In the wake of issues surrounding the Australian and Azerbaijan Grands Prix, ESPN appears to be reacting to the ongoing criticism from fans as the American broadcaster reveals that it is expanding its coverage for next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

For the event at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the first round of the season, fans will be able to watch coverage of the first two practice sessions of the weekend on ESPNU. For the first four races of the season, coverage of the first two practice sessions was only available for viewing on ESPN3 via the ESPN App.

The third Spanish Grand Prix practice session, qualifying and the race will all air on ESPN2.

After a 20-year absence, Formula 1 racing returned to ESPN and ABC this year as part of a multiyear linear and digital partnership. All 21 races in the championship will be televised on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC, with practice and qualifying sessions for each race also airing.

The race and qualifying telecasts, presented by Mothers Polish, are airing commercial-free.

All race, practice sessions and qualifying programs also will continue to be available for live viewing and replays on the ESPN App. Network schedules for race weekends will be published during the week on the dedicated ESPN F1 landing page on ESPN.com.

Most of the complaints surrounding ESPN's coverage of the Azerbaijan weekend centred on the information given by the various viewing guides, which not meant fans missing sessions but leaving them unable to record them.

In the midst of the furore, some fans claimed the move was a deliberate attempt to force people to purchase F1's streaming service F1.TV which goes live next weekend.

With an eye on the official F1 live timing app, now in its ninth full season and still prone to errors, those fans subscribing to F1.TV are advised to ensure that they have back-up plans available to them.

The timing and channel information shown in the accompanying image is that provided by ESPN.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by FormerF1Fan, 08/05/2018 10:09

"The American pulp fictioning of F1 is now fully under way. Their deepest concern is just keep the fans full of (delete as appropriate) hot pizza/popcorn/hot dogs/twinkies/Jel-O and the rest doesn't matter... Either literally, (i.e. a fridge stop required every 24 seconds) or figuratively as far as TV coverage is concerned (loud ignorant bawling unintelligible "commentators", long-since-past-it "celebrities") ....
"

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2. Posted by Cigarsmoker, 07/05/2018 14:42

"According to the Direct TV schedule as of 9:37 AM Monday 5/7/2018, no practice sessions will be broadcast on ESPN, ESPNU, or ESPN2. The only scheduled broadcasts are Qualifying and the Race as well as rebroadcasts of each.

At the times given for showing the practice sessions, Direct TV will be broadcasting SEC College Softball.

Either ESPN is lying in their published schedule above, or Direct TV is inserting the softball instead of F1 practice.

Either way, I'm tired of it and I believe all of the worst comments regarding the reason for the ESPN screw ups. "

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ESPN expands coverage for Spain

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