2012 Australian Grand Prix TV Times

2012 Australian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

F1 Fanatic Live will be running during the entire Australian Grand Prix weekend so look out for the live page on the site during every session.

Here are the times of the race coverage here in the UK and which channels they are on.

All the Australian Grand Prix sessions are live on Sky. The BBC are showing highlights of qualifying and the race.

Friday 16th March 2012

Australian Grand Prix Free practice 1: 01:00 – 03:00 (Sky Sports F1)
Practice starts at 01:30

Australian Grand Prix Free practice 2: 05:15 – 07:00 (Sky Sports F1)
Practice starts at 05:30

Saturday 17th March 2012

Australian Grand Prix Free practice 3: 02:45 – 04:00 (Sky Sports F1)
Practice starts at 03:00

Australian Grand Prix Qualifying: 05:30 (Sky Sports F1)
Qualifying starts at 06:00

Australian Grand Prix Qualifying highlights: 13:00 – 14:15 (BBC2, BBC HD)

Sunday 18th March 2012

Australian Grand Prix: 04:30 (Sky Sports F1)
Race starts at 06:00

Australian Grand Prix highlights: 14:00 – 16:00 (BBC1 except Scotland, BBC2 in Scotland)

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

Find times for every F1 session this year and all the 2012 race dates with the F1 Fanatic Google Calendar.

Formula 1

Browse all Formula 1 articles

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

60 comments on “2012 Australian Grand Prix TV Times”

  1. So, if I understand correctly, BBC does not cover the full race anymore? Then I can only hope that there is a Belgian network that covers the races from now on.

    1. the rtbf usualy does (don’t know if you are from Vlanderen or Wallonie), but anyway their comments are very bad. And for Australian, it is not live but at 13:00 for quali on saturday and 13:30 on sunday.
      You can also have the race live on TF1 (again with crappy comments)

      Too bad for the BBC, their were the easiest to listen during GP for me (still sometimes stating the obvious but not speaking of the only belgian driver closing the march during entire races ^^)
      We just have to search for sky somewhere …

      1. Sorry there is quali and race on rtbf2 at 6:55 saturday and sonday mornings, my mistake …

      2. Hey, I am from the Flemish part of Belgium, but I do speak and understand French. But as you said, the comments are so awful on TF1 (remembering the time before BBC ;-). I’ve done some searching and it appears VT4 gives live coverage, but the comments are equally crappy, but in Dutch.

      3. You know what i wish they’d do ? Offer the possibility to watch a sport event live and without commentary ! Imagine a football match without stupid comments, just the sound of the ball and the crowd ! Or just F1’s sound and some telemetry. Or Tennis with just the balls, the referee and Miss Sharapova’s grunts…
        Seriously, I’d love that !

        1. Agreed 100%. I often wish for this option, and it should certainly be available to viewers of all sports. Commentators are sooooo 20th century! :)

  2. Worth noting Aussies get the SKY feed all year, free! Yay!

    1. Heh. So us UK-ians are going to be scouring the net for an Australian proxy instead of the other way around? How ironic.

    2. Terrific News that Alex
      We are really well served here by ONE
      I’m even starting to warm to the starchy Greg Rust!

      As you can imagine, there is seven hours a day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend.
      WARNING – As soon as the race finishes, Ten is switching to ‘Young Talent Time’. Make sure you watch ONE unless you feel the need to watch ten years old singing Lady Gaga.

  3. 6am isn’t that bad Burnie, is it?

  4. Radio times:
    01:25 First Practice
    BBC Radio 5 live sports extra
    05:25 Second Practice
    BBC Radio 5 live sports extra
    Sat 17 March 2012
    02:55 3rd Practice
    BBC Radio 5 live sports extra
    05:55 Qualifying
    5Live
    Sun 18 March 2012
    05:30 Race
    5Live

    1. Thanks George! This what I need. Looking forward to listening instead of sleeping ;)

    2. Thanks for this list. Perhaps radio times could be included in future articles, if it’s not too much extra work. I expect the radio audience this season will be significantly higher than last.

