The Sprint Race grid is formed by reversing the top ten positions from Friday's qualifying session, meaning the driver who qualified fastest starts tenth, and the driver who qualified tenth starts on pole. Positions outside the top ten are unchanged. This inversion is designed to bring midfield-qualifying drivers to the front, increasing the likelihood of battles between drivers of differing pace and strategy.
The race runs over approximately 120 km or a maximum of 45 minutes, whichever limit is reached first. It is a shorter event than the Feature Race (which covers roughly 170 km or up to one hour) and carries a reduced points allocation.
The top eight finishers in the Sprint Race receive championship points, compared to the top ten in the Feature Race. As with the Feature Race, one additional point is awarded for the fastest lap if set by a driver finishing inside the top ten of the race classification.
In 2022, the Formula 2 championship reduced the number of points awarded for sprint races as part of a broader recalibration of the points structure. This adjustment was intended to reinforce the Feature Race as the primary championship-defining event of each round.
When the FIA Formula 2 Championship was introduced in 2017 as a rebrand of the GP2 Series, the Feature Race was held on Saturdays and the sprint race on Sundays. This scheduling was reversed from 2021 onward, with the sprint race moving to Saturdays and the Feature Race to Sundays, aligning the main event more directly with the Formula One Grand Prix slot.
The 2021 season also saw Formula 2 adopt a three-race format briefly, adding a second sprint race per round as part of post-pandemic cost-cutting restructuring. The championship returned to a two-race format (Feature Race plus one Sprint Race) in 2022.
The Sprint Race's inverted grid is one of Formula 2's most analysed structural features from a driver development perspective. Observers of the series point out that the format tests a driver's ability to manage overtaking, defensive driving, and tyre conservation under conditions that differ from those of the Feature Race. A driver starting on sprint-race pole — having qualified tenth — must typically manage pressure from behind over a shorter distance, while higher-qualified drivers starting deep in the field must demonstrate overtaking ability.
The 2019 sprint race at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps was cancelled before it took place, as a mark of respect following the death of Anthoine Hubert in the preceding day's Feature Race. It was the only occasion in the championship's history, as of the 2019 season, that a scheduled sprint race was cancelled for reasons unrelated to weather or safety conditions at the circuit.
Formula 2 graduates who won or prominently competed in the Sprint Race format before reaching Formula One include Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, George Russell, and Oscar Piastri, whose junior careers in the series spanned the period when the inverted-grid sprint format was a regular feature of the championship weekend.