Race Start
Sunday, March 15 at 3:00 AM EDT
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Free .ics download — sessions appear in your local time in Google, Apple & Outlook calendars.
Round 2 of 22 · Shanghai International Circuit · March 13–15, 2026 · Sprint Weekend
Free .ics download — sessions appear in your local time in Google, Apple & Outlook calendars.
| Session | Eastern | Central | Mountain | Pacific |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practice 1 | Thu, Mar 12, 11:30 PM EDT | Thu, Mar 12, 10:30 PM CDT | Thu, Mar 12, 9:30 PM MDT | Thu, Mar 12, 8:30 PM PDT |
| Sprint Qualifying | Fri, Mar 13, 3:30 AM EDT | Fri, Mar 13, 2:30 AM CDT | Fri, Mar 13, 1:30 AM MDT | Fri, Mar 13, 12:30 AM PDT |
| Sprint Race | Fri, Mar 13, 11:00 PM EDT | Fri, Mar 13, 10:00 PM CDT | Fri, Mar 13, 9:00 PM MDT | Fri, Mar 13, 8:00 PM PDT |
| Qualifying | Sat, Mar 14, 3:00 AM EDT | Sat, Mar 14, 2:00 AM CDT | Sat, Mar 14, 1:00 AM MDT | Sat, Mar 14, 12:00 AM PDT |
| Race | Sun, Mar 15, 3:00 AM EDT | Sun, Mar 15, 2:00 AM CDT | Sun, Mar 15, 1:00 AM MDT | Sun, Mar 15, 12:00 AM PDT |
Shanghai hosts the first sprint weekend of 2026, which means meaningful track action on all three days and double the points-paying sessions. The Shanghai International Circuit is defined by its snail-shell Turn 1-2-3 complex and a 1.2 km back straight that produces some of the best slipstream battles of the year. With the new 2026 cars still an unknown quantity, a sprint this early is a gift: twice the racing data, twice the chaos potential.
The Shanghai International Circuit was carved out of marshland on the edge of the city and its layout is drawn from the Chinese character 'shang' — most obviously in the extraordinary Turn 1-2-3 complex, a corner that keeps tightening as it climbs and then falls, testing patience as much as grip. Get the entry wrong and the exit compromises the run all the way to Turn 6. The middle sector's long, loaded right-handers punish the front-left tire harder than almost any corners on the calendar.
The defining overtaking zone is the 1.2 km back straight into the Turn 14 hairpin — one of the longest full-throttle stretches of the season, where a car with a tow can sail past even a faster rival. Because the sprint format compresses setup time into a single practice session, teams arrive with educated guesses rather than dialed-in cars, and Shanghai's tire-hungry corners expose every mistake. Expect divergent strategies and genuine uncertainty in both races.
China joined the calendar in 2004 at the height of F1's eastward expansion, with Rubens Barrichello winning the first race for Ferrari. The circuit has since produced landmark moments: Michael Schumacher's final Grand Prix victory in 2006, and Lewis Hamilton's record haul of six Chinese GP wins. After a five-year absence around the pandemic, the race returned in 2024 — with a sprint — and immediately re-established itself as one of the better racing venues on the calendar.
Like Melbourne, Shanghai runs overnight for US viewers — the Grand Prix starts Saturday evening to overnight depending on your time zone. The sprint race on Friday night US time is a lower-stakes way to stay up late. If you only catch one session live, make it qualifying: Shanghai's long back straight makes for dramatic final-sector swings.
The sprint format actually helps US viewers here: Friday's sprint qualifying and Saturday's sprint race land in the US evening and overnight windows, so you can treat them as a low-stakes preview and save your energy for Sunday's main event. If you only watch one Shanghai session live, the slipstream games down the back straight make qualifying the pick.
The race starts Sunday, March 15 at 3:00 AM EDT. That's 2:00 AM CDT Central, 1:00 AM MDT Mountain, and 12:00 AM PDT Pacific.
Yes. In addition to the Grand Prix, the weekend includes Sprint Qualifying (Friday, March 13 at 3:30 AM EDT) and a points-paying Sprint race (Friday, March 13 at 11:00 PM EDT).
56 laps of the 5.451 km Shanghai International Circuit, a race distance of about 305 km.
Shanghai hosts the first of the season's six sprint weekends, meaning a sprint qualifying session on Friday and a roughly 100 km sprint race on Saturday morning (local time) in addition to normal qualifying and the Grand Prix. Points are awarded in both the sprint and the main race.
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.