European Grand Prix 2016: Time, TV schedule and how to watch Formula 1 online

The first ever Formula 1 race in Azerbaijan promises to be interesting at the very least, as the new Baku City Circuit is narrow, fast and ultimately punishing. This year’s host for the European Grand Prix, the new circuit was tested on Saturday morning with a GP2 event, an event that saw the safety car called out four times with more incidents on top of that.

Going into Sunday’s Formula 1 race, though, the intrigue also lies in the starting grid. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes played second fiddle to teammate Lewis Hamilton in each of the past two races and saw his championship lead erode to just nine points over his teammate, and he also trailed him in all three practice sessions.

But Rosberg dominated the qualifying session and will sit pole for the race, while Hamilton is all the way back in 10th after clipping the wall and putting himself out of the third qualifying session.

“Clearly [Hamilton] has lost an opportunity because the car was good enough for the front row,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. “But it is tricky around here.”

The Force India of Sergio Perez will start from seventh on the grid, but he qualified up in second, with a blistering 1:43.515, about a second behind Rosberg’s 1:42.758. But a crash in practice required a new gearbox, for which he received a five-place grid penalty.

After beating the likes of Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari, Felipe Massa of Williams the Daniil Kvyat of Torro Rosso, Perez will have to do it again as he’ll start behind all of them on Sunday. Perez was quoted after the qualifying session as saying it “felt like” he won pole position, but that it came at the worst time due to his crash.

Perez had a pole position two races ago in Monaco after a stellar drive. If the new Baku City Circuit was to be compared with any track, Monaco is as good as any, due to its narrow corners.

Ricciardo, who will start on the front row due to Perez’s penalty, is a fan of the track even with its difficulty.

“I think they’ve really done a really great job with the circuit,” Ricciardo said. “It’s very challenging, very easy to make mistakes so I think that’s what’s going to create an exciting race.”

Mistakes have been aplenty this weekend and smart money is on more of them when the race gets underway on Sunday. The race is set to get underway at 8 a.m. ET and is scheduled for 51 laps of the 3.73-mile circuit. Television coverage will be carried by NBCSN and a live stream of the race will be available on NBC Sports Live Extra.

Location: Baku City Circuit, Baku, Azerbaijan
Time: 8 a.m. ET
TV: NBCSN
Streaming: NBC Sports