Race Start
Sunday, June 7 at 9:00 AM EDT
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Free .ics download — sessions appear in your local time in Google, Apple & Outlook calendars.
Round 6 of 22 · Circuit de Monaco · June 5–7, 2026
Free .ics download — sessions appear in your local time in Google, Apple & Outlook calendars.
| Session | Eastern | Central | Mountain | Pacific |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practice 1 | Fri, Jun 5, 7:30 AM EDT | Fri, Jun 5, 6:30 AM CDT | Fri, Jun 5, 5:30 AM MDT | Fri, Jun 5, 4:30 AM PDT |
| Practice 2 | Fri, Jun 5, 11:00 AM EDT | Fri, Jun 5, 10:00 AM CDT | Fri, Jun 5, 9:00 AM MDT | Fri, Jun 5, 8:00 AM PDT |
| Practice 3 | Sat, Jun 6, 6:30 AM EDT | Sat, Jun 6, 5:30 AM CDT | Sat, Jun 6, 4:30 AM MDT | Sat, Jun 6, 3:30 AM PDT |
| Qualifying | Sat, Jun 6, 10:00 AM EDT | Sat, Jun 6, 9:00 AM CDT | Sat, Jun 6, 8:00 AM MDT | Sat, Jun 6, 7:00 AM PDT |
| Race | Sun, Jun 7, 9:00 AM EDT | Sun, Jun 7, 8:00 AM CDT | Sun, Jun 7, 7:00 AM MDT | Sun, Jun 7, 6:00 AM PDT |
The jewel in the crown. Monaco is the shortest, slowest, and most unforgiving lap of the year — 78 laps threading the streets of Monte Carlo with zero margin for error through Casino Square, the Tunnel, and the swimming pool chicane. Overtaking is nearly impossible, which makes Saturday qualifying the real main event: pole position here is worth more than anywhere else on Earth.
The lap of Monaco is barely 3.3 km, but it packs in more famous corners than circuits twice its length: the uphill charge from Sainte Dévote to Massenet, the blind crest into Casino Square, the tight Fairmont hairpin — the slowest corner in Formula 1, taken at under 50 km/h — the flat-out run through the tunnel, and the harbor-front chicane where the ground drops away under braking. There is no runoff, no margin, and no place to relax for 78 laps.
Overtaking is close to impossible on track — entire races pass without a single genuine pass for position — so the weekend's competitive core is Saturday qualifying, the highest-stakes hour of the season. Race day then becomes a strategy chess match around the pit window, where an ill-timed safety car can hand victory to a midfield car. It's the one weekend where the sport's usual logic inverts: Sunday is the coronation, Saturday is the fight.
First run in 1929 and part of the World Championship since its inaugural 1950 season, Monaco is the race every driver wants on their resume, one third of motorsport's unofficial Triple Crown alongside the Indy 500 and Le Mans. Ayrton Senna's six wins remain the record — his 1988 qualifying lap here, over a second faster than teammate Alain Prost in identical machinery, is still spoken of as the greatest lap ever driven. Graham Hill's five wins in the 1960s earned him the nickname 'Mr. Monaco.'
Monaco kicks off the European-season morning routine for US fans: lights out Sunday morning Eastern time — brunch racing on the East Coast, an early alarm on the West Coast. Make time for qualifying on Saturday morning; watching a driver commit to a flying lap between Monaco's barriers is the single best spectacle in motorsport.
Monaco opens the European stretch of the calendar, which means a fixed morning routine for US fans through midsummer: lights out mid-morning Eastern, breakfast-time Central, and an early alarm out West. Saturday qualifying is genuinely unmissable here — set the alarm for that even if you plan to catch the race on replay. Our race-weekend format guide explains how the qualifying hour is structured if you're new to it.
The race starts Sunday, June 7 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, June 6 at 10:00 AM EDT), and the Grand Prix.
78 laps of the 3.337 km Circuit de Monaco, a race distance of about 260 km.
The streets are so narrow that overtaking is nearly impossible — grid position usually decides the podium. Pole position at Monaco has historically converted to victory more often than at any other circuit, which makes Saturday's qualifying session the real main event of the weekend.
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.