      1. Yes absolutely! When I was younger I didn’t have a TV so listened to the races on 5 live. Recently I have been lucky with a TV, but I can recommend radio as a great F1 medium. Get live timing from formula1.com and you’re all set!

  5. 6:45 – 8:45 French time on French TV station TF1 (free) for the race but I’ve not found any coverage of practice and qualify.

  6. I know its F1 Fanatic (therefore all about F1) but any chance of showing the support race times which Sky are also showing in the UK?

    1. I’m pretty sure i was said on here before that Australia has it’s own support races that sky cannot cover, i’m sure someone who knows will confirm?

      The 12-round 2012 GP2 series will begin in Malaysia on 23-25 March.

      The 2012 GP3 season is starting in Spain at Barcelona on Sunday 13 May 2012.

      If you have motorstv they cover Nascar, WRC and plenty other motorsports, Eurosport has WTCC too :)

      1. Thanks for the Info, looking forward to watching these!

  7. No live F1 for me this weekend. :(

    1. Same here, does anyone know if/when viewing figures would be released for the F1, both for Sky and BBC, i am curious to see what impact being on sky does to BBC and the fact that it is highlights, i am sure that both will claim whatever numbers they get as a success!

      1. For this weekend it won’t be too accurate because its the early hours of the morning for Sky.

        1. true, but in some respects thats probably the best indication of the take up and effectivness of Sky buying into F1, most “fans” will make the effort to get up and watch live and casual viewers will watch the replay or highlights at a more social hour of the day, if the numbers are very low for Australia for them then it could be they have well overpaid, if high then it proves their financial investment will pay back,

      2. I’d be surprised if Sky get more then a few hundred thousand since its an early start.

        I think the BBC show may get around 4 or 5 million given that most casual viewers don’t have sky and the hardcore viewers who did get up and watch it on sky will tune in to BBC to watch it again out of curiosity to see what the rest of us have to put up with.

        If the BBC do get 4 or 5 million then they will claim its successful because they’ve saved loads of money and still got the same number of viewers as last year, completely missing the point that as f1 fans (mostly non sky subscribers) we HAVE to watch the BBC coverage as that’s all we get.

    2. I’m just going to pretend I recorded it and watched it later…..

  8. Germany (CET):

    Friday:
    FP1: 2:25-4:15 (Sky Sport 2)
    FP2: 6:25-8:15 (Sky Sport 2)

    Saturday
    FP3: 3:55-5:15 (Sky Sport 2/HD1) 5:45 (RTL as live)
    Q: 6:45-9:30 (Sky Sport 2/HD1, RTL) and 13:15 (RTL as live)

    Sunday:
    R: 6:00-9:30 (Sky Sport 2/HD1, RTL) and 13:15 (RTL as live)

  9. That’s a punishing start for Sunday, Sky! Early night for me on Saturday.

    Interestingly the highlights programmes that the BBC has for both qualifying and the race will probably run the entire length of the sessions. They can’t be leaving much out!

    1. That’s probably what extended highlights mean… ;)

    2. Here in the Pacific Northwest my TV race start time is 11pm. Most races from Europe start at 4am so I get screwed either way.

    3. Don’t get your hopes up. The BBC ‘highlights’ programmes may well turn out to be 50% racing and 50% inane talking.

      1. this is my great worry. the beeb are traditionally quite good at highlights in other sports (or better than itv anyway), so it might be bearable.

  10. Bewilderingly, I’ve actually really missed these early mornings!

    I love getting up before dawn, creeping out of bed to annotations wake my girlfriend and head into the front room with a huge cup of coffee – can’t wait :D

  11. USA:

    Friday practice 1: Live online streaming on SpeedTV.com, Thursday, 9:30 pm eastern time

    Friday practice 2: Live on SpeedTV, Friday, 1:30 am eastern time

    Saturday practice 3: Live online streaming on SpeedTV.com, Friday, 11:00 pm eastern time

    Qualifying: Live on SpeedTV, Saturday, 2:00 am eastern time

    Race: Live on SpeedTV, Sunday, 2:00 am eastern time

    1. I am planning on streaming with SPEED for Practice and RTL for the Race and Quali, but am muting it to have the British Commantry.

