Race Start
Sunday, September 6 at 9:00 AM EDT
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Free .ics download — sessions appear in your local time in Google, Apple & Outlook calendars.
Round 13 of 22 · Autodromo Nazionale Monza · September 4–6, 2026
Free .ics download — sessions appear in your local time in Google, Apple & Outlook calendars.
| Session | Eastern | Central | Mountain | Pacific |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practice 1 | Fri, Sep 4, 7:30 AM EDT | Fri, Sep 4, 6:30 AM CDT | Fri, Sep 4, 5:30 AM MDT | Fri, Sep 4, 4:30 AM PDT |
| Practice 2 | Fri, Sep 4, 11:00 AM EDT | Fri, Sep 4, 10:00 AM CDT | Fri, Sep 4, 9:00 AM MDT | Fri, Sep 4, 8:00 AM PDT |
| Practice 3 | Sat, Sep 5, 6:30 AM EDT | Sat, Sep 5, 5:30 AM CDT | Sat, Sep 5, 4:30 AM MDT | Sat, Sep 5, 3:30 AM PDT |
| Qualifying | Sat, Sep 5, 10:00 AM EDT | Sat, Sep 5, 9:00 AM CDT | Sat, Sep 5, 8:00 AM MDT | Sat, Sep 5, 7:00 AM PDT |
| Race | Sun, Sep 6, 9:00 AM EDT | Sun, Sep 6, 8:00 AM CDT | Sun, Sep 6, 7:00 AM MDT | Sun, Sep 6, 6:00 AM PDT |
Monza is the Temple of Speed — the fastest lap of the season, where cars run skinny wings and spend over 80% of the lap at full throttle. The atmosphere is unmatched: the tifosi turn the royal park red for Ferrari regardless of where the team sits in the standings. Slipstreaming makes qualifying a tactical chess match, and the two chicanes guarantee late-braking drama into the first lap.
Monza is about one thing: velocity. Cars run their skinniest wings of the season, spend around 80% of the lap at full throttle, and touch 360 km/h before the braking zones for the two chicanes — which, at 5g of deceleration, are among the hardest brake applications in the sport. The Curva Grande, the Lesmo rights, the Ascari chicane and the long Parabolica that sweeps onto the pit straight complete a lap that has barely changed in a century.
Low downforce makes the cars skittish and braking-zone mistakes common, while the slipstream is so powerful that leading a qualifying lap is a disadvantage — expect the traditional tow-trading chess match in Q3, where teams stack their cars like cyclists in a sprint train. In the race, the run from the start line to the first chicane is one of the longest of the year, and the leader into Turn 1 is very often not the polesitter.
Built in 1922 in a royal park outside Milan, Monza is the oldest circuit on the calendar and has hosted the Italian Grand Prix in every World Championship season but one. Its abandoned banking still looms in the trees as a monument to a more dangerous age. The tifosi — Ferrari's fanatical supporters — define the event: when a Ferrari wins at Monza, the crowd storms the track beneath the podium in a sea of red flags, a spectacle unmatched anywhere in world sport.
Sunday morning race for US fans. Monza rewards watching the start above all: the run from pole to the first chicane is long enough that the leader almost never exits Turn 1 first. If the championship is close, the tow games in Saturday qualifying are half the entertainment.
A 9 AM Eastern Sunday start. Above all, watch the start live: the 600-meter drag from the lights to the first chicane routinely reshuffles the podium in eight seconds, and opening-lap chaos at the chicanes is practically a Monza tradition. If the title fight is close, Saturday's qualifying tow games — teams timing their laps to catch a slipstream without giving one — are half the weekend's entertainment on their own.
The race starts Sunday, September 6 at 9:00 AM EDT. That's 8:00 AM CDT Central, 7:00 AM MDT Mountain, and 6:00 AM PDT Pacific.
No, it uses the standard format: three practice sessions, qualifying (Saturday, September 5 at 10:00 AM EDT), and the Grand Prix.
53 laps of the 5.793 km Autodromo Nazionale Monza, a race distance of about 307 km.
It's the fastest circuit in Formula 1 — cars average over 250 km/h for a full lap, spend about 80% of the lap flat out, and hit their highest top speeds of the season. It's also the oldest track on the calendar, in continuous use since 1922.
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.