Lando Norris achieved McLaren’s first victory of the 2026 Formula 1 season by winning the Miami Grand Prix sprint race in a 1-2 for the defending constructors’ champions.
The defending drivers’ world champion finished 3.7 seconds clear of teammate Oscar Piastri, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completing the podium after the 19-lap race around Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
This was the first non-Mercedes victory of the 2026 championship after the Silver Arrows won the opening three Grands Prix, plus the Shanghai sprint, but was unable to bring many updates to Miami.
That is in contrast to several upgrades that McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull all brought, which was represented in sprint qualifying as Norris beat Kimi Antonelli to pole with Piastri completing the top three.
Leclerc and Max Verstappen respectively rounded out the top five, while George Russell only taking sixth.
The reigning world champion made a solid start but it was another poor getaway for Antonelli, who dropped behind Piastri and Leclerc into fourth with Russell and Lewis Hamilton jumping Verstappen.
Antonelli did fight back, trying to force his way past Leclerc into turns eight and eleven yet the Ferrari driver held firm and made an observation: “Kimi is so bad at wheel-to-wheel, I feel like we’re going to crash.”
In typical 2026 style that battle would have kept going in ‘yo-yo’ fashion, but tweaks were made for Miami with the super clipping limit increased to 350kW to decrease the reliance on energy management.
So, instead of keeping with Leclerc, Antonelli actually fell back and was overtaken by teammate Russell on lap eight at Turn 17, though the Mercedes driver regained fourth the following lap.
That was at Turn 11, just seconds before Verstappen overtook Hamilton over the white lines at corner exit.
The Red Bull driver therefore handed sixth back to the seven-time world champion, before finally completing a ‘legal’ move on Hamilton at Turn 17 during lap 10.
By this point, these were the only wheel-to-wheel battles happening, as the top three had moved clear with a comfortable Norris 2.7 seconds ahead of Piastri who led Leclerc by 1.3 seconds.
The Ferrari driver tried to close on Piastri but it was too little, too late, particularly when he went deep at Turn 11 on the penultimate lap. This meant that, in typical sprint race style, drivers largely maintained position across the final laps.
Norris therefore completed a controlled win from pole ahead of Piastri and Leclerc, while Kimi crossed the line in fourth and 2.5 seconds behind Charles.
However, the Mercedes driver was handed a post-race five-second penalty for track limit infringements, dropping him to sixth behind fourth-placed Russell and Verstappen in fifth.
Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly respectively completed the points positions, the Alpine driver continuing a strong start to 2026.
As a result of the penalty, Antonelli’s championship lead over Russell has dropped to seven points, while Leclerc remains third ahead of Hamilton and fifth-placed Norris.
So congratulations to McLaren with this 1-2 finish. The Papayas are back! Very promising pace for the constructors’ champions. Qualifying for the main Miami race is next.
Miami Grand Prix, sprint race results:
1 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 29:15.045
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes +3.766s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +6.251s
4 George Russell Mercedes +12.951s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford +13.639s
6 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +13.777s*
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +21.665s
8 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes +30.525s
9 Isack Hadjar Red Bull-Ford +35.346s
10 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes +36.970s
11 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +48.438s
12 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari +56.972s
13 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari +57.365s
14 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes +58.504s
15 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Ford +59.358s
16 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda +76.067s
17 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari +76.691s
18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda +77.626s
19 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes +88.173s
20 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari +89.597s
Nico Huldenberg Audi DNS
Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford DNS
*Five-second time penalty for track limits
Lando Norris claimed victory during Saturday’s Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix, crossing the line ahead of McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, after another tricky start for Mercedes man Kimi Antonelli.
Polesitter Norris converted his advantage on the run down to the first corner and never looked back – gradually pulling away from Piastri and Leclerc as the 19-lap encounter developed, and staying clear of the squabbles behind him.
Antonelli dropped from second to fourth off the line, and almost fell behind team mate Russell, who started back in sixth, with the two Mercedes drivers swapping positions on a couple of occasions before the championship leader emerged on top – only to be demoted to P6 after the chequered flag due to a track limits violation.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the other Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton were also involved in a close battle, rubbing wheels on the opening lap and midway through the race, but the former had enough pace in hand to cross the line in sixth, which became fifth after Antonelli’s penalty.
Pierre Gasly grabbed the final point on offer for Alpine with a solid run to eighth, followed by the other Red Bull of Isack Hadjar and team mate Franco Colapinto – the latter two involved in their own exciting scrap over the final few laps.
Audi’s hopes of snatching a point were dented when Nico Hulkenberg’s car caught fire on the way to the grid, while a strong start for Gabriel Bortoleto faded and ended with an 11th-place finish, ahead of Haas drivers Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman.
Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson led the charge for their respective Williams and Racing Bulls teams in 14th and 15th, while Aston Martin made the finish with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in 16th and 18th after both of them started on soft tyres, rather than the more popular choice of mediums.
Cadillac ended their first home F1 race in P17 and P20 with Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, while Williams’ Alex Albon (who stopped for a front wing change late on) was the final finisher in 19th – the aforementioned Hulkenberg being joined on the sidelines by Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad, who was due to start from the pit lane but never made it out on track.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-beats-piastri-and-leclerc-to-victory-in-miami-sprint.4H4WI3lnIs7jOZ8lSBIp6X
McLaren Formula 1 team principal Andrea Stella seemed cautiously optimistic about the team’s upgrades after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri secured a 1-2 finish in the Miami sprint race.
The Woking outfit turned up to the Miami Grand Prix weekend with an almost new car after working on extensive upgrades during the five-week break in April.
