Formula 1 News: Norris wins pole for Miami GP Sprint

Lando Norris (pictured), driving with the superior Rob Marshall designed upgrades on his #1 McLaren, turned a lap of 1m27.869s to win pole for the Miami GP Sprint race to be run on Saturday morning athe Miami International Autodrome.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

“Perfect result for us, nice way to reward the team,” said Norris. “We have some upgrades on the car and it was nice to feel some grip again. Just the beginning of the weekend, but a nice result for us.

“This track has always been good to us. We knew what we were bringing would be a step and it is. Since the first lap today, I felt comfortable; I felt like I had some rear grip.

“My SQ2 was pretty woeful, I was a second off, and it didn’t fill me with confidence. But we got everything in a good window, and the lap was good apart from one corner, Turn 16, I completely missed it.

“Just happy to be back here; it has been a little while!”

Points leader, Kimi Antonelli put his #12 Mercedes on the outside of the front row, 0.222s behind Norris.

Last year’s Miami GP race winner, Oscar Piastri, was third quick in the #81 McLaren, 0.239s behind his teammate Norris.

Charles Leclerc was 4th for Ferrari, 0.370s behind Norris and 4/10ths faster than his less talented teammate Lewis Hamilton in 7th.

Max Verstappen was 5th in the #3 Red Bull Ford, 0.592s behind Norris. Pierre Wache is just not capable of designing an F1 car as fast as Rob Marshall, but it was an improvement for the Red Bull compared to the first three races of the season.

How bad is the Red Bull?  Verstappen’s teammate, Isack Hadjar, was 9th fastest, a full second slower than the Dutchman.

George Russell was again schooled by his younger Mercedes teammate and could only manage 6th fastest 0.624s behind Norris.

Alpine driver Colapinto beat Hadjar to eighth, with Pierre Gasly rounding out the top 10.

The Audi pair of Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg missed out on the top 10, exiting SQ2 in P11 and P12, with Haas’ Ollie Bearman also finding himself out of the running in P13.

The Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, meanwhile, rounded out the order at the back of the field in 21st and 22nd places driving the Adrian Newey designed ‘lemon.’  We now know Rob Marshall made Newey look good all those years at Red Bull.

Mercedes said they expected the rest to close the gap – but McLaren have gone one better and beaten their rivals.

After four Mercedes poles in a row – three for the Grands Prix, one for the China Sprint, now we have a different car starting P1.

It certainly seems those three teams are more evenly matched here, with Red Bull firmly in the fight with them as opposed to mixing with the midfield.

2026 Miami GP Sprint Qualifying Results