McLaren returns to 2025: Norris-Piastri one-two, Leclerc is 3rd

The McLaren updates to go back to… the past. At least so far, the MCL39 seen in Miami indeed seems again the winning car that brought home the two world titles in 2025. Lando Norris dominates the Sprint Race starting well from pole position and then is only shown again by the broadcast 19 laps later, at the moment he was about to cross the finish line first. The English driver, with his first win wearing the number 1 on the nose, precedes teammate Oscar Piastri, with Charles Leclerc closing on the third step of the podium.

Read more Leclerc-Antonelli, what sparks: “Kimi terrible, he moves while braking. We will crash”

The Monegasque driver of Ferrari however had to fight hard for the result, first fiercely resisting the attacks from Mercedes in the early stages of the 100 km race, and then also trying to unsettle Piastri, although never really able to launch an attack due to the top speed deficit of his SF-26 (despite the much-anticipated Macarena wing).

In a race where the duels seemed a bit more genuine compared to the recent past, the show was all in the area immediately behind the podium: the championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli finally crossed the line in fourth place, but was classified sixth due to a five-second penalty for too many track limit violations. A bad day for the young Bolognese driver, who had a terrible start from second place and immediately found himself out of the podium zone, battling first with Leclerc and then with teammate George Russell, finally fourth thanks to the penalty, ahead of a Max Verstappen closer to the action than in the first three races of 2026.

Only seventh was a decidedly disappointing Lewis Hamilton, although bravely fighting with Verstappen both at the start and in the middle phases of the Sprint Race. Closing eighth and last in the points zone was the “usual” Pierre Gasly, with the Alpine-Mercedes confirming itself as the best car in the midfield.

F1 returns to the track on Saturday at 22:00 for qualifying, which will decide the starting grid for Sunday’s Miami GP and which we at FormulaPassion.it will cover live minute by minute starting at 21:45.

F1 Miami, race hub: all useful links

To best follow the live broadcast of the Miami GP F1 Sprint Race, here are all the useful links for the race weekend at the Miami International Autodrome, the fourth round of the 2026 World Championship:

• TV schedule – The weekend program
• Weather – What’s the weather like in Miami
• Preview – The weekend themes
• LIVE – Session commentary
• Starting grid – The lineup at the start
• Results – Session standings
• Last year – How it went in 2025
• Calendar – All F1 2026 rounds
• Drivers’ standings – After the Miami Sprint
• Constructors’ standings – After the Miami Sprint

F1, live commentary of the Miami GP Sprint Race

18:40 – Checkered flag, for now, also for us: see you live at 21:45 for the minute-by-minute live coverage of qualifying that will decide tomorrow’s GP starting grid (still heavily threatened by rain). The invitation is obviously to stay with us because many news, comments, statements, and analyses on this interesting Sprint Race are still coming. See you later, bye!

18:39 – Here is the updated finishing order of this Sprint Race. Antonelli remains the World Championship leader:

18:38 – Race control reported a fourth track limit violation for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was therefore penalized five seconds: the Italian drops to sixth place, behind Russell and Verstappen.

18:36 – Final classification of the 2026 Miami GP Sprint Race: first win with the number 1, albeit a “mini-win”, for Lando Norris.

18:34 – Checkered flag for Lando Norris, who wins the Miami GP Sprint Race ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc. Fourth place for Antonelli, who beats Russell and Verstappen. Points also for Hamilton and a Gasly who confirms himself as the best of the rest of the world.

18:33 – Last meters for Lando Norris, who takes off, practically never shown, towards his first victory of a season that started very badly but that can turn in his favor…

18:32 – Small mistake for Charles, who runs wide in turn 11, the left-hander at the end of the straight that has been troubling the Ferraris since yesterday. The Monegasque slipped to 2 seconds behind Piastri and will have to settle for third place, with Antonelli 2.8 seconds behind.

18:31 – Leclerc does not give up, while Norris starts the penultimate lap, and Verstappen does not give up either, now less than a second behind George Russell. Mercedes, awaiting updates, is unrecognizable.

18:29 – Despite the overtake mode, Leclerc really cannot attack Piastri, when we are on lap 17/19. Meanwhile, Franco Colapinto loses ninth position to Isack Hadjar, who in the first sector’s snake overtakes the Argentine. No points are at stake anyway, since only the top eight in the standings score points.

18:27 – Leclerc is closing in quite a bit on Piastri, perhaps also thanks to a mistake by the Australian driver, who lost 4 tenths just in the last sector. It must be said, however, that the difference in straight-line speed between Ferrari and Mercedes-powered cars is evident.

18:26 – Provisional standings as we are on lap 15/19:

18:25 – Antonelli has now also managed to pull away a bit from Russell, with a 2.4-second gap over his teammate, who in turn has a 2.6-second margin over Verstappen, and Hamilton 2.2 behind. The gaps in that group have somewhat frozen…

18:24 – Williams has a front wing ready in the pits for Alex Albon, who is evidently the driver who lost that piece of carbon hit squarely by Bearman. Meanwhile, Leclerc is less than a second behind Piastri, and six laps remain. Norris is doing another sport because he already has a 3-second margin over his teammate.

18:22 – White and black flag for Andrea Kimi Antonelli: the Italian driver already has three track limit violations and will be penalized if he goes beyond the white line delimiting the track again. Meanwhile, Leclerc briefly got under the one-second gap limit from Piastri, so Charles was warned he had the button for overtake mode available.

18:21 – In the back someone lost a piece of carbon from the car, which was then hit squarely by Oliver Bearman. The Haas driver is 12th and seems struggling compared to teammate Ocon.

