It was the ninth round of the 2023 Formula One World Championship and the second Grand Prix weekend of the 2023 season to utilise the sprint format.

The change was made after Lando Norris could not run in SQ3 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, due to him exhausting his allocation of soft tyres.

[10][11] The first session (Q1) was red-flagged when Valtteri Bottas spun out at turn one; by this point, Max Verstappen topped the session, with Kevin Magnussen second; the former had his best lap time deleted due to a track limits violation; in addition, Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu and Lewis Hamilton all committed track limits violations.

Verstappen set the fastest time as Yuki Tsunoda, teammate Nyck de Vries, Zhou, Logan Sargeant, and Magnussen were all eliminated following Q1.

This allowed Lando Norris to momentarily top the session ahead of Nico Hülkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Hamilton.

[19] Carlos Sainz Jr. suffered a failure of his brake-by-wire system, going into the pit lane with smoke billowing from the back of his Ferrari SF-23.

[19][20] Verstappen, Zhou, Sergio Pérez, Hamilton (who initially topped the session), and Sargeant's first times were deleted for track limits violations.

[21] Hamilton's teammate George Russell, having set a time for seventh, reported a hydraulics failure, ruling him out of the rest of qualification.

[19] In the second session, De Vries and Verstappen had their lap times deleted due to track limits violations, and a replay showed Hülkenberg's car running over a tyre; stewards investigated the unsafe release, although no penalty was awarded.

[19] Verstappen took the pole position for the sprint, with Pérez allowing the Red Bulls to start 1–2 with the Ferraris fifth (Sainz) and sixth (Leclerc, who was penalised and dropped to ninth after he impeded Piastri earlier).

Hülkenberg, Lewis Hamilton, Kevin Magnussen, Logan Sargeant, Nyck de Vries, and Zhou Guanyu all boxed for dry tyres.

The sprint ended with Verstappen winning from Pérez as Esteban Ocon and George Russell had a battle going into the final corner, with the former edging out the latter by 0.009 seconds for 7th place.

Leclerc jumped him in the pit lane, allowing him to lead a race for Ferrari for the first time since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Pérez, who had started fifteenth, would get up to third as drivers made their stops, and Verstappen, having built up a large gap over the race, won comfortably in front of Leclerc who gave Ferrari their 800th Formula One podium.

Additionally, Sainz, Alexander Albon, Pierre Gasly, Logan Sargeant, and Magnussen all received penalties for track limits.

The only two drivers to have been penalised for something other than track limits were Esteban Ocon for unsafe release during his pit-stop, and Nyck de Vries for pushing Magnussen off-track.