Race Start
Sunday, October 11 at 8:00 AM EDT
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Free .ics download — sessions appear in your local time in Google, Apple & Outlook calendars.
Round 16 of 22 · Marina Bay Street Circuit · October 9–11, 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, Oct 9, 4:30 AM EDT | Fri, Oct 9, 3:30 AM CDT | Fri, Oct 9, 2:30 AM MDT | Fri, Oct 9, 1:30 AM PDT |
| Sprint Qualifying | Fri, Oct 9, 8:30 AM EDT | Fri, Oct 9, 7:30 AM CDT | Fri, Oct 9, 6:30 AM MDT | Fri, Oct 9, 5:30 AM PDT |
| Sprint Race | Sat, Oct 10, 5:00 AM EDT | Sat, Oct 10, 4:00 AM CDT | Sat, Oct 10, 3:00 AM MDT | Sat, Oct 10, 2:00 AM PDT |
| Qualifying | Sat, Oct 10, 9:00 AM EDT | Sat, Oct 10, 8:00 AM CDT | Sat, Oct 10, 7:00 AM MDT | Sat, Oct 10, 6:00 AM PDT |
| Race | Sun, Oct 11, 8:00 AM EDT | Sun, Oct 11, 7:00 AM CDT | Sun, Oct 11, 6:00 AM MDT | Sun, Oct 11, 5:00 AM PDT |
F1's original night race becomes a sprint weekend in 2026 — Marina Bay under floodlights, with points available on all three days. Singapore is the most physically demanding race of the year: 90%+ humidity, cockpit temperatures over 50°C, and nearly two hours of wall-to-wall concentration with no rest. The combination of a sprint format and a circuit where safety cars are near-guaranteed makes this one of the most strategically volatile weekends of the season.
Marina Bay is F1's original night race and still its most physically brutal: 62 laps between concrete walls in 30°C heat and 90% humidity, with cockpit temperatures topping 50°C. Drivers lose up to three kilograms over a race distance and describe the final 20 laps as an exercise in pure willpower. The 2023 layout revision removed four corners along the waterfront, but 19 remain, most of them 90-degree street corners with no forgiveness.
The 2026 sprint format is a fascinating stress test — two races' worth of physical punishment in one weekend at the season's most demanding venue. Safety cars have appeared in the overwhelming majority of Singapore races, so strategy teams treat an interruption as a certainty to plan around rather than a possibility. Under the floodlights the cars run in cooler evening air than a day race would give, but the humidity never relents.
The 2008 Singapore Grand Prix was the first night race in World Championship history, and its inaugural edition became infamous: Nelson Piquet Jr.'s deliberate crash — engineered to hand teammate Fernando Alonso the win — surfaced a year later as the 'Crashgate' scandal. On the sporting side, Singapore is where Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton traded era-defining wins, and where in 2023 Carlos Sainz ended Red Bull's record streak of consecutive victories.
The night-race timing is actually friendly to US mornings: sessions land in the morning hours US time, with the Grand Prix on Sunday morning Eastern. The spectacle of F1 cars between skyscrapers under lights is the best-looking broadcast of the year — watch this one on the biggest screen you have.
Singapore's night race translates to genuinely civilized US viewing: the Grand Prix goes green at 8 AM Eastern on Sunday morning, with Saturday's sprint and qualifying in the same morning window. The floodlit skyline broadcast is the most beautiful of the year — this is the race to put on the big screen. Just remember Singapore has no daylight saving, so the offset shifts an hour when US clocks change in early November (after this race, conveniently).
The race starts Sunday, October 11 at 8:00 AM EDT. That's 7:00 AM CDT Central, 6:00 AM MDT Mountain, and 5:00 AM PDT Pacific.
Yes. In addition to the Grand Prix, the weekend includes Sprint Qualifying (Friday, October 9 at 8:30 AM EDT) and a points-paying Sprint race (Saturday, October 10 at 5:00 AM EDT).
62 laps of the 4.94 km Marina Bay Street Circuit, a race distance of about 306 km.
The race runs under floodlights at 8 PM local time primarily so it airs in prime European viewing hours — and it has the side benefit of slightly cooler track conditions. It was Formula 1's first-ever night race in 2008.
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.