Lando Norris has taken pole position for the sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix. The world champion put himself two tenths faster than the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, as his McLaren team’s upgrades appear to have brought them back into the championship fight. McLaren has brought what they’ve described as a ‘phase one of an entirely new car,’ and that has delivered.
Mercedes had four wins from four across the first three weekends, had looked to be the favourites for the championship, but they could be back in the hunt, not just because of upgrades, but refinement of the regulations. SQ3 boiled down to a single lap shoot-out with Norris going ahead of Oscar Piastri, before Antonelli went nearly two hundredths faster than the Australian.
After the spring break, Mercedes was the only team not to bring upgrades this weekend, but McLaren’s upgrades at this race two years ago set Norris on a path to his first championship last season and the team on the way to back-to-back constructors. This may be an important shift if he is to defend his title following a poor opening three rounds, but Mercedes will bring their upgrades for the next race in Montreal.
Mercedes has often struggled in the heat, and the 32C temperatures did not seem to do it any favours. In Bahrain testing, while they hardly topped the times, they were more competitive in cooler evening conditions that could be a headache in the European summer.
McLaren had a disastrous start in the first two rounds, even a double did not start, but they turned a corner in Suzuka, and this could be yet more growing evidence that their strategy over the previous cycle could work again. This race was due to be their 1,000th race start if they started in China and races in the Gulf weren’t cancelled.
The Briton topped SQ1 and, although an error on his SQ2 lap left him only seventh fastest in the second stage, the world champion recovered well and was the only driver to dip below the eight-eight -second barrier on his sole flying lap of the decisive final phase.
Norris said, “I feel very good. I’m very happy for the team. It’s always a lot of expectations. A lot of work has gone into trying to bring these upgrades and it’s always just difficult to anticipate or to know what to expect coming into a new weekend.
“But since lap one, literally, turn one, everything felt better. It felt a little bit more like last year with just having some confidence in the car. And I felt like I exploited that through the whole day today.”
Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari fourth; he was a tenth and a quarter behind Piastri, as he had a similar advantage over Max Verstappen. Leclerc also looked to be in the mix but was unable to match the power of the Mercedes-powered top three, while Norris pulled another champion’s lap out the bag.
Red Bull also had an improved showing as the four-time champion put himself three hundredths faster than George Russell, with his former teammate Lewis Hamilton a quarter of a second behind. Describing it as “Pretty surprising how big of a jump McLaren and Ferrari have made.”
Alpine continued their strong start to the season, Franco Colapinto was best of the rest in eighth as the Argentine was eight-tenths behind the seven-time champion. That prevented Isack Hadjar from making it to the top four, locking out the top eight as he went a tenth off Colapinto and seven hundredths faster than Pierre Gasly.
Gabriel Bortoletto missed out on SQ3 by just over two hundredths, the Brazilian put himself a quarter of a tenth faster than his Audi teammate, Nico Hulkenberg. Haas, meanwhile have appeared to slip back a bit, Ollie Bearman going nearly a tenth behind Hulkenberg but a decent recovery from his dramatic collision at the last race at Suzuka.
Alex Albon was eight thousandths faster than his Williams teammate Carlos Sainz, with the Racing Bull of Arvid Lindblad slowest in SQ2. Lindblad made it through to the second part of sprint qualifying after going three and a half tenths faster than Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson.
Lawson, meanwhile, was two tenths faster than Esteban Ocon, with the Cadillac drivers the last drivers to set a time within 107% rule. Sergio Perez was nearly half a second faster than teammate Valtteri Bottas. The Aston Martin duo did not qualify, Fernando Alonso was nearly ten seconds off Bottas, and Lance Stroll did not setting a time
