2025 Qatar GP Sprint Race Preview

Now, it is time for James Punt’s 2025 Qatar GP Sprint Race preview. We got off to a roaring start thanks to Oscar Piastri in Sprint Qualifying, fingers crossed that’s a sign of things to come this weekend.

2025 Qatar GP Sprint race

We kicked the weekend off with a nice 5.50 winner yesterday, but I may have picked the wrong McLaren for today’s Sprint race. In the preview I went for Norris, but he starts from third for today’s Sprint race. He said that as you can’t overtake here, he will finish third. Piastri has been fastest in both sessions so far, but not by much.

The two McLarens have one eye on the big prize, the World Championship. Every point counts, but every point is even more important to Norris who is closing in on the title and holds a 24 point lead with a total of 58 points still up for grabs.

Piastri really has to max out his chances, but at the same time, he can’t take any risks. The Sprint race only has eight points for the winner, seven for second, six for third all the way down to one point for eighth. It is not the be all and end all.

Verstappen Sixth

Verstappen is stuck in sixth place and not sounding optimistic about his chances. Not for the first time, Red Bull have started the weekend with a car that is not sorted. The Sprint race format has caught them out and Max just has to bide his time until after this Sprint race and then he can get to work on changing the car’s setup. It should be a different beast to the one we have seen so far.

The driver of interest is George Russell. His season is over. He will finish fourth whatever happens this week and next. Not great motivation. He is quite pally with Norris and is unlikely to mess with his chances, but he is a racing driver and they are wired to win. My guess is that he will lean on Piastri at the start and find out how big his balls are.

Russell Likes It Here

The two sprints here have been won from pole in 2023 and from third in 2024. Russell has gone well in the two sprints here, finishing second and third. He did drop a place last year, starting second and finishing third. He was a bit slow through the first two corners and lost out to Piastri, and that was that.

It was a close scrap with Piastri and it ended up with Norris pulling over to let Piastri take the win. Without that, it would have been a win from pole for Norris. In 2023, Piastri won from pole, and it does look like a race which should be won from pole. Russell is a threat, just because he can mess with Piastri’s head.

Piastri is the 1.54 favourite, which is too short in my book. Russell is 6.50, and Norris has been backed into 5.00 from 6.00.

It is not a race to go mad on but there is enough value in Russell’s odds for a small wager.

2025 Qatar GP Sprint Race Tip: 0.5 point George Russell to win @ 6.50 with Betfred

Match betting wise, I like the look of Alonso to beat Verstappen. Alonso does tend to go backwards as the weekends unwind, but he starts two places ahead and Verstappen is not at all happy with his car.

Verstappen has not enjoyed his sprint races here, finishing sixth and eighth, really very poor compared to his Grand Prix record in which he finished first after the horror stories of the sprints. Even Tsunoda out qualified Max yesterday, so he really is in trouble.

2025 Qatar GP Sprint Race Tip: 1 point Fernando Alonso to beat Max Verstappen @ 2.75 with Ladbrokes

We have only had the two sprint races here and both were quite close affairs. The 2023 winning margin was 1.871s and last year just 0.136s. In 2025, of the five Sprint races so far, four have seen a winning margin of under one second.

2025 Qatar GP Sprint Race Tip: 1 point winning margin of under 2 seconds @ 3.50 with Unibet

-JamesPunt