Massive weekend of motorsport: Where and when to watch in Australia

Car racing fans rejoice – arguably the biggest weekend of international motorsport is here, with the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 all taking place within the space of 12 hours.

Each event is regarded as one of the most important for Formula One, IndyCar and NASCAR respectively – and all three are available to watch in Australia.

For more information on what to expect, who’s racing and where/when to watch, read on for Drive’s massive motorsport preview.

The Monaco Grand Prix is undoubtedly one of the most recognisable races on the Formula One calendar, as it returns for its 80th running this year.

A field of 20 drivers will take on 19 corners around the 3.3-kilometre circuit, which is located by the Monte Carlo harbour.

Defending race winner Sergio Perez might have won last year’s edition thanks to a strategic masterclass, but the Mexican driver is still in with a chance of taking the fight to his Red Bull team-mate, two-time world champion Max Verstappen.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – the only Monegasque driver in the field – will be looking to undo his home-race hoodoo, having failed to finish in his first three starts at the circuit and missing out on a podium by one position last year.

Veteran racer Fernando Alonso could secure his third Monaco Grand Prix victory more than a decade after his back-to-back wins in 2006 and 2007, with his Aston Martin currently proving itself as a dark horse at every round so far this season.

Eight-time world champion-winning team Mercedes-AMG is also looking to bounce back after a lacklustre start to the year, with three-time Monaco victor Lewis Hamilton and fellow Briton George Russell reportedly heading to the principality with a raft of upgrades to their cars.

This year’s race will also be the first without Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo since 2011, with the 2018 winner sitting on the sidelines after losing his seat at McLaren last year to compatriot, Oscar Piastri.

While Piastri hasn’t yet outshone his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, the Melbourne-born driver has form at Monaco, having placed second in the Formula 2 sprint race in 2021 – though Norris finished third later that day in the Formula One race.

The Monaco Grand Prix is exclusively broadcasted on Foxtel’s Fox Sport 506 channel – and its sports streaming service Kayo – with live coverage starting on May 26.

See below for detailed broadcast and session times (all listed in AEST).

Heralded as the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”, the Indianapolis 500 (or Indy 500) is one of the oldest racing events globally – with this year marking the 107th running of the historic race.

Last year, 325,000 fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway watched former Formula One driver Marcus Ericsson beat 32 other drivers to win his first Indy 500 – with the Swede taking home a cool $US3.1 million ($AU4.75 million) to cap it off.

For context, this year’s Formula One Australian Grand Prix represented the highest-ever Sunday attendance in Melbourne, with more than 130,000 fans turning up to Albert Park.

Qualifying for the Indy 500 has already taken place, with Alex Palou starting from first position in the Chip Ganassi Racing #10 after recording the fastest-ever run to pole position – completing four laps of the 2.5-mile speedway at an average speed of 376.936km/h.

Dutchman Rinus VeeKay (#21) will start alongside Palou for Ed Carpenter Racing – having missed out on pole by just 0.01km/h – while Arrow McLaren driver Felix Rosenqvist (#6) starts on the outside of the front row.

Brisbane-born New Zealander Scott Dixon (#9) – a six-time IndyCar Series champion – is gunning for his second Indy 500 victory from sixth on the grid, after bad luck took the Chip Ganassi Racing driver out of contention in his past five starts.

Will Power, the defending IndyCar champion from Toowoomba, Queensland, starts 12th in his #12 Team Penske machine, though he was fastest in practice earlier this week.

The last of the antipodeans in this year’s field is three-time Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin (#3), who moved to the US after winning his final title in Australia’s top touring car series.

McLaughlin has already won one race this year at the Barber Motorsports Park road course, but the Kiwi is yet to record a strong finish at Indy, having come home 20th in 2021 and failing to reach the chequered flag in 2022 after a late-race crash.

The Indy 500 is exclusively broadcast on Stan Sport in Australia, with race-day coverage starting on Monday 29 May from 1am AEDT before the green flag flies at 2:30am – running for 200 laps.

The most-watched motorsport series in the US will have its longest race of the season on Monday morning Australian time, with the Coca-Cola 600 taking place in the heart of NASCAR country – North Carolina.

A tradition since 1960, the race – formerly the World 600 – is NASCAR’s night of nights, running for 965 kilometres around the 1.5-mile (2.4km) Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Unlike the Bathurst 1000, which sees two drivers share a Supercar across 161 laps, the Coca-Cola 600 is a single-driver event, becoming one of the most gruelling races on the NASCAR schedule at 400 laps.

The race is also one of the few NASCAR events which starts late in the day and finishes at night, leading to significant changes in car balance and pace as the 400 laps tick by.

Denny Hamlin (#11) is the defending race champion, having led home a Joe Gibbs Racing one-two in 2022 ahead of his then-team-mate Kyle Busch.

Heading into Charlotte, controversial star Ross Chastain (#1) – who went viral for his ‘Hail Melon’ pass to make the championship race last year – is the series points leader, despite not winning a race so far this year in 13 starts.

He has a target on his back from multiple drivers, though, after causing multiple crashes this year and last – with payback potentially on the menu.

Hendrick Motorsports has taken five wins from 13 races this year, with its young stars William Byron (#24) and 2021 series champion Kyle Larson (#5) leading the charge.

So far this season, Chevrolet has won eight races, Toyota four and Ford one – though all drivers who take victory are effectively locked in to the ‘Playoffs’ which begin later this season.

The Coca-Cola 600 is exclusively broadcast on Fox Sports 506 and Kayo in Australia, with race-day coverage starting from 7:30am on Monday May 29.