Formula 1: How to watch the Monaco Grand Prix on TV and what to know

MONACO (AP) — Here's a guide that tells you what you need to know about Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix. It's the eighth round of the 2025 Formula 1 season.

— In the U.S., on ESPN.

— Other countries are listed here.

— Sunday: Monaco Grand Prix, 78 laps of the 3.34-kilometer (2.07-mile) Monaco circuit. Starts at 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET / 1300 GMT).

Tight, twisty and not really suited to modern F1 cars, Monaco is a throwback to the series origins in the 1950s. With old-school glamor and a harbor filled with luxury yachts, Monaco is known as “the jewel in the crown” of F1, but it's by far the slowest circuit of the year. Overtaking is so difficult that Saturday's qualifying session is arguably more important than the race. With barriers close to the track, even the smallest mistake can mean a crash.

Max Verstappen gave his title defense a big boost by beating McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to win the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. Verstappen overtook Piastri around the outside at the start in a daring move and controlled the rest of the race with strong pace and smart strategy. Norris overtook Piastri for second place late in the race to cut his teammate's standings lead.

Lando Norris of McLaren produced a track-record lap time with his last attempt to beat local hero Charles Leclerc to pole position. Norris was relieved to take pole for the first time since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March and had been increasingly frustrated by a tendency to make mistakes when it mattered most in qualifying. Standings leader Oscar Piastri qualified third and Max Verstappen starts fourth after moving up a spot because of a three-place penalty for Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes is set for a tough day with George Russell 14th and Kimi Antonelli 15th on the grid.

Get caught up:

— Lando Norris qualifies on pole for Monaco GP in record time

— F1 hopes extra pit stops bring more excitement in the glamorous but dull Monaco Grand Prix

— Red Bull driver Max Verstappen wins F1’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix to end Piastri’s streak

— Lewis Hamilton celebrates a fourth place which highlights Ferrari’s tough season in F1

15 — McLaren is by far the most successful team ever in Monaco with 15 wins. But the last of those was 17 years ago, when a young Lewis Hamilton took the victory.

2 — A rule change means drivers will need to make at least two pit stops for tires this year.

93 — Leclerc's victory last year was the first time in 93 years that a driver from Monaco won the Monaco Grand Prix. Louis Chiron won in 1931, 19 years before the F1 world championship was founded.

“I don’t think you realize how good this (pole) feels. Quite a few struggles over the last couple months. Especially here in Monaco, it’s a beautiful place, the hardest track probably to do it, up against the hometown hero as well.” — Lando Norris.

“I think it’s going to be a bit of chaos (in the race), but we’ll see how it plays out. I think there’ll be a lot of strategy games.” — Charles Leclerc.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain steers his car during the qualifying session ahead of the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix race at the Monaco racetrack in Monaco, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco steers his car during the qualifying session ahead of the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix race at the Monaco racetrack in Monaco, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain steers his car during the first free practice ahead of the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix race at the Monaco racetrack in Monaco, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain steers his car during the second free practice ahead of the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix race at the Monaco racetrack in Monaco, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands celebrates on the podium after winning the Italian Emilia Romagna Formula One Grand Prix, at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari racetrack in Imola, Italy, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands celebrates on the podium after winning the Italian Emilia Romagna Formula One Grand Prix, flanked with McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain, left, and McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia, at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari racetrack in Imola, Italy, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — Thriston Lawrence walked onto the 10th tee box at 2:20 p.m. to begin his second round at the U.S. Open with his name near the top of the front page of the leaderboard.

Nearly six hours and 73 shots later, the South African's name wasn't so high. And his round still wasn't quite over.

Welcome to Oakmont, where one of golf's toughest tests began with two — or three in the case of Lawrence and a handful of others still on the course when play was suspended at around 8:15 p.m. as a storm passed through — of the sport's longest days.

Lawrence was standing over a 4-foot par putt in the middle of a downpour for a 4-over 74 when the horn blew, 5 hours, 55 minutes after his scheduled tee time.

He turned to ask an official if he could putt out. When the answer came back “no," he marked his ball and hustled with umbrella in hand to the clubhouse.

"Overall, I played nicely, but frustrating day because it felt like we were out there for seven hours,” Lawrence said.

