{"id":618347,"date":"2026-05-02T01:28:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/618347\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T01:28:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:28:45","slug":"lando-norris-beats-kimi-antonelli-to-sprint-race-pole-with-upgraded-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/618347\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris beats Kimi Antonelli to sprint race pole with upgraded McLaren"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris<\/a> has topped sprint qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix, defeating championship leader Kimi Antonelli<\/a> in an upgraded McLaren<\/a> Formula 1 car.<\/p>\n

Norris topped what turned into a single-lap SQ3 shoot-out at the Miami International\u00a0Autodrome, handing early 2026 dominator Mercedes<\/a> a first defeat.<\/p>\n

The session at the Miami\u00a0Autodrome was the first competitive outing following a mid-season rules refinement to help drivers push flat out instead of being hampered by excessive energy management, although the stop-start circuit around the Hard Rock Stadium was not the most representative venue to evaluate the success of the FIA’s intervention.<\/p>\n

It was also the first qualifying session following an enforced month-long break, which most teams put to use to introduce vast upgrades. While 2026 leader Mercedes kept its powder dry for now, Ferrari<\/a>,\u00a0McLaren and Red Bull all rolled out significant updates to their respective machines.<\/p>\n

In SQ1\u00a0McLaren’s Norris topped the charts, tantalisingly just 0.010s quicker than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc<\/a> with Oscar Piastri<\/a> and Lewis Hamilton<\/a> behind. Mercedes duo Antonelli and George Russell<\/a> were fifth and sixth, a first indication Mercedes might have to pay a short-term price for being out of sync with its upgrade plan.<\/p>\n

There was disappointment for Racing Bulls’\u00a0Liam Lawson<\/a>, he struggled for brake temperature after a compromised warm-up, with the New Zealander eliminated ahead of Haas’ Esteban Ocon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Charles <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Ryan Pierse \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cadillac duo\u00a0Sergio Perez<\/a> and Valtteri Bottas<\/a> were out in 19th and 20th respectively, the slowest of the 20 cars to set a competitive lap time. And that’s because Aston Martin’s woes with Honda continued, with neither Fernando Alonso<\/a> nor Lance Stroll<\/a> able to set a proper lap.<\/p>\n

Williams<\/a> drivers Carlos Sainz<\/a> and Alex Albon<\/a> had just about scraped through SQ1 but then stumbled at the next hurdle. As Leclerc led from Piastri with a 1m28.333s lap, Audi<\/a> drivers Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> and Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> were also eliminated in SQ2, with Bortoleto missing the cut by just 0.021s to 10th-placed Pierre Gasly<\/a>. Arvid Lindblad<\/a> also followed Lawson out the door in 15th.<\/p>\n

In the top 10 shoot-out of SQ3, drivers waited until the end of the session for a single-lap run, with Norris confirming\u00a0McLaren’s progress to take a sprint pole. At the venue of his maiden grand prix win in 2024, the reigning world champion established a 1m27.869s as the field moved to soft tyres.<\/p>\n

Championship leader\u00a0Antonelli was just over one tenth off in second, narrowly bumped the second McLaren of Piastri off the front row. Leclerc was fourth, with Max Verstappen<\/a> also showing some progress in the Red Bull in fifth.<\/p>\n

Russell was only sixth, ahead of Hamilton and an impressive\u00a0Franco Colapinto<\/a>, with Isack Hadjar<\/a> and Pierre Gasly rounding out the top 10.<\/p>\n

The action continues with the 19-lap sprint on Saturday at noon local Miami time, followed by grand\u00a0prix qualifying at 4pm.<\/p>\n

F1 Miami GP – Sprint qualifying results<\/p>\n

Photos from Miami GP – Friday<\/p>\n

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\"Lando<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Max<\/p>\n


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\"Dan<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Oliver<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Charles<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Charles<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Oscar<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Lando<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\"George<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Franco<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Isack<\/p>\n


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\"Nico<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Racing<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Max<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Alexander<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Isack<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Lando<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Max<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Lando<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Charles<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Liam<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Andrea<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Max<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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\"Oscar<\/p>\n


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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\"Oscar<\/p>\n


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\"Alexander<\/p>\n


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\"Arvid<\/p>\n


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\"George<\/p>\n


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\"Esteban<\/p>\n


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\"Max<\/p>\n


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\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris has topped sprint qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix, defeating championship leader Kimi Antonelli in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[230963,268173,268079,1080,268078,99],"class_list":["post-618347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-apple_launch","tag-f1-miami-gp-lando-norris-beats-kimi-antonelli-to-sprint-race-pole-with-upgraded-mclaren","tag-f1-miami-grand-prix-2026","tag-formula-1","tag-miami-gp","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}