Malaysian Grand Prix TV & live blog times

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Here are the details of the BBC’s live video coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix and the F1 Fanatic live blogs which will take place during all five sessions this weekend.

Unusually, they are splitting the coverage of the race across BBC One and BBC Two, because of some Easter-related programming on BBC One. Why couldn’t they just show the whole thing on BBC Two?

Also please note the BBC list practice three as starting at 7am British time but I think they’re wrong and it actually starts at 6am (session starts at 1pm local time which converts to 6am GMT).

Friday 2nd April 2010

Malaysian Grand Prix Free practice 1 – 02:55 – 04:35 (BBC Red Button and online)
F1 Fanatic live blog will run throughout this session

Malaysian Grand Prix Free practice 2 – 06:55 – 08:35 (BBC Red Button and online)
F1 Fanatic live blog will run throughout this session

Saturday 3rd April 2010

Malaysian Grand Prix Free practice 3 – 05:55 – 07:05 (BBC Red Button and online)
F1 Fanatic live blog will run throughout this session

Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying – 08:00 – 10:30 (BBC1, Red Button and online) (Qualifying starts at 09:00)
F1 Fanatic live blog will begin around 8am and end around half an hour after the chequered flag

Sunday 4th April 2010

Malaysian Grand Prix – 08:00 – 10:00 BBC1, then 10:00 – 11:00 BBC2. (Also Red Button and online) (Race starts at 09:00)
F1 Fanatic live blog will begin around 8am and end around half an hour after the chequered flag

Please share details of the F1 coverage in your area below.

Read more: 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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38 comments on “Malaysian Grand Prix TV & live blog times”

  1. LookingSpiffy
    31st March 2010, 12:18

    It’s very strange. Fair enough, Easter programming takes priority on BBC1, but all that’s on BBC2 is a Match of the Day repeat. Oh, and Dick & Dom.

    I seem to remember that quali for the Brazilian GP last year was originally supposed to be shown on BBC2, then it got bumped up to BBC1 (and then obviously it was split between the two channels because of the rain delay). This makes me wonder if that session’s move back to BBC1 was to do with Jenson’s success or if it was actually a contractual thing?

  2. Channel switch half way through the race?

    oh… it’s the boat race this weekend, isn’t it? pfft.

  3. I just don’t understand why the BBC sometimes splits a program like this between BBC1 and BBC2. As far as I am aware everyone who can get BBC1 can get BBC2 so it is not like digital or Channel Five where some people still can’t get receive them.

    I think the main thing seems to be they want big rating programs on BBC1 as much as possible. I seem to recall that when a Brit is playing on an evening at Wimbledon they sometimes move the coverage at the last minute to BBC1 even when tennis is scheduled for BBC2.

    1. That makes sense, plus the fact that casual viewers may switch on bbc1 to see the race, and if it isn’t on (because it’s on bbc2) they might just switch off.

  4. Not very good for people recording the race.

    1. Dvid ATKINSON
      4th April 2010, 11:29

      I was working this morning and recorded the F1 as I do every Sunday. The switch to BBC2 means that I have lost the second half of the race.

      WHAT A BUNCH OF MORONS YOU ARE AT THE BBC.

      GIVE F1 BACK TO SKY OR ITV

      1. It was flagged up well in advance by the BBC and it was mentioned here as well. BBC coverage is infinitely better than ITV’s, let’s not throw toys out of the pram over a minor inconvenience. They’re repeating the race later and it’ll be on iPlayer and the Red Button.

        1. It was advertised, but it would have been better at the end of the practice coverage yesterday if they had mentioned it again then – they just said the race coverage started @ 8am. No mention of being on both channels.
          That said they did make a big effort to overlap the coverage by 10 minutes so you could swap with missing anything.
          Though if you did miss the pre-notification it would have been frustrating to have missed the second part.
          Thank goodness for F1Fanatic for spotting this straight-away!
          Overall, the BBC are doing a great job and have excellent access to teams, drivers and Bernie E. The other TV station’s reporters defer to the BBC team everytime which shows what great access and coverage we get.

        2. Yes they did repeat the race, but as I did not get home until after the second showing had been on I did not know that I had only recorded half of the race. Also yes it was on iplayer but when logging onto the website to watch it, the first thing I saw was Vettell wins the Malaysian GP !! no point in watching it now I know the result THANKS BBC I agree give it back to ITV

  5. Isn’t 6 am GMT = 7am BST which we are now on?

  6. I just hope they get it up on iPlayer asap, unlike last weekend which took forever, and all my friends took pleasure in phoning me up to ruining the race for me.

    1. Compared to last season, they took an age to get them onto iPlayer. FP1&2 that is, the others I don’t know as I watched live. Hopefully they will improve this for Malaysia as I will probably miss the race and will want to watch it when I get up.

