Formula 1 is considering uncoupling the new Saturday ‘sprint race’ from the qualifying format in future. At Monza, the sport is trialling the new ‘sprint qualifying’ format – with a normal-style Friday qualifying session setting the grid for a short race on Saturday – for the second time. However, while Valtteri Bottas will start Saturday’s race from pole, he will then move down the order for the main event on Sunday because of a pre-qualifying engine change. That sort of complexity, but also to ramp up interest even further, means F1 managing director Ross Brawn is considering making the Saturday sprint a stand-alone race rather than a qualifying session.

Follow MotorMouth on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•