Why is the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix not taking place on a Sunday?

Formula 1

Why is the Las Vegas Grand Prix not taking place on a Sunday?

The Las Vegas GP will be the only full-length race on a Saturday this year

Originally written by Kerry Violet. This version is a translation.

Friday 21 November 2025 15:05

If you're looking at your TV listings this weekend, you might be thinking to yourself 'hey, aren't F1 races usually on Sunday?'

If you are, you're absolutely right! But this year, as with both of its previous events in 2023 and 2024, the Las Vegas Grand Prix bucks that tradition.

Since its inaugural event in '23, the Vegas race has been a night race, and this year will take place at 8pm local time (PT) on November 22.

Article continues under video

That means that the whole F1 race week has been brought forward a day for the event in the entertainment capital, with the official media day kicking things off in Vegas on Wednesday and the first track session taking place on Thursday.

This has likely been done to avoid the European viewers skipping out on watching the race entirely, given that if the traditional race weekend format had been followed, a Sunday Las Vegas night race would be airing just in time for the working world to be head to the office across the pond.

FP1 & FP2 were be at 4:30pm and 8pm respectively on Thursday before FP3 and the vital qualifying take place around the strip on Friday on the same time schedule.

Lights out for Saturday's night race will then commence at 8pm the following day.

For the full breakdown of the Las Vegas schedule, see our table below.

Las Vegas 2025 F1 weekend schedule

Session	Track Date	Start Time (ET)	Start Time (CT)	Start Time (MT)	Start Time (PT)
FP1	Thu 20 Nov	19:30	18:30	17:30	16:30
FP2	Thu 20 Nov	23:00	22:00	21:00	20:00
FP3	Fri 21 Nov	19:30	18:30	17:30	16:30
Qualifying	Fri 21 Nov	23:00	22:00	21:00	20:00
Race	Sat 22 Nov	23:00	22:00	21:00	20:00