Sepang F1 start time confusion cleared as FIA releases new update

The Sepang Formula 1 race has had its start time confirmed by the FIA after a week of confusion following the track’s addition to the 2026 calendar.

Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit was brought back to the F1 calendar recently to replace the Bahrain International Circuit as the host of the Bahrain Grand Prix, now referred to as the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, which will take place on 2–4 October.

The reason for the change in location is the ongoing conflict in the Middle East between Iran, and the US and Israel, whose resolution remains uncertain.

Initially, the F1 website listed the session and race times for the Sepang race as the same as the original times at Sakhir, leading to speculation that the race would be run at night.

However, this was said by F1 to be a systems problem on their end, and that the race would not be run at night, although no official times for the Sepang race were published at the time.

Now, though, the FIA has published the start times for the remaining grands prix of the 2026 season, with Sepang listed as a regular afternoon race.

Friday and Saturday will follow the same 12:30, 16:00 pattern for FP1 and FP2, and FP3 and qualifying respectively. This schedule is also used at several other races during the final part of the season, such as Azerbaijan, Austin, Mexico, and Brazil.

The race will start at 15:00 local time on Sunday, which is the same start time as the last F1 race at Sepang: the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix.

It confirms no night race, of course, and means an 08:00 start time in the UK, and 09:00 in central Europe.