      1. @keithcollantine Due you know if these methods work before I get my hopes up?

        1. @formula-1 I wouldn’t know, it’s not something I’ve ever done.

    2. Possible stupid question here…
      What sort of race coverage can we expect from SPEED? Are they only allowed “highlights”, like the BBC, or what? (That was my assumption, but I honestly don’t know.)

      1. It is not highlights — it’s the race shown from start to finish. However, that being said, it isn’t *good* coverage. There are tons, and I mean TONS, of commercial breaks. So, in that sense, you will not see the entire race on SpeedTV.

        1. Ah, that was my second guess. And I’m definitely familiar with SPEED’s continuous commercial breaks, I’m afraid. Thanks for clarifying that for me, though!

    1. Not jealous at all! Nope!

    2. Something to watch out for is that the pit lane feed will be produced by FOM & I gather will feature a lot of team radio & race control messages & other bits of timing data.

      Not sure if there implementing it but I was told a month back they were considering producing the onboard mix like they did with f1 digital+ & including all the tv timing graphics you get on the main feed.

      the highlights will also be produced by FOM & will include some additional footage which may not end up on the main feed.

    3. Yeah and i’ll be using the money I save by not having sky to go to the Belgium Grand Prix :)

  12. Sky times are wrong, it should be:

    FP1 – 01:00 to 03:20
    FP2 – 05:15 to 07:20
    F1 Show – 09:30 to 10:30

    FP3 – 02:45 to 04:10
    QU – 05:00 to 07:45

    RACE – 04:30 to 09:00

    :)

  13. This is really annoying me that I can’t record the practice sessions since Sky have taken over, I’ve only missed a couple of sessions since they started showing them on the beeb. I love the whole build up. I’m zero interested in watching highlights either. It’s either all or nothing as far as I’m concerned. If the Sky option was cheaper I’d buy it, but I can’t afford it, so it looks like I’ll have to find other arrangements to watch my favorite sport :(.

  14. I’m in the US for the rest of March, I’m guessing SPEED is the way to go? I understand the practice sessions are online streams, but I’ll have to find a TV for qualifying and the race? Help me :P

    1. @electrolite Scroll up on this page to my earlier comment, or click here.

      1. ah, apologies. That means the race itself would not be streamed online, I’m guessing.

        1. No, unfortunately. If it were up to me, ALL sessions would be streamed online without commentary like FP1 and FP3 are. No such luck, though…

  15. Chile
    Friday
    Free Practice1 22: 30 to 00:00 – Speed Channel
    Free Practice2 02:30 to 04:00 – Speed Channel
    Saturday
    Free Practice3 00:00 to 01:00 – Speed Channel
    Qualifying 03:00 to 04:00 – Fox Sports
    Sunday
    Pre-Race Show 02:00 – Fox Sports
    Race 03:00 to 05:00 – Fox Sports

    Re-Run of the race: 09:30 Chilevision and Speed Channel preview to the Sprint Cup race at Bristol.

  16. Brazil race re-run times, anyone?

    1. CHECK IN THE WEBSITE OF SPORT TV OR GLOBO.

      1. 0730 on sporTV saturday and sunday

  17. According to the BBC website (and Jake Humphrey on twitter) in the UK there will be a post race race “red button” F1 forum type show of “reaction and analysis” after EVERY race, whether live or not. They’ll also have short highlights of practice on their website.

    Hopefully that means that most of the post race analysis will be shifted to the red button show, leaving the main show for showing us highlights of the race. However I’m doubtful it will be live or interactive with it airing at 3am Aus time on Monday morning…

    Link to article here:

    1. Obviously I can’t figure out links…

      Never mind it’s in the f1 section on the bbc sport website if you want to look!

  18. for me, its find a european feed of the action if i can. and 5live comentary. thought i was in the money using my mother in law’s sky go login, but turns out she got rid of the hd package a few months back :(

  19. I find it funny that you can use the web to find this blog,but don’t know how to use the interweb to get what you want ….really sad they let people like this on the web

  20. Guys,

    Anyone has a Link for Live Streaming?
    Thanks.

Comments are closed.