Qualifying Format and 107% Rule Interpreter

Three published Formula One qualifying formats side by side — the 2026 Standard Format, Sprint Qualifying and the 2016 hour — answering four questions each: how long each part runs, how many cars go out, how the grid order is built, and when a lap is too slow to start the race.

Last updated 12 Oct 2026

Qualifying formats and the elimination rules

Format → rule

FormatThree formats this page could read in full. The first two are Articles B2.4 and B2.2 of the 2026 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, Issue 07 of 25 June 2026; the third is Article 33.1 of the 2016 Sporting Regulations published 20 April 2016. The 2016 elimination experiment is NOT in this list, and the reason is on the page.

QuestionFour questions the regulation text answers directly for each format. The fourth is the 107 per cent rule, which is in the classification article rather than in the format article and is the one that has actually changed in wording between the two editions read.

A driver eliminated in Q1 whose best Q1 lap exceeded 107 per cent of the fastest lap set during Q1 may not start, unless the track was declared wet by the Race Director. Setting no lap time at all in Q1, or having every lap deleted, has the same effect.Example

Formula 1 Qualifying under the 2026 Standard Format, asked when a lap is too slow to start the race

Three published formats, part by part

Articles B2.4.2 and B2.2.1 of the 2026 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, Issue 07 of 25 June 2026, and Article 33.1 of the 2016 Sporting Regulations published 20 April 2016. The 2016 article gives clock times rather than durations, which is a real difference in drafting style and not a simplification here: it fixes the session to a one-hour window from 14.00 to 15.00.
Format	First part	Second part	Third part	Break between parts
Qualifying, 2026 Standard Format	Q1, 18 minutes	Q2, 15 minutes	Q3, 13 minutes	seven minutes
Sprint Qualifying, 2026	SQ1, 12 minutes	SQ2, 10 minutes	SQ3, 8 minutes	seven minutes
Qualifying, 2016 regulations	Q1, 14.00 to 14.18	Q2, 14.25 to 14.40	Q3, 14.48 to 15.00	seven and eight minutes

How many cars go out, and what that depends on

Article B2.4.3 of the 2026 regulations sets the elimination count against the number of eligible cars — “If twenty (20) Cars are eligible, five (5) F1 Cars will be eliminated after Q1 and Q2”, with seven at twenty-four — so the third part always has ten. Article 33.1 of the 2016 regulations instead names absolute numbers: “the slowest eight cars will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session”, then “the eighteen remaining cars”, then “the ten remaining cars”. Eight plus eighteen is twenty-six, so that drafting assumes a grid larger than any the sport has used recently, which is exactly the kind of thing a count-relative rule avoids. The Sprint Qualifying row is given only for the twenty-two case, which is what was read in Article B2.2.1; the eligible-car variations were read in the Qualifying article and are not claimed for Sprint Qualifying.
Format	Eligible cars	Out after the first part	Out after the second part	In the third part
Qualifying, 2026	20	five	five	ten
Qualifying, 2026	22	six	six	ten
Qualifying, 2026	24	seven	seven	ten
Sprint Qualifying, 2026	22	six	six	ten
Qualifying, 2016 regulations	stated absolutely	the slowest eight	eight more	the ten remaining

Three parts, two editions, and a threshold measured on the wrong lap

This page is about motorsport — circuit racing in cars — whose international rules are the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s: the International Sporting Code and its appendices for the sport as a whole, and a separate set of Sporting Regulations for each championship. Every figure below is printed with the regulation, the issue and the date it was read from, because motorsport regulations are not merely revised between seasons — they are reissued several times within a season and renumbered between editions, and a rule quoted without its issue will be wrong for somebody. The FIA published nine issues of the 2026 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations between October 2024 and October 2026.

Formula One qualifying is three parts with the slowest cars removed after each. The 2026 Standard Format, at Article B2.4.2 of the Sporting Regulations Issue 07 of 25 June 2026, runs Q1 for eighteen minutes, then a seven-minute break, then Q2 for fifteen minutes, another seven-minute break, and Q3 for thirteen minutes. Sprint Qualifying, at Article B2.2.1, is the same shape compressed: twelve, ten and eight minutes with the same seven-minute breaks.

The elimination count is drafted in an interesting way, and comparing the two editions shows why. Article B2.4.3 of the 2026 regulations ties it to the entry: six cars out after each of Q1 and Q2 at a twenty-two car grid, “If twenty (20) Cars are eligible, five (5) F1 Cars will be eliminated after Q1 and Q2”, and seven at twenty-four — so Q3 always has ten. Article 33.1 of the 2016 regulations names absolute numbers instead: “the slowest eight cars will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session”, then “the eighteen remaining cars”, then “the ten remaining cars”. Eight and eighteen is twenty-six, so that wording was drafted for a grid bigger than the sport has fielded in years, and a grid of twenty would have had it eliminating eight of twenty. The count-relative drafting is the fix.

