Hard Rock Stadium is definitely the place to be this weekend! We are officially in the thick of the 2026 Miami Grand Prix and with the new Sprint format in full swing, the schedule is packed. The Spring Break was definitely a long one! After the Japanese Grand Prix wrapped up on March 29, the grid had a massive five-week gap before arriving in Miami.
This was largely due to the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds (which were originally slated for mid-April), effectively turning April into a second pre-season for the engineers back at the factories. And McLaren making complete use of this gap has absolutely gatecrashed the ‘pole’ party.
Mercedes had been looking dominant early in the season (with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli looking very strong in the flyaway rounds), but the W17 seems to have met its match in the Miami heat. Lando Norris (Car #1) snatched Sprint Pole in a thrilling session, proving that the upgrades McLaren brought during the long break are working exactly as intended. It’s a fascinating mix behind them, with Ferrari and the Red Bulls lurking.
Unlike some sessions where drivers get two runs, SQ3 turned into a high-stakes single-lap shootout on the Soft tires. Lando set a blistering benchmark of 1:27.869. He beat out the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, by 0.222 seconds.
McLaren arrived in Miami with a massive upgrade package. While Norris had looked strong in practice and dominated SQ1, he actually had a messy lap in SQ2 that almost saw him tumble down the order. However, he regained his composure for the final shootout, proving the car’s new ceiling is significantly higher than it was in Japan.
Mercedes tried to play it clever with Kimi Antonelli, sending him out as the very last car to take advantage of maximum track evolution. Kimi was actually faster than Lando in the final sector. However, Lando’s opening sectors were so dominant that he couldn't close the gap, eventually settling for P2.
Lando also managed to edge out his teammate Oscar Piastri, who looked like he might take pole himself after topping parts of SQ2. Oscar ended up P3, just 0.017 seconds behind Antonelli, confirming that the McLaren pace is genuine and not just a ‘Lando special’. This pole officially breaks the Mercedes 100 percent qualifying streak for the 2026 season. The race is set to take place 9:30 pm IST today on May 2.
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