-clad fans at Zandvoort, and he took both pole position and victory in the first three editions after the race made its comeback.
It was McLaren who broke Verstappen’s winning streak two years ago, with Norris taking the chequered flag from pole in 2024 and team-mate Oscar Piastri doing the same thing last year.
Commentary on the race weekend will be available across Sports Extra 3, Sports Extra, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.
You can also listen by asking most smart speakers to “play Sports Extra 3” or “play Sports Extra” for Sunday’s grand prix.
Make sure to listen to every episode of the Chequered Flag podcast. For the first time this year, the post-race show for every grand prix is available to watch on BBC iPlayer and YouTube.
Sprint: 11:00-12:00 (Sports Extra 3, BBC Sounds, BBC Sport website and app and smart speakers)
Qualifying: 15:00-16:00 (Sports Extra 3, BBC Sounds, BBC Sport website and app and smart speakers)
Race: 14:00 (Sports Extra, BBC Sounds, BBC Sport website and app and smart speakers)
Conditions stayed dry for Friday’s practice session and sprint qualifying [Reuters]
Europe has been experiencing heatwaves this summer, but the weather for the final Dutch Grand Prix weekend is looking cool and a little bit unsettled.
Some light rain, cloudy skies and daytime high temperatures of about 18C are forecast for the remaining two days of track action in Zandvoort.
There is a chance of wet conditions for Saturday’s shorter sprint and main qualifying session, while Sunday’s grand prix, which starts at 3pm local time, should be dry with sunny intervals and a gentle breeze.
Kimi Antonelli beat Lewis Hamilton to victory at the fifth sprint race of the season at Silverstone in July [Getty Images]
Sprint qualifying on Friday has three sessions, where now the six slowest cars are knocked out from the first two – like normal qualifying.
These sessions, known as SQ1, SQ2 and SQ3, last 12, 10 and eight minutes respectively.
This will make up the grid for the 100km sprint race.
Only the top eight finishers score points, with eight points awarded for first place down to one point for eighth, which will get added to the overall drivers’ championship standings.
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