As it nears the end of its contract, ESPN reports a record audience for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The live telecast of the race on Saturday night averaged 1.5 million viewers, the largest audience to watch the event in its three-year history, based on Nielsen Big Data + Panel data. The inaugural race in 2023 averaged 1.3 million, the previous event record.

With F1 races averaging 1.3 million viewers, ESPN remains on course to set an all-time season record average for F1 viewership in the United States. The existing record average of 1.21 million was set in 2022.

Viewership was up nearly 70 percent over last year's race, which averaged 905,000 viewers and started at close to 1 a.m. ET. Organizers moved the starting time of this year's event earlier, with the race telecast running from 10:52 p.m. ET until 12:55 a.m. as Max Verstappen drove to victory and further tightened the championship battle with only two races remaining.

The audience marked the 14th event viewership record set this season, with all but three of the 22 experiencing year-over-year audience growth.

Viewership peaked at 1.8 million between 11:45 p.m. and midnight. The race telecast also attracted 671,000 average viewers in the 18-49 demographic, an increase of 60 percent over last year's race.

All but three races this season (Miami, Singapore, Brazil) have seen year-over-year viewership increases. The races setting event viewership records have been Australia, China, Monaco, Spain, Canada, Austria, Great Britain, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, Azerbaijan, United States, Mexico and Las Vegas.