After Norris and Piastri finished with a strong 1-2 finish in the sprint race, Stella was pleased to see that the car continued to show “good characteristics from a degradation point of view” in long runs, but explained that the grid is still “very close”.
“It’s good to bring upgrades so that we can become more and more competitive,” Stella told Sky Sports F1. “It was important to confirm that the upgrades work like we’ve seen yesterday over a single lap. Today, it was important to see them in long runs and even hot conditions.
“So nobody knew exactly what the degradation would have been, but it looks like the car has retained the good characteristics from a degradation point of view.
“So good indications so far, but everyone is very close. I think Lando might have benefited from being the lead car, in clean air, possibly whoever was the first today could have won the sprint.
“I think everyone is close. And we will see more in a few hours in qualifying.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/andrea-stella-issues-upgrade-assessment-after-lando-norris-leads-mclaren-miami-sprint-1-2/10817403/
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has relieved any responsibility from Kimi Antonelli after yet another poor race start for the Formula 1 championship leader during the Miami Grand Prix sprint.
The Mercedes driver dropped from second to fourth on lap one, meaning he’s now lost 20 positions at race start across the opening three grands prix and two sprints of 2026.
Antonelli ultimately crossed the Miami finish line in fourth, but dropped to sixth post-race following a five-second track limits penalty, handing fourth to team-mate George Russell and fifth to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
It marked the first time Mercedes has failed to win this year after it didn’t bring many updates to Miami, compared to heavily upgraded cars for McLaren and Ferrari who made up the podium.
Wolff told Sky Sports: “We knew that we are a little bit out of sync with our upgrades that are coming from [the next round in] Montreal.
“But we were hoping that we’d be able to hold on now in terms of fewer lap times we do. But obviously if you have such a bad getaway, which wasn’t at all Kimi’s fault, it was a glitch on our side – it’s difficult.”
The poor getaway came in spite of Antonelli really working hard during the April break to improve upon his lap one fortunes, which had threatened to plague his otherwise successful start to 2026 with victories in China and Japan.
Antonelli told Sky Sports: “We’ve been doing work over the break and on my side for once I did everything right with the procedures, so we need to check what happened.
“The grip was very low, probably lower than we expected and then after that I was really frustrated, I didn’t even drive well, I did a lot of mistakes.
“I got track limits which is something that I need to avoid, but this weekend definitely has been more difficult, but was expected with everyone bringing big upgrades. We’ve just got to try to maximise the result and focus on qualifying.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/kimi-antonelli-not-at-fault-for-poor-f1-miami-gp-sprint-race-start-toto-wolff/10817401/
Charles Leclerc was left disappointed by the result in the Miami Sprint as he found himself unable to pass McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, ultimately settling for the final podium spot at the chequered flag.
After qualifying on the second row, the Ferrari driver benefitted from a poor getaway for Kimi Antonelli and charged into the top three before consolidating his position by defending against the Italian.
Leclerc then set his sights on Piastri up ahead and managed to close the gap down to less than a second, but he struggled to stay near and repeatedly drifted wide, leading him to cross the line around 2.5s behind the Australian.
“The upgrades worked well,” he summarised after the Sprint. “It’s thanks to the team that has done massive work over these five weeks of break, but I’m satisfied with that.
“Unfortunately I’m not satisfied with P3 though – obviously we wish we were a little bit higher, but McLaren brought significant upgrades as well and did a big step forward.”
The result was a marked improvement on Sprint Qualifying, where both Leclerc and team mate Lewis Hamilton found themselves unable to break into the top three – something which he is hopeful will not be repeated over the rest of the weekend.
And despite his frustration at their rival’s progress, the early signs of success from the Scuderia’s major upgrade package have left Leclerc confident that they can carry the momentum into the Miami Grand Prix.
He said: “We are not too far [behind], so I think for [later today] if we put everything together maybe we can start a bit higher up, and that will make our life a little bit easier.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/leclerc-admits-hes-not-satisfied-with-p3-after-losing-out-to-piastri-in-miami-sprint.PeWOMzUiO7Facu0NowfHe
Lando Norris admitted that it was “nice to be back on the top step” following his return to winning ways in the Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix, with the Briton pleased to take victory for McLaren following their significant upgrades package this weekend.
While Mercedes led the way across the opening three rounds, Norris became the first non-Silver Arrows driver to triumph in the 2026 campaign as he converted pole position into a win during Saturday’s Sprint at the Miami International Autodrome.
The reigning World Champion made a strong start and remained mostly untroubled in the lead from there, ultimately crossing the line with a margin of 3.766s over McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri.
“It was a good race – nice to be back on the top step, even if it’s a Sprint,” Norris smiled afterwards, with the win being his first since the 2025 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. “A good day for us.
“A massive job for the team in bringing the upgrades – it feels like everyone’s saying the same thing but ours have really helped this weekend, so I’m happy to get it done for the team. It was hot out there, it was sweaty.
“I was still pushing, trying to find that balance of pushing but also being quite relaxed and not making any mistakes. A good start to the weekend, but now I have to do it all over again.”
With Qualifying for the Grand Prix next on the agenda later on Saturday, Norris was asked if he and the team would look to make any adjustments to the car prior to the session.
“Probably not too many,” he explained. “It’s worked so far.
“We’ll probably change a couple of things, there’s a couple things I wanted different from yesterday that we’ll adjust so hopefully we’ll have a little bit more to come, but I’m sure the others will too. We’ll just keep our head down and keep pushing.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-thrilled-to-be-back-on-the-top-step-in-miami-sprint-as-he-praises-mclaren-upgrades.53Jw4hz1BgeY7HhLTm6T6j