2026 Sao Paulo Grand Prix: UK times, TV coverage, weather and Haas lineup

Interlagos gets a newly crowned champion and a potentially unsettled Haas lineup for round 20 of the 2026 Formula 1 season. Andrea Kimi Antonelli sealed the drivers’ title in Mexico City, but the Sao Paulo weekend still has plenty to resolve: rain may complicate qualifying, and Haas has yet to settle who will drive alongside its other car.

The race runs November 6–8, with 71 laps scheduled on Sunday. UK viewers can follow every session live on Sky Sports F1, hear BBC Sport radio coverage, and catch qualifying and race highlights on Channel 4. Here are the session times, forecast and main storylines for the weekend.

Antonelli arrives as champion; attention turns to Haas

Antonelli clinched the 2026 title with third place in Mexico City, his 16th podium in the first 19 rounds of a 23-race season. He has 380 points, 119 clear of the field. Max Verstappen won in Mexico and moved into second on 261 points, ahead of Lewis Hamilton on 259 and George Russell on 250.

Verstappen’s victory and the fallout from Mexico add context to the Interlagos weekend. Hamilton and Verstappen questioned the five-second penalty given to Charles Leclerc after he cut Turn 4 while taking the lead. That dispute is among the talking points heading into Brazil.

Haas also has an unresolved driver decision. The team sat out Esteban Ocon for the Mexico City event after tension between Ocon, race engineer Laura Muller and team principal Ayao Komatsu. Ocon had driven only in FP2 there, after reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa took his car for FP1 as part of Haas’s rookie-session quota.

Hirakawa made his F1 debut in Mexico, but a clash with the World Endurance Championship finale at Monza rules him out of the Sao Paulo round. He leads the WEC Hypercar drivers’ standings, while Toyota leads the manufacturers’ standings. Haas must decide whether Ocon returns, or whether another driver takes the seat.

Ocon could still race, though expectations in the paddock are that Haas may agree to end his contract early. The team has said his deal expires at the end of 2026. Rafael Camara, Ocon’s planned 2027 replacement, is one option; Jack Doohan, another Haas reserve, is also being tipped for the drive. A Camara appearance would require an agreement with Ferrari and would mark the F2 title contender’s F1 debut on home soil. Doohan would make his first start for Haas after leaving Alpine six rounds into 2025.

Interlagos schedule and UK coverage

The Sao Paulo Grand Prix is the second event in the season’s final run of three consecutive race weekends. After a week off, the calendar continues with Las Vegas on November 19–21, Qatar on November 27–29, and Abu Dhabi on December 4–6. Those events close the first season of the 2026 regulations era.

Sky Sports F1 carries live television coverage in the UK. Its listed broadcasts run 15:00–17:00 for Friday practice one and 18:45–20:15 for practice two on November 6; Saturday coverage is 14:15–16:00 for FP3 and 17:00–20:00 for qualifying. Sunday’s race coverage is scheduled for 15:30–20:00.

BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and its listed related channels provide live radio coverage. The schedule gives FP1 as 15:30–16:30 on November 6, FP2 as 19:00–20:00 that day, and FP3 as 14:30–15:30 on November 7. Qualifying coverage is listed for 18:00–19:00 on November 7, while the race broadcast begins at 17:00 on November 8 and runs to the finish.

Channel 4’s highlights coverage is scheduled for 23:05–00:05 on November 7 for qualifying and 22:00–23:30 on November 8 for the race. F1 and Sky Sports are also set to publish free highlights on YouTube after the sessions.

Rain could influence qualifying

Friday looks set to offer the most consistent running. The forecast gives a 5% chance of rain, with temperatures of 23–24°C for FP1 and 26–27°C for FP2. Grey skies may persist, but the main rain threat is expected on Saturday.

For FP3, the forecast puts the chance of rain at 50%, with temperatures around 28°C. Qualifying has a 60% rain chance and a high of 26°C. Wind is also expected to pick up: 12–13 mph with gusts up to 29 mph for FP3, then around 11 mph with gusts reaching 23 mph in qualifying. Those changing conditions could make Saturday the weekend’s key test of timing and car balance.

Sunday looks calmer, with a 10% chance of rain, a high of 17°C and winds around 10 mph, gusting up to 24 mph. The forecast remains just that, but teams will have to account for a marked shift from Saturday’s warmer, wetter prospects.

Why Interlagos rewards close racing

Formula 1 has staged its Brazilian round at Interlagos continuously since 1990, after earlier years when the event alternated between the Sao Paulo circuit and Jacarepagua. Interlagos hosted the first Brazilian Grand Prix on the calendar in 1973. Local driver Emerson Fittipaldi won for Lotus as defending world champion.

The circuit’s name refers to its position between the Guarapiranga and Billings lakes. Its 15 corners and changing elevation have helped make it a regular setting for close racing. The uphill approach to the Senna S at Turns 1 and 2 is a prime passing opportunity, fed by the long run from Juncao, Turn 12. Lewis Hamilton famously passed Timo Glock there to secure the 2008 title, beating Brazilian Felipe Massa by one point.

There are other places for a fight to develop. Drivers who carry speed through Curva do Sol at Turn 3 can challenge into Descida do Lago at Turn 4. If a pass doesn’t stick, the run toward Ferradura at Turn 6 offers another chance, with the sequence continuing through Turns 7 and 8. A duel can stretch downhill through Pinheirinho, Turn 9, and Bico de Pato at Turn 10, before the long left at Mergulho and the braking zone for Juncao.

Norris won the 2025 race

Lando Norris took the 2025 Sao Paulo Grand Prix ahead of Antonelli. The young Mercedes driver had already pushed Norris in the Sprint, qualifying second by 0.097 seconds after Norris set a 1:09.243 pole time. Norris won the Sprint by 0.845 seconds.

For the Grand Prix, Norris again took pole, edging Antonelli by 0.174 seconds with a 1:09.511 lap in Q3. Across the 71-lap race, Norris finished 10.388 seconds ahead. Antonelli held off Verstappen for second by 0.362 seconds, a strong result in his rookie season.

Verstappen had won the Sao Paulo races in 2023 and 2024, as well as the 2019 Interlagos event when it used the Brazilian Grand Prix name. Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Russell won the first two Sao Paulo-named editions in 2021 and 2022. With Antonelli now arriving as champion and rain a possibility for qualifying, Interlagos offers a fresh test for the season’s leading names—and a consequential weekend for Haas.