Lando Norris will lead the field away in Saturday’s Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix after topping Sprint Qualifying on Friday, delivering McLaren’s first P1 grid slot of the 2026 season. In a tense SQ3 that effectively came down to a single push lap, Norris posted a 1:27.869 to edge championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 0.222s, with Oscar Piastri securing third to make it a McLaren 1-3.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took fourth after showing strong pace throughout the session, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will start fifth. George Russell was sixth in the second Mercedes, roughly six tenths adrift of Norris’s benchmark, and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton lined up seventh.
Alpine placed both cars inside the top 10 as Franco Colapinto claimed eighth and Pierre Gasly 10th, with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar splitting them in ninth. The result sets the grid for the second Sprint of the season.
Just outside the top 10, Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg missed the SQ3 cut in 11th and 12th. Haas’s Ollie Bearman will start 13th, while Williams endured a double SQ2 exit as Alex Albon took 14th and Carlos Sainz 15th, the latter voicing frustration over team radio. Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad will begin from 16th.
Liam Lawson, in the other Racing Bulls, was knocked out in SQ1 and starts 17th ahead of Haas’s Esteban Ocon. Cadillac’s first home weekend yielded 19th for Sergio Perez and 20th for Valtteri Bottas, while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll completed the order in 21st and 22nd.
Earlier in the day, Leclerc had set the pace in the weekend’s extended sole practice before teams reconvened for Friday’s Sprint Qualifying at 16:30 local time. SQ1 began with all cars on the mandatory medium tyre; Mercedes sent Russell out first while Antonelli briefly waited in the garage following FP1 issues for the team. A yellow flag flew around the midpoint when Stroll locked up heavily and ran off at Turn 17, though he managed to continue.
With minutes remaining in SQ1, Leclerc led from Antonelli and Hamilton, with Colapinto, Lindblad, Norris, Alonso, Lawson and Stroll at risk. Norris then vaulted to the top with a 1:28.273, just under half a second ahead of Piastri, as late improvements shuffled the order and Stroll ultimately failed to set a time.
The final phase boiled down to a one-lap dash, and Norris delivered when it mattered to claim pole for Saturday’s Sprint. Attention now turns to whether he can convert that advantage against Antonelli and the chasing pack in Miami’s second Sprint of the campaign.
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