Austin GP weekend: race at 20:00 UTC, rain chance 20% to 50%
The United States Grand Prix, the first leg of the Americas triple-header, takes place this weekend, 23–25 October, at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin. It is a conventional format with three practice sessions, qualifying and the race, and no Sprint. The race starts at 20:00 UTC on Sunday. Forecasts disagree, with the chance of rain on race day ranging from 20% to 50%.
Session schedule
RacingNews365 lists local times (US Central Daylight Time, CDT) of 12:30 for FP1 and 16:00 for FP2 on Friday, 12:30 for FP3 and 16:00 for qualifying on Saturday, and 15:00 for the race on Sunday. US clocks do not change until 1 November, so this weekend is still on CDT. The table gives local time and UTC.
| Session | Local (CDT) | UTC | Date (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| FP1 | Fri 23 Oct, 12:30 | 17:30 | 23 Oct |
| FP2 | Fri 23 Oct, 16:00 | 21:00 | 23 Oct |
| FP3 | Sat 24 Oct, 12:30 | 17:30 | 24 Oct |
| Qualifying | Sat 24 Oct, 16:00 | 21:00 | 24 Oct |
| Race | Sun 25 Oct, 15:00 | 20:00 | 25 Oct |
The UTC column is the local time plus five hours. Sky Sports gives UK times of 8pm for the race and 10pm for qualifying, which match the UTC times above. Both outlets say there is no Sprint session this weekend.
Weather: heat is agreed, rain is not
Sky Sports expects temperatures above 30C on all three days and puts the chance of rain during the race at 50%. It adds that showers are possible on Friday and Saturday too.
The forecast Williams published on 18 October is drier. Friday's FP1 and FP2 are sunny at 29C with a 10% chance of precipitation, Saturday's FP3 and qualifying are sunny at 29C with 0%, and Sunday's race is sunny intervals at 28C with 20%. With the temperature outlook (above 30C versus 28–29C) and the rain chance differing for the same circuit, it is worth rechecking an updated forecast once Friday practice is done. Rain would affect setup work and tyre choices, but neither source goes into that.
Championship: could it be settled in Austin?
RacingNews365 reports that Kimi Antonelli leads his Mercedes team-mate George Russell by 102 points and Lewis Hamilton by 111. It says Antonelli must finish the weekend 125 points clear to clinch the title in Austin. Sky Sports also says he has a small chance of clinching this weekend. With no Sprint, points are on offer only in the race.
Sky Sports describes the weekend as the start of another run of back-to-back races following the Asian triple-header. The title scenario was covered in an earlier article, so this piece only lays out the figures the two outlets give.