Race Start
Sunday, May 24 at 4:00 PM EDT
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Free .ics download — sessions appear in your local time in Google, Apple & Outlook calendars.
Round 5 of 22 · Circuit Gilles Villeneuve · May 22–24, 2026 · Sprint Weekend
Free .ics download — sessions appear in your local time in Google, Apple & Outlook calendars.
| Session | Eastern | Central | Mountain | Pacific |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practice 1 | Fri, May 22, 12:30 PM EDT | Fri, May 22, 11:30 AM CDT | Fri, May 22, 10:30 AM MDT | Fri, May 22, 9:30 AM PDT |
| Sprint Qualifying | Fri, May 22, 4:30 PM EDT | Fri, May 22, 3:30 PM CDT | Fri, May 22, 2:30 PM MDT | Fri, May 22, 1:30 PM PDT |
| Sprint Race | Sat, May 23, 12:00 PM EDT | Sat, May 23, 11:00 AM CDT | Sat, May 23, 10:00 AM MDT | Sat, May 23, 9:00 AM PDT |
| Qualifying | Sat, May 23, 4:00 PM EDT | Sat, May 23, 3:00 PM CDT | Sat, May 23, 2:00 PM MDT | Sat, May 23, 1:00 PM PDT |
| Race | Sun, May 24, 4:00 PM EDT | Sun, May 24, 3:00 PM CDT | Sun, May 24, 2:00 PM MDT | Sun, May 24, 1:00 PM PDT |
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve moves to May for 2026 and picks up a sprint weekend — a big change for one of the calendar's most reliable chaos generators. The track on Île Notre-Dame is a point-and-shoot layout of long straights, heavy braking zones, and the infamous Wall of Champions waiting at the final chicane. Walls are close, safety cars are frequent, and strategy gambles often decide the result.
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve sits on Île Notre-Dame, a man-made island in the St. Lawrence River built for Expo 67, and shares space with the rowing basin from the 1976 Olympics. The layout is pure point-and-shoot: chicanes and hairpins linked by full-throttle blasts, with the wall lining almost every exit. Braking stability and traction matter more here than aerodynamic sophistication, which historically lets scrappier cars punch above their weight.
The final chicane is guarded by the most famous piece of concrete in the sport — the Wall of Champions, so named after Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher, and Jacques Villeneuve (all world champions) crashed there in the 1999 race alone. Add the long back straight's heavy braking zone into the hairpin, frequent safety cars, and Montreal's volatile spring weather, and Canada reliably produces one of the most eventful races of the year.
Montreal has hosted the Canadian Grand Prix since 1978, when local hero Gilles Villeneuve won the inaugural race in a Ferrari — the circuit was renamed in his honor after his death in 1982. Its greatest hits include the 2011 race, the longest in F1 history at over four hours of rain delays, won by Jenson Button from last place on the final lap. The 2026 move to May, paired with a first-ever Montreal sprint, is one of the year's biggest schedule experiments.
Another fully US-friendly weekend: every session is in afternoon or early-evening Eastern time, and the race starts Sunday afternoon across all US time zones. Montreal in May can bring wild weather — rain here has produced some of the most famous races in F1 history, so don't skip the sprint.
Every session lands in comfortable US afternoon and early-evening windows, and because Montreal shares the Eastern time zone, what you see on the schedule is what East Coast viewers get with zero conversion. One 2026-specific note: the date moved from June to late May to pair with Miami and cut Atlantic crossings, so update any calendar habits from previous seasons — better yet, grab the .ics file above.
The race starts Sunday, May 24 at 4:00 PM EDT. That's 3:00 PM CDT Central, 2:00 PM MDT Mountain, and 1:00 PM PDT Pacific.
Yes. In addition to the Grand Prix, the weekend includes Sprint Qualifying (Friday, May 22 at 4:30 PM EDT) and a points-paying Sprint race (Saturday, May 23 at 12:00 PM EDT).
70 laps of the 4.361 km Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a race distance of about 305 km.
F1 reorganized the 2026 calendar to group races geographically and reduce back-and-forth travel, moving Montreal from its traditional June date to late May alongside the Miami round. It also becomes a sprint weekend for the first time.
New to Formula 1 or planning your viewing weekend? Read our guides to watching F1 in the US, how a race weekend works, and why F1 start times vary.