{"id":3019,"date":"2026-09-30T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=3019"},"modified":"2026-09-29T10:55:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:55:33","slug":"is-there-f1-today-when-does-practice-begin-at-sepang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/is-there-f1-today-when-does-practice-begin-at-sepang\/","title":{"rendered":"Is there F1 today? When does practice begin at Sepang?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There is no F1 practice, qualifying or race on Wednesday, 30 September.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>FP1 begins on Friday at 12:30 in Malaysia, 05:30 in the UK and 00:30 on the US East Coast.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The race starts on Sunday, 4 October, at 15:00 in Malaysia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Formula 1 is not on track today, Wednesday, 30 September. After the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the championship heads to Sepang for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, with the first practice session scheduled for Friday, 2 October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FP1 begins at <strong>12:30 local time in Malaysia<\/strong>. That is 05:30 BST in the UK, 00:30 EDT on the US East Coast, 10:00 IST in India and 14:30 AEST in Sydney. The session lasts one hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The event has a conventional Grand Prix schedule: two practice sessions on Friday, final practice and qualifying on Saturday, and the 56-lap race on Sunday. There is no Sprint. Readers looking for the date and context of the next round can also consult <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/when-is-the-next-f1-race-after-the-2026-azerbaijan-grand-prix-date-start-time-and-full-schedule\/\">GRANDE PR\u00caMIO\u2019s guide to the first F1 race after Azerbaijan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What time does F1 practice start at Sepang?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Session<\/th><th>Malaysia (MYT)<\/th><th>UK (BST)<\/th><th>US East Coast (EDT)<\/th><th>India (IST)<\/th><th>Sydney<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>FP1 \u2014 Friday, 2 October<\/td><td>12:30<\/td><td>05:30<\/td><td>00:30<\/td><td>10:00<\/td><td>14:30 AEST<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>FP2 \u2014 Friday, 2 October<\/td><td>16:00<\/td><td>09:00<\/td><td>04:00<\/td><td>13:30<\/td><td>18:00 AEST<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>FP3 \u2014 Saturday, 3 October<\/td><td>12:30<\/td><td>05:30<\/td><td>00:30<\/td><td>10:00<\/td><td>14:30 AEST<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Qualifying \u2014 Saturday, 3 October<\/td><td>16:00<\/td><td>09:00<\/td><td>04:00<\/td><td>13:30<\/td><td>18:00 AEST<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Race \u2014 Sunday, 4 October<\/td><td>15:00<\/td><td>08:00<\/td><td>03:00<\/td><td>12:30<\/td><td>18:00 AEDT<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Sydney changes to daylight saving time on Sunday, 4 October. Session times follow Formula 1\u2019s published event schedule and remain subject to change.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Friday\u2019s sessions will give teams their first competitive running at Sepang since Formula 1 last raced there in 2017. The circuit\u2019s long straights, fast corners, heat and potential for sudden rain make practice particularly useful for establishing tyre behaviour and race setup. The return also follows <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/formula-1-places-bahrain-gp-in-malaysia-to-form-triple-header-with-baku-and-singapore-for-2026\/\">the decision to hold the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The official race name may be confusing for anyone searching the calendar: <strong>the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia takes place at Sepang, not Sakhir<\/strong>. Qualifying begins at 16:00 local time on Saturday, while Sunday\u2019s race starts at 15:00 local time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">F1 today: FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is Fernando Alonso staying at Aston Martin in 2027?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes. Aston Martin confirmed that Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have extended their contracts and will continue with the team beyond 2026. The announcement secures Alonso\u2019s place on the 2027 grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is Esteban Ocon leaving Haas, and who will replace him?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ocon will leave Haas at the end of 2026. Rafael C\u00e2mara is a reported favourite, but the team has not announced a replacement; Leonardo Fornaroli, Jack Doohan and Ry\u014d Hirakawa have also been evaluated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How old is Kimi Antonelli?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kimi Antonelli is <strong>20 years old<\/strong>. The Mercedes <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/\">F1<\/a> driver was born on <strong>25 August 2006<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is there Formula 1 today, Wednesday, 30 September?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No. There are no F1 track sessions on Wednesday. Practice begins on Friday, 2 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Formula 1 has no track session on Wednesday, 30 September. The Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia begins with FP1 on Friday, 2 October, at Sepang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020316316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"F1 is back to Malaysia","42wp_featured_image_credits":"McLaren","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[{"id":7,"location":""}],"footnotes":"","42wp_breaking_news":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[630,325,114,113],"42wp_author":[7],"class_list":["post-3019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-bahrain-grand-prix-in-malaysia","tag-f1-2026","tag-f1-schedule","tag-sepang","42wp_author-victor-martins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3020,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019\/revisions\/3020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020316316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3019"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=3019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}