Sprint Qualifying + Sprint | Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix
Author(s): Lucian Raileanu
Date: 2026-05-02
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INTRO
We're back again in Miami for the Sprint and Sprint Qualifying after our extended Free Practice. Drivers will be doing about 100km (62mi) on the racetrack today as they battle for some extra points in the championship. Charles Leclerc placed fastest in Free Practice on Friday, with Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri right behind, with +0.297 and +0.448 respectively. We saw some new tech coming from teams during practice: Ferrari has brought back their "Macarena wing" to reduce drag, and Red Bull has come with something similar. Williams also made a decent amount of changes, Cadillac redid a lot of parts on their car in hopes to bring it higher up the grid, and most other teams just made small performance improvements. Aston Martin opted to not make any changes (bit surprising, if you ask me) and they're still around the same place as before on the leaderboard.
SPRINT QUALIFYING
SQ1
During this session, we saw a yellow flag as Lance Stroll stopped on track after a major lockup into Turn 17, compromising the laps of both McLarens. After SQ1, we saw Lawson, Ocon, Perez, Bottas, Alonso, and Stroll eliminated. Norris, Leclerc, Piastri, Hamilton, and Antonelli led the leaderboard (in that order).
SQ2
Antonelli starts off with the first run of SQ2 setting a time of 1:29.242 and later reports front locking. With just under three minutes remaining, Bearman and Lindblad go for a short glory run to try and keep themselves in the top 10. These efforts don't prove fruitful, as the eliminations for SQ2 are Bortoleto, Hulkenberg, Bearman, Albon, Sainz, and Lindblad in that order.
SQ3
With five minutes remaining, no laps were set but shortly garages began spitting out cars. We saw some fast laps from McLaren, ultimately leading to the first non-Mercedes pole in 2026, with Norris placing first for Sprint Qualifying and Antonelli, Piastri, Leclerc, and Verstappen lining up behind him in the top five.
SPRINT
Lando and Kimi begin on the front row with Albon bumped to P16 following a deleted lap post-qualifying, Lindblad starting from the pitlane for modifications during Parc Fermé, and Nico Hulkenberg not starting at all due to an engine failure before the race. During the formation lap, we saw a large gap behind Hamilton, which hurt the leaders' tyre temperatures a bit.
Lap 1
Lando gets good start, maintains lead as Antonelli drops to P5. McLaren holds a 1-2 after Hamilton has a few wheel bumps further back. Leclerc gets some pressure from Kimi, and Lando is already one full second ahead of Oscar.
Lap 2
Hamilton overtakes Verstappen for P6. Antonelli tries to nudge past Leclerc at Turn 6 but gets hit with some stunning defense, leading to Antonelli staying right where he was. Leclerc also complains about Antonelli moving under braking. Russell considers running past Kimi at Turn 17, but ultimately decides against it. Lots of scrapping at the back.
Lap 3
As we go into Lap 3, 3