Lando Norris put McLaren on top in F1 sprint qualifying Miami on Friday, taking pole for the Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix with a lap of 1m 27.869s in the final segment of qualifying. He beat Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli by 0.222s to secure P1 for Saturday's second Sprint of the season.
Oscar Piastri took third for McLaren, Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari and Max Verstappen finished fifth for Red Bull. George Russell lined up sixth in the sister Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton was seventh for Ferrari, Franco Colapinto eighth and Pierre Gasly 10th for Alpine, with Isack Hadjar ninth for Red Bull.
The session started Friday at 1630 local time on mandatory medium tyres and came after Leclerc had set the pace in the weekend's extended sole practice session. Norris had already shown his speed by going quickest in SQ1 with a 1m 28.273s lap, then delivered again when it mattered to give McLaren its first P1 grid slot of the season.
The biggest disruption came around the halfway point of SQ1, when Lance Stroll stopped at Turn 17 after a heavy lock-up and brought out a yellow flag. That moment helped shape a session in which fine margins mattered from the front all the way down the order, and it left Liam Lawson saying his day had been a series of bad events after he was eliminated in SQ1 and finished 17th.
Further back, Gabriel Bortoleto was 11th and Nico Hulkenberg 12th for Audi, Ollie Bearman was 13th for Haas, Alex Albon 14th and Carlos Sainz 15th for Williams, and Arvid Lindblad was 16th for Racing Bulls. Esteban Ocon finished 18th for Haas, Sergio Perez was 19th and Valtteri Bottas 20th for Cadillac, while Fernando Alonso and Stroll ended up 21st and 22nd for Aston Martin.
For McLaren, the result was more than a fast lap. It turned a practice-day hint into the first clear front-row statement of the season, and it sends Norris into Saturday's Sprint with track position, momentum and the quickest car in the room.