The starting order is built from the back forwards, which is worth saying because it is not obvious. Article B2.4.3(a) allocates “The top ten (10) positions” to the drivers who took part in Q3, “The next six (6) positions” to those eliminated in Q2, and “The next six (6) positions” to those eliminated in Q1 — so a driver eliminated in Q1 cannot start ahead of one eliminated in Q2 however fast the lap was. Ties go to whoever set the time first.

Why three decimal places, and what does not say so. Motorsport quotes a lap to the thousandth of a second where athletics and swimming quote to the hundredth, and the three decimals here are read off the FIA’s own documents rather than off a rule: its Final Qualifying Classification for the 2026 British Grand Prix prints “1:28.111”, and its Qualifying Session Best Sector Times sheet for the same event prints “28.292”. The regulation text is silent. Of the 113,053 characters of the 2026 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations Section B that could be read, none states a timing precision, and the words “thousandth” and “0.001” do not appear. So the precision on this page is the FIA’s published practice, not a quoted article, and it is described that way rather than dressed up as a rule.

Now the 107 per cent rule, which is the part most often quoted and most often measured against the wrong lap. Article B2.4.3(b)(i): a driver is affected “If they got eliminated in Q1 and their best lap in Q1 exceeded 107% of the fastest lap time set during Q1, unless the track was declared wet by the Race Director”. The reference is the fastest lap in Q1 — not the pole lap, not a lap record, not your own earlier time. At the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix the fastest Q1 lap was 1:45.865, putting the limit at 1:53.276; measured against the 1:44.361 pole lap instead, the limit would have been 1:51.666, a second and a half tighter and simply wrong. Sprint Qualifying carries the same rule in the same words at Article B2.2.3(b)(i), measured on SQ1.

The wording has hardened and softened. Article 35.1 of the 2016 regulations reads “During Q1, any driver whose best qualifying lap exceeds 107% of the fastest time set during that session, or who fails to set a time, will not be allowed to take part in the race”, with no wet-track exception in the text read — a flat prohibition. The 2026 version splits the grounds into three sub-clauses, adds the Race Director’s wet-track exception, and puts the failure to set a time in its own clause, (b)(ii): “If they failed to set a lap time in Q1, or if all their lap times were deleted.” Deletion is a real route to this: a lap set under a double waved yellow should be abandoned, and the flag interpreter has the wording.

What is missing from this page, and why. In 2016 Formula One ran a qualifying format in which cars were eliminated at intervals during each part rather than at the end of it. The FIA’s own news item of 11 March 2016 records that the Formula One Commission “unanimously approved” “the amendments to the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship Sporting Regulations regarding a new qualifying procedure”, and says “Regulations covering the elimination-style format can be found in Articles 33 and 35”. It was used at two Competitions and abandoned. This page does not give its parameters — not the interval between eliminations, not the part lengths, nothing — because the regulation text could not be read: the document the FIA news item links now resolves to the FIA home page. What can be shown is the bracket. The FIA published the format on 11 March 2016, and the 2016 Sporting Regulations published 20 April 2016 contain the conventional three-part hour at Article 33.1 with no elimination-style provision in it at all. So the experiment began and ended inside those six weeks, and that is as precise as this page is willing to be.

An honest note about article numbers. The same Formula 1 rule carries a different number in every edition of the regulations this batch read. The race distance is Article 5.3 in the 2016 and 2019 Sporting Regulations, Article 5.4 in the 2024 and 2025 editions, and Article B2.5.2 in the 2026 edition, which the FIA split into a Section A of general provisions and a Section B of sporting regulations and renumbered throughout. The championship points moved the other way: Article 6.4 from 2016 to 2025, then out of the Sporting Regulations altogether and into Section A at Article A2.2.1 for 2026. Quote a number here against the edition your own championship is run under, because the number alone will not find the rule.

For the lap time the 107 per cent threshold is applied to, see the lap time and average speed calculator; for the sector times a deleted lap takes with it, the sector times and theoretical best lap calculator; and for what a red flag during qualifying does, the race suspension and virtual safety car interpreter.

Frequently asked questions

What is the 107% rule in Formula 1?

A driver eliminated in Q1 whose best Q1 lap “exceeded 107% of the fastest lap time set during Q1” may not start the race, “unless the track was declared wet by the Race Director” — Article B2.4.3(b)(i) of the 2026 Sporting Regulations. Setting no time at all, or having every lap deleted, has the same effect under (b)(ii).

107% of what, exactly?

Of the fastest lap set in Q1, by anybody — not of the pole lap. At the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix the fastest Q1 lap was 1:45.865, so the limit was 1:53.276. Taking 107% of the 1:44.361 pole lap instead gives 1:51.666, which is a second and a half too strict.

How long is each part of qualifying?

