Abu Dhabi 2026 GP preview
Weekend schedule
All timezonesTimes shown in circuit-local time (GST).
- FP1Fri13:30
- FP2Fri17:00
- FP3Sat14:30
- QualifyingSat18:00
- RaceSun17:00
A forecast appears here once the weekend is inside the forecast window.
The circuit
Full circuit guide →Yas Marina Circuit · 5.281 km · 16 corners · anticlockwise
Historic moments
2021 · The most argued-over title decider in F1
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton arrived level on points for a winner-takes-all 2021 finale. Verstappen passed Hamilton on the last lap to win his first title, after a late safety-car restart that the FIA's own review later found involved 'human error' in how it was handled.
2010 · Alonso loses the title stuck behind Petrov
Fernando Alonso arrived at the season finale as championship favourite but got trapped for nearly 40 laps behind Vitaly Petrov's backmarker Renault after an early, miscalculated pit stop. He finished seventh as Sebastian Vettel won the race and the title by four points, becoming F1's youngest-ever champion at the time.
What makes it different
- The only circuit with a pit exit that runs through a tunnel underneath the track.
- Starts in daylight and finishes under floodlights, so the track cools through the race and grip climbs as it goes - the opposite of most rounds.
- The 2021 reprofiling removed the slow hairpin section and opened out the marina corners, adding roughly 15 km/h of average speed.
- Yas Marina cost around $1.3 billion to build, the most expensive circuit in Formula 1 history, and a five-star hotel spans the track on a bridge overhead.
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