Las Vegas Grand Prix 2026: Schedule, Race Time, How to Watch, Best Grandstands and Road Closures

For three nights next week, the middle of the Las Vegas Strip stops being a road. From Thursday, November 19, to Saturday, November 21, 2026, Formula 1 closes Las Vegas Boulevard, Harmon Avenue, Koval Lane and Sands Avenue each afternoon and turns them into a 3.8-mile street circuit, with cars passing Caesars Palace, the Bellagio fountains and Sphere at well over 200 mph before the lights come out for the race at 8 p.m. local time on Saturday.

The short version: practice runs Thursday at 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Pacific, qualifying is Friday at 8 p.m., and the 50-lap race starts Saturday at 8 p.m. (11 p.m. Eastern). In the United States, Apple is streaming the whole weekend free in the Apple TV app. On site, general admission is sold out, three grandstands were still on sale this week from $96 a night, and the track roads close at 1 p.m. on each race day. Below is the full schedule, a plain-English guide to each grandstand, why the cold desert night makes this one of the trickiest races of the year, and how to get around if you are in town for something else.

Las Vegas Grand Prix 2026 schedule

All times below are local Pacific time, from Formula 1’s official 2026 timetable, which notes that every session is subject to change. Add three hours for Eastern time. In the UK, each 8 p.m. session falls at 4 a.m. the next morning.

Thursday, November 19. First practice runs from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. Eastern), followed by an F1 Academy practice session at 6 p.m. and the teams’ press conference. Second practice is the session that matters most for setup, because it runs from 8 to 9 p.m., the same time of night as the race. F1 Academy qualifying closes the evening at 9:30 p.m.

Friday, November 20. Third practice runs from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., then the F1 Academy reverse-grid race at 6:15 p.m. Qualifying, which sets the grid, runs from 8 to 9 p.m. (11 p.m. Eastern).

Saturday, November 21. The F1 Academy feature race starts at 4:20 p.m., the drivers’ parade is at 6 p.m., and the national anthem is scheduled for 7:44 p.m. Lights out for the Grand Prix is at 8 p.m. (11 p.m. Eastern, 4 a.m. Sunday in London). The race is 50 laps or a maximum of two hours, and there is no sprint race this weekend.

F1 Academy is the all-female single-seater series that supports Formula 1 at selected races, and it is this year’s support series in Las Vegas, according to the organizer’s official FAQ.

How to watch the Las Vegas Grand Prix on TV

In the U.S., it’s free. Apple TV is now Formula 1’s exclusive broadcaster in the United States, and Apple announced on November 9 that practice, qualifying and the race in Las Vegas will stream free for everyone in the Apple TV app, with no subscription needed, as 9to5Mac reported. Look for the Formula 1 section in the app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Android, Windows, game consoles and smart TVs, or in a web browser at tv.apple.com.

Elsewhere, coverage depends on your country’s broadcaster or Formula 1’s own F1 TV service. Because the race starts at 8 p.m. in Nevada, it lands in the early hours of Sunday morning across Europe and mid-morning Sunday in India.

The Las Vegas Strip Circuit, in one lap

The track is 6.201 kilometers (3.85 miles) long with 17 corners, which makes it the second-longest circuit on the calendar after Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, according to tire supplier Pirelli. The start line sits at the Grand Prix Plaza pit building at Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane. From there the cars head through the opening corners and up Koval Lane, swing around Sphere, and then come back down the Strip itself, the longest flat-out section, before turning onto Harmon Avenue for the run to the final corner and the line.

Those long straights are why Las Vegas is so fast. Pirelli reported top speeds of about 350 km/h (roughly 217 mph) at the first race on this layout in 2023, and the heavy braking zones at the end of each straight are where most of the overtaking happens.

Previous winners on the Strip: Max Verstappen won the first race in 2023, George Russell won in 2024, and Verstappen won again in 2025, a night that ended with both McLarens disqualified after post-race checks found their rear skid blocks worn below the 9 mm minimum, according to Formula 1. Formula 1 also raced in Las Vegas in 1981 and 1982, on a temporary track in the Caesars Palace parking lot.

Best places to watch: the grandstands, explained

Every grandstand ticket is an assigned seat for each night you buy, plus access to the fan zone it belongs to, with stages, food and drink to buy, and track views of every F1 and F1 Academy session that day. Prices below are the organizer’s single-day "from" prices including taxes and fees, as listed on its grandstands page this week; they move, so check before you buy.

Heineken Silver Main Grandstand (start/finish), from $194

This is the one for the full race-night show. It faces the Grand Prix Plaza pit building in the East Harmon Zone, so you see the grid form, the pre-race ceremony, lights out, pit stops and the checkered flag. The ticket page says it also takes in the first-turn battles and includes access to two neighboring fan zones. The trade-off: after the start, the cars are gone for most of each lap, so you will rely on the big screens.

Turn 3 and Heineken Grandstands (Koval Lane): sold out

The Turn 3 Grandstand overlooks Turns 3 and 4, where the cars are still bunched up on the opening lap, and the Heineken Grandstands sit at Turn 4 as the field accelerates onto the Koval straightaway. The Heineken seats include all-inclusive beer for guests 21 and over. Both were listed as sold out this week, so resale is the only route left.