    2. weird you say that, because the Australian grand prix was on iPlayer just 2 hours after the race was over. is that a lot?

      1. No it’s not. In contrast it took the bbc around 8 hours to get free practise 1 up if I remember correctly. I guess the race is a much higher priority, which is good to hear.

        1. Its only a problem for me since my cable or ariels aren’t working, while I get HD iPlayer on PS3 (its pretty snazzy) I have to wait for it.

          And since F1 is the only thing I watch/like watching, my friends are quick to ruin it for me.

          1. But the iPlayer version isn’t HD either. Don’t think FOM provides a HD F1 feed yet, though understand they are ‘testing’ it this year. Your PS3, though capable of 1080p via HDMI, is only interlacing the standard BBC feed.

            Just my understanding.

          2. Sush Meerkat
            2nd April 2010, 18:56

            Your pretty much correct on that Salty, the feed is standard definition, but my PS3 smooths stuff over and my snazzy TV upscales the image, so its a better image.

            All that fancy pants technology and I can’t be bothered to spend 50 quid on a freeview box. GO FIGURE

  7. It’s the BBC’s way of “improving the show”.

    Reminds me of the good old days with horse races in the middle, or Steve Rider recounting what had happened so far in a Grand Prix then going live to the race.

  8. It changing to BBC2 really doesn’t matter, they usually have an overlap on the two shows so there won’t be a lap missing or anything. It just means pushing channel+ on your remote. It takes seconds to change!!

    The only problem will arise if you are recording it.

    1. I was recording so missed second half…

  9. Keith – BBC online red schedule agrees with your times
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/5345480.stm

    Friday 2
    Formula One
    0255-0435 Live coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix first practice session
    0655-0835 Live coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix second practice session
    Saturday 3
    Formula One
    0500-0705 Live coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix third practice session
    0800-1030 Live coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying session, with audio options

    1. That still doesn’t make sense. Two hours for FP3?

  10. I heard that Fauzy will drive in FP1. Am i right?

    1. LookingSpiffy
      31st March 2010, 14:49

      Indeed, I believe he’s taking Heikki’s seat for FP1.

      1. It’s been said he’ll be in one of the seats – some sites say Trulli’s, some say Kovalainen’s. I’ve been chasing Lotus for a couple of days but no response.

        1. Actually, it no matters… If it was q and race… then

        2. LookingSpiffy
          31st March 2010, 15:11

          Ah, I see. I’d like to know if it’s true that they decided via a coin toss – sounded quite plausible to me!

  11. Any one know why the practices are not on five live sports extra this year.

    It’s was good following it while at work

    1. Cause when you @ work, you must do your work :D

    2. They are arnt they? Ive been watching it on the red button but they keep explaining things in radio speak for “people who arn’t watching on the red button” so it must one on 5Live somewhere.

  12. Hmm I’ve got to tape the race this weekend. Something is bound to go wrong if it’s on two different channels

    1. Bit pouty meself buddy. Will be around for race, but off to darkest Norfolk over friday/saturday. Do wish relatives would schedule their milestone birthdays a little more considerately *tsk*

      One of those clever Sky boxes would surely get it right sir, but then, if got to tape, as Sush Meerkat quite rightly pointed out above, could just use iPlayer version instead – though not sure would get all the pre-race wibble.

    2. Do what I’m going to have too ask my mother back home to do: record the replay at 2.

      The problem with that is that it’s not much longer than 2 hours, so I guess they won’t show the pre-race show…

  13. US show times in central time (GMT-6)

    FP1
    Not shown

    FP2
    Fri 4/2 1:00-2:30am SpeedTV

    FP3
    Not shown

    Qualifying
    Sat 4/3 3:00-4:30am SpeedTV

    Race
    Sun 4/4 2:30-5:00am SpeedTV

    Ughh.. Luckily only race that starts at 3am. Be bed early with alarm clock and go back to bed (hopefully) after race is over…

  14. A split show on Sunday eh!Legard could copy Murray by doing this.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGaJkEI0AAg

  15. I fell foul of the split coverage today… I’d set my box to record the live coverage and the first I realized about the split was when watching the playback and Legard said “our coverage is ending here on BBC1”.

    I think this was totally outrageous scheduling. If they couldn’t cover the entire race on BBC1 they should have covered the entire race live on BBC2.

    I put in a complaint to the BBC… if you want to you can put in your own complaint at :

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/homepage/

    1. I was so peeved with the BBC that I made my compliant. I thougth I had done something wrong using sky plus. On play back I got to lap 37 then some god squad programme was on.

      After playing it back thee wasn’t even a propper hand over of sign off.

      The BBC is getting too big for its own boots.

      I’ve also made my complaint. Thanks for the link Mark.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/homepage/

  16. I thought I was part of their contract to show all races on BBC 1.

    I guess the Easter service has been going for a few more years than the f1 so get priority

    cheers
    tim

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