18:20 – Little by little Leclerc is gaining a bit on Piastri, who now has a 1.2-second advantage. However, 8 laps remain and Charles gains only a few hundredths per lap.

18:19 – Standings at lap 10/19, with Max Verstappen finally managing to pass Lewis Hamilton taking, this time without doubts about legality, sixth position:

18:18 – The fight between Max and Lewis allowed the two Mercedes drivers to pull away, with Antonelli and Russell, in this order, now having a 3-second advantage!

18:16 – Antonelli does not give up! Kimi attacks teammate again in turn 1 but stays behind, then retakes fourth place at the end of turn 11. Meanwhile behind there is Verstappen making one of his very aggressive moves on Hamilton, taking the position but then being called back by the box: “You have to give the position back“. The two indeed both went wide braking, outside the white line of turn 11.

18:15 – Antonelli seems a bit struggling with the tires, having difficulty in the slow zone of the second sector: Kimi had a twitch in the chicane and then Russell took advantage to take fourth place at the end of the straight! And Hamilton watches slyly from behind the fight between the two Mercedes drivers, with Max Verstappen joining the party.

18:13 – After an aggressive initial phase Antonelli now seems to have set aside sprint podium ambitions, so Leclerc has taken a 1.5-second advantage, with Russell and Hamilton glued to the Italian and seeming to want to attack him. Meanwhile Charles gains a bit on Piastri, who however has a 1.4-second margin.

18:12 – The broadcast also shows a nice wheel-to-wheel duel (literally, as there were a couple of contacts) at the start between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. In the end the Dutchman managed to keep the position after turn 1, but Lewis overtook him at the end of the first lap.

18:11 – Standings at lap 5/19:

18:09 – The fourth lap begins, with Russell showing up behind Antonelli for supremacy within the team. Norris leads, then Piastri, Leclerc, Antonelli, Russell, Hamilton, Verstappen, Gasly, Colapinto and Bortoleto in the top 10.

18:08 – So: lap 3/19 begins with Ferrari more focused on defending from the very fast Mercedes than looking at the two McLarens. Also watch out for Hamilton who is not so far from Russell, although the two Reds are currently struggling to make overtakes.

18:07 – Antonelli is very aggressive behind Leclerc, who however manages to defend for now. Charles complains: “Kimi is not good in wheel-to-wheel, he moves constantly under braking, we will soon have a crash if he continues like this!“.

18:06 – Arvid Lindblad should have started from the pits but did not complete the formation lap and never left his garage: we therefore already have a second retirement in this race, after the already announced Hulkenberg.

18:04 – Good start instead for George Russell, who managed to pass Antonelli, only to have to give way again to the Italian. Now Kimi is attacking Charles Leclerc’s third place, while Norris and Piastri try to take us back to 2025, attempting to gap the rest of the group.

18:03 – The five lights go out and… The 100 km race of the Miami weekend starts! Still a terrible start for Kimi Antonelli, who loses three positions! Norris and Piastri lead, followed by Leclerc!

18:00 – Green light and the formation lap of the 2026 Miami GP Sprint Race begins. In about three minutes, then, the start.

17:58 – All ready on the grid: in two minutes the formation lap starts, then the first start of the weekend.

17:57 – And here is the starting grid with the tires at the start of the second Sprint Race of this season: new Mediums for everyone, except Verstappen, Hadjar, Bortoleto, Bearman, Sainz, Ocon, Albon and Lindblad who choose the Mediums used yesterday, Perez and Bottas who go for new Hards, and the two home Aston Martin drivers, Alonso and Stroll, who go for new Softs.

17:55 – Five minutes to the start of the formation lap, the first of this American weekend. Soon we should discover the tires chosen by the drivers at the start of this Sprint, but meanwhile we remind you that the format does not impose any strategy or pit stop, so it is credible that drivers go on Mediums to cover all 19 laps without performance drop.

17:52 – As for weather conditions: it is still very hot in Miami, but with some passing clouds that occasionally cover the sun giving a bit of relief to drivers and people in the stands. 47 degrees track temperature, 32 air temperature and no rain risk, at least for this sprint race. For tomorrow, however, it seems a whole different story…

17:48 – Probably we will not have Nico Hulkenberg in the race, whose engine caught fire during the formation lap.

17:45 – Good afternoon to all of you, dear FP readers! On a difficult day for all of us Formula 1 and sports fans (and probably also of “life” in general), the Miami weekend Sprint Race is about to start. 15 minutes of waiting, while in Florida a minute of silence is observed in memory of the great Alex Zanardi.

F1 Miami GP, the Sprint Race live

Good evening to all of you, dear FormulaPassion.it readers. We are live to tell you about the Sprint Race of the Miami F1 GP weekend, which will start at 18:00 Italian time and end, barring interruptions, around 18:30, after the drivers have completed 18 laps of the Miami International Autodrome.

Starting in front is Lando Norris, a surprise protagonist of the first official session of the weekend in Florida, followed by championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli who had to defend himself by setting an excellent decisive lap in SQ3 despite a somewhat struggling Mercedes, with little (or almost no) technical updates. Ferrari, on the other hand, is still chasing, although a different opponent, also due to the loss of about two tenths on the straight, as told by Frederic Vasseur, who reassures that the problem occurs more on a single lap than on race pace. So will Charles Leclerc, fourth, or Lewis Hamilton, seventh on the grid, be able to join the fight for the positions that matter? Find out with us at FP, following and commenting live minute by minute the 2026 Miami F1 GP Sprint Race.

Read more GP Miami 2026, Qualifying: Q1 starts at 22:00 – LIVE