IMOLA, Italy — Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc's late battle for victory at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix's sprint race was the icing on the cake for Formula One boss Ross Brawn, who is already planning to roll out the format at twice as many races in 2023.
Imola's race is the first of three this season to feature the sprint qualifying format, with reruns to follow in Austria and Brazil. It sees traditional qualifying shift to Friday to set the grid for a shorter event on Saturday, which in turn sets the starting order for Sunday's grand prix.
Sprint qualifying was used at events at Silverstone, Monza and Interlagos in 2021 and F1 had hoped to double the number for this year, only for teams to push back over concerns around costs.
Saturday's sprint featured plenty of passes as Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz fought through the field while other drivers held on to degrading tyres in the closing laps. It was not settled out in front until Verstappen reeled in Leclerc and passed the championship leader at the start of the penultimate lap with the aid of the Drag Reduction System overtaking aid.
«Very pleased,» F1 motorsport boss Brawn said on Saturday afternoon about the sprint. «Great entertainment, lots of racing going on, plenty of overtaking, we demonstrated the cars could follows. I know you may say 'well it was DRS' but you can't use DRS unless you can get on the back of the car, so I think overall it was very successful.»
Brawn and F1's team bosses will discuss increasing the sprint allocation from three to six in 2023 next week.
«We'd like to have six next year,» Brawn said. «I think [team bosses] can see the success.
»We didn't quite know where we were last year with the old cars but I think they can see the way
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