Close enough.

While the late dash of weather didn't help, the pace at the sprawling par-70 layout carved into a hilly slice of Western Pennsylvania so big it's divided by an interstate spared no one.

Not world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who admitted it "it felt long to me,” after taking 5 1/2 hours to put together a 1-over 71 on Friday morning that left him 4 over for the tournament, seven shots behind leader Sam Burns.

Not first-round leader J.J. Spaun, who needed nearly 5 hours, 40 minutes to finish up a 72 that put him in the final group with Burns on Saturday.

Yet Scheffler didn’t find himself checking his watch too often, not even during waits that stretched to 15 minutes or more between shots.

“I’ve got too many concerns other than the pace it takes to get around this place,” he said with a shrug.

By comparison, Scheffler and playing partners Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa might have gotten off easy.

It took Lawrence’s group well over an hour to get through three holes, thanks to a logjam on the tee at the par-5 12th. Players were frequently forced to wait 20 minutes or more to hit their tee shot while members of the group ahead of them either waited for the green to clear in hopes of reaching it in two shots or wandered through the 5-inch-plus rough in hopes of finding their ball. (Hardly a given).

Unless you stick it close (and you probably won't), there's no chance at making up times on greens so fast and so frustrating that Edward S. Stimpson invented his now-eponymous and ubiquitous tool to measure their actual speed.

Even seemingly innocuous approach shots aren't immune, as qualifier Will Chandler found out Friday in the second round when his wedge into the par-4 second hole landed a few paces from the back of the green, then hit reverse and kept rolling for 40 seconds before settling back in the fairway.

Part of the issue at Oakmont is the combination of the layout — where players literally have to cross a bridge over an interstate to get from the first green to the second tee, and again while going from the eighth green to the ninth tee — and the decisions the course forces you to make.

There's typically a backup at the par-4 17th, for example, because at around 300 yards (albeit uphill ones) it's drivable, meaning the group on the green typically has to putt out before the group behind them can go.

Throw in the stakes — the lure of golf immortality (or at the very least, a healthy paycheck for making the cut) for the pros and the walk of a lifetime for amateurs like dentist turned qualifier Matt Vogt — and yeah, things can drag on a bit.

Hovland's second trip through Oakmont was an adventure. His 1-under 69 included only eight pars. There was an eagle thanks to a pitch-in on 17, five birdies, three bogeys, and a double.

During a regular tour event, when scores are lower and the pace is a far more palatable five hours or less, Hovland isn't sure he would have been able to keep things from spiraling out of control after the second, when a poor drive into the right rough was followed by a mangled pitch into a bunker and eventually a double bogey that threatened to rob him of the momentum he'd build over his first 10 holes.

“If it would have happened at another tournament, for example, I could have potentially lost my mind there a little bit,” he said. “But I felt like I kept things together very well.”

The fact Hovland had time to let his frustration melt away before his driver on the third tee may have helped. The 27-year-old Norwegian knows his game well enough to know that he tends to speed things up when a round threatens to go sideways, and not in a good way.

There was no chance of that on Friday.

“Yeah, you might have had a bad hole on the last hole and then you’re sitting on the tee box for 10-20 minutes,” he said. “At least it gives you a good opportunity to get that out of your system and reset and think about the next shot.”

Maybe the rhythm of the day will feel more like normal on Saturday, when the field goes out in pairs instead of threesomes. Or maybe not. Considering the lure of history, he's not going to complain.

“Honestly, we play pretty slow on Tour anyway,” he said with a smile. “So what’s another 40 minutes to go around Oakmont.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Taylor Pendrith, of Canada, waits tee off on the 12th hole during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Friday, June 13, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Thriston Lawrence, of South Africa, lines up a putt on the 12th hole during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Friday, June 13, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Scottie Scheffler plays out of the Church Pews bunker on the third hole during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Friday, June 13, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Viktor Hovland, of Norway, reacts after missing a putt on the 18th hole during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Friday, June 13, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Viktor Hovland, of Norway, reacts after making double bogey on the second hole during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Friday, June 13, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Brooks Koepka prepares to putt on the 10th hole during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Friday, June 13, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Viktor Hovland, of Norway, hits from a bunker on the second hole during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Friday, June 13, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)