​The Singapore Grand Prix made its debut on the F1 calendar in 2008 and was the sport’s first night race [Getty Images]Round 17 of the 2026 Formula 1 season heads to the Marina Bay Street Circuit for the Singapore Grand Prix, from 9-11 October. The weekend is also the sixth and final sprint event of the campaign. At the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Max Verstappen took his first victory of the year, with title leader Kimi Antonelli second and Lewis Hamilton third. Italian Antonelli leads Mercedes team-mate George Russell by 84 points in the drivers’ championship after the Briton retired from race with an engine issue. Russell needs to take a new power unit this weekend, putting him over the limit on several components, and will therefore start at the back of the grid due to a penalty. Sunday’s 62-lap grand prix, which takes place at night in Singapore, starts at 13:00 BST. Russell to start from back of Singapore grid after penaltyF1 heat hazard declared for fourth time this seasonSession start times and BBC coverageCommentary of the race will be available across 5 Sports Extra, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.You can also ask your smart speaker to “play 5 Sports Extra”.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.All times BSTFriday, 9 October First practice: 09:30-10:30 – 5 Sports Extra Sprint qualifying: 13:30-14:14 – 5 Sports Extra Saturday, 10 October Sprint race: 10:00-11:00 – 5 Sports Extra Qualifying: 14:00-15:00 – 5 Sports Extra Sunday, 11 OctoberRace: 13:00 with build-up from 12:45 – 5 Sports Extra What is the Singapore weather forecast? George Russell won the Singapore Grand Prix last year ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris [Getty Images]The forecast predicts some rain could fall in Singapore.The weekend has also been declared a heat-hazard event for the second race in a row. A heat hazard is an official status for an event where it is forecast that temperatures will exceed 31C at some point during the race.Saturday’s sprint race and main qualifying, plus Sunday’s grand prix, which starts at 8pm local time, are forecast for thundery showers during the day, but conditions should dry out before the night-time action takes place. Temperatures at Marina Bay during the three days of track action will reach highs of 33C. Bottas cycling from Malaysia to Singapore Grand PrixHow does the F1 sprint race work? Marina Bay is hosting a sprint weekend for the very first time this year. Sprint qualifying has three sessions, where the six slowest cars are knocked out from the first two – like normal qualifying.These sessions, known as SQ1, SQ2 and SQ3, and last 12, 10 and eight minutes respectively.This will make up the grid for the 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