Eighteen, fifteen and thirteen minutes, with a seven-minute break between the parts — Article B2.4.2 of the 2026 Sporting Regulations. Sprint Qualifying is twelve, ten and eight minutes with the same breaks, under Article B2.2.1. The 2016 regulations instead fixed clock times: 14.00 to 14.18, 14.25 to 14.40 and 14.48 to 15.00.

How many cars are knocked out in Q1?

It depends on the entry, under the current drafting. Article B2.4.3: six at a twenty-two car grid, five “If twenty (20) Cars are eligible”, seven at twenty-four — always leaving ten for Q3. The 2016 regulations named absolute numbers instead, eliminating “the slowest eight cars” and leaving “the eighteen remaining”, which only adds up on a twenty-six car grid.

What was the 2016 elimination qualifying format?

A format in which cars were knocked out during each part rather than at the end. This page will not state its parameters, because the regulation text could not be read: the document the FIA’s own news item of 11 March 2016 links now resolves to the FIA home page. What can be shown is that the FIA published it on 11 March 2016 and that the regulations published 20 April 2016 no longer contain it — so it began and ended within six weeks.

Related calculators

References

Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. 2026 Formula 1 Regulations — Section B: Sporting, Issue 07, published 25 June 2026. PDF at api.fia.com (read 15 Oct 2026 in four fetches at different offsets; the extractable text is 113,053 characters and ends inside Article B5.10.1, so Articles B5.11 onward — the Safety Car deployment procedure and the race suspension and resumption procedure — could not be read and are quoted nowhere in this batch. a fifth fetch, of Issue 09 of 1 October 2026, whose own extract is 113,124 characters, reached no further through the same articles). Read and quoted: B1.6.3(a) “A speed limit of 80km/h will be imposed in the Pit Lane during the whole Competition”; B2.2.1 and B2.2.3(b)(i) for Sprint Qualifying; B2.4.1 to B2.4.3 for Qualifying and the 107% provision; B2.5.2 “shall be equal to the least number of complete laps which exceed a distance of 305km” with B2.5.2b for Monaco at 260km; B2.5.3 and B2.5.3b for the two-hour period and “a maximum total Race duration of three (3) hours”; B4.1.2 to B4.1.4 for session interruption and the Virtual Safety Car. The words “thousandth” and “0.001” do not occur in any of it.
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. 2016 Formula One Sporting Regulations, “PUBLISHED ON 20 APRIL 2016”. PDF at fia.com, reached through a legacy file URL because the FIA’s own regulation listing begins at 2018 (read 15 Oct 2026; truncated inside Article 36.5). This is the oldest Formula One Sporting Regulations this batch could read at all. Article 6.4 is the same 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. Article 22.10 is the 80km/h pit lane limit. Article 33.1 is a three-part qualifying hour: Q1 from 14.00 to 14.18 where “the slowest eight cars will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session”, Q2 from 14.25 to 14.40 for “the eighteen remaining cars”, Q3 from 14.48 to 15.00 for “the ten remaining cars”. Article 35.1: “During Q1, any driver whose best qualifying lap exceeds 107% of the fastest time set during that session, or who fails to set a time, will not be allowed to take part in the race.”
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. “Updated 2016 F1 Sporting Regulations”, fia.com news item dated 11 March 2016 (read 15 Oct 2026). The Formula One Commission “unanimously approved” “the amendments to the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship Sporting Regulations regarding a new qualifying procedure”, and “Regulations covering the elimination-style format can be found in Articles 33 and 35”. The regulation text itself could not be read: the document the item links, fia.com/file/39240/download, now resolves to the FIA home page. So the elimination format’s own parameters are quoted nowhere in this batch — only its existence, its approval date and the two articles the FIA says carried it.
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. 2026 Belgian Grand Prix — Final Qualifying Classification, 17–19 July 2026. PDF at fia.com (read 15 Oct 2026; about 5,500 characters). Pole to Antonelli on 1:44.361; the fastest Q1 lap was Norris’s 1:45.865. Times to three decimal places.
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. 2026 British Grand Prix — Final Qualifying Classification, Document 63, 4 July 2026 19:25. PDF at fia.com (read 15 Oct 2026; about 3,900 characters). Lap times printed to three decimal places. Antonelli first on 1:28.111, Leclerc second on 1:28.286, Hamilton third on 1:28.458. The footer names the officials; no copyright notice appears in the text.
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. Appendix H to the International Sporting Code, 2026 edition, published 23 June 2026. PDF at api.fia.com (read 15 Oct 2026 in two fetches; the text is bilingual French and English and ends mid-sentence inside Article 2.6.1). Article 2.5.4.1 (a) to (f) are the flags used by the Clerk of the Course and Article 2.5.5 (a) to (g) those used at marshal posts; the meanings are written out as plain text in both languages, not drawn as pictures, which was checked because a flag table is the obvious candidate for being an image. Only this one edition was read, so nothing in this batch claims a flag meaning is unchanged from any earlier year.