T-Mobile Grandstands (by Sphere), from $137

These seats sit in the T-Mobile Zone next to Sphere and look over Turn 5 and the chicane that runs through Turns 7 to 9. It is a slower, more technical part of the lap, which means you see the cars for longer, and it is the most photogenic spot on the circuit, with the 366-foot-tall globe glowing behind the track. If you want to know what Sphere is like inside on another night, our Sphere seating guide covers it.

Lewis Hamilton Grandstand (Turn 17), from $96

The cheapest grandstand on sale overlooks Turn 17, the final corner, where the cars come off Harmon Avenue and either cross the line or peel into the pit lane. It is in The Performance Zone, and the organizer’s listing puts it at $96 for a single day, the lowest grandstand price this week.

General admission and hospitality

General admission, standing room in a fan zone, was listed from $611 a day and is sold out. At the other end, hospitality packages with premium seating and food start at $1,383 a day. The organizer also sells a post-race package with a Backstreet Boys show at Sphere on Saturday night.

Don’t count on a free look. The circuit is fenced, and much of it is screened from view, and the organizer says ticketed guests should use the official F1 Las Vegas app for entrances and wayfinding. If you just want the atmosphere, hotel bars and sportsbooks showing the race are the realistic option; our guide to free and nearly free things to do in Las Vegas has ideas for the rest of the trip.

Why the cold makes Las Vegas so tricky

Most night races are in warm places. Las Vegas is a night race in the desert in late November, and that combination changes how the cars behave.

There are other events that do the same – Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Qatar and Abu Dhabi – but none feature such a big drop in temperature between day and night as this weekend’s event. (Pirelli race preview, November 2024)

Pirelli’s engineers expect air temperatures around 10 °C (50 °F) during the sessions, with track temperatures not much higher. That is a problem because racing tires are made to work hot. A Formula 1 tire’s rubber compound is designed to grip at temperatures far above a chilly desert night. When it is cold, the rubber is stiffer and cannot flow into the tiny bumps of the asphalt, so the car slides instead of biting.

Warming them up is the hard part. Pirelli has brought its three softest compounds to Las Vegas for exactly this reason, and it says the main challenge is warm-up, especially for the front tires in qualifying. On the long straights, the airflow cools the tires further, so a driver can arrive at a heavy braking zone with less grip than on the previous corner. Lock a wheel there and you flat-spot the tire.

Then there’s graining. When the surface of a cold tire slides across the track, small rolls of rubber tear off and stick back onto the tread. Those lumps reduce the contact patch, cost grip for several laps and can speed up wear. That is why teams often lean toward a two-stop strategy here, Pirelli says, and why pitting early to jump a rival rarely works: a fresh, cold set of tires is slow for the first lap or two. On a street circuit with concrete walls, safety cars and restarts on cold tires add more chances for drama.

The same physics helps explain the 2025 disqualifications. McLaren argued that its cars bounced more than expected that weekend, with little dry practice time, which wore down the plank and skid blocks under the floor; the stewards rejected those arguments but accepted that the breach was not deliberate.

Road closures and getting around

If you are in Las Vegas that week for anything else, the afternoons are what to plan around. The organizer’s transportation map shows every build, race-week and teardown closure, and Clark County sends alerts if you text F1LV to 31996.

Race days: on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the roads that form the track (the Strip itself plus Harmon Avenue, Koval Lane and Sands Avenue) begin closing at 1 p.m. and reopen after midnight. Do airport runs, hotel moves and anything that needs a car in the morning.

Koval Lane is already shut. Koval between Rochelle Avenue and Harmon Avenue is scheduled to be closed around the clock from November 14 through November 23, according to News 3 Las Vegas, and RTC’s Deuce and Routes 119, 202 and 203 run on special race-week routes and schedules from November 17 to 25.

Walk or ride the rails. Pedestrian bridges are the way across the Strip while the roads are closed, and the Las Vegas Monorail along the east side of the Strip is often the quickest way between resorts. Parking near the circuit is limited, so walking or rideshare is the realistic way in.

What’s at stake this year

Both titles are already decided. Kimi Antonelli clinched the 2026 drivers’ championship for Mercedes, and the team sealed the constructors’ title at the São Paulo Grand Prix on November 8, where Lando Norris won in the wet. The live fight is for second place among the drivers: Verstappen leads George Russell by 17 points and Lewis Hamilton by 18, with three races left, according to the post-race standings. With no sprint in Las Vegas, a win is worth 25 points.

Quick answers

What time does the Las Vegas Grand Prix start?

Saturday, November 21, 2026, at 8 p.m. Pacific (11 p.m. Eastern). Qualifying is Friday at 8 p.m. Pacific.

Is the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday or Sunday?

Saturday night in Las Vegas. In Europe and Asia it is already Sunday morning when the lights go out.

How cold does it get?

Expect temperatures around 10 °C (50 °F) during the night sessions, sometimes colder. Grandstands are open to the sky, so bring layers, a hat and gloves for a long evening.

The bottom line

If you are watching from home in the U.S., the whole weekend is free on Apple TV, and the race starts late on the East Coast. If you are going, the cheapest seats left are the Lewis Hamilton Grandstand at the last corner, the most dramatic backdrop is the T-Mobile Grandstands by Sphere, and the full start-to-podium show is the Silver Main Grandstand. Whatever you pick, dress for a cold night, and keep an eye on the tires: in Las Vegas, the team that gets them warm first usually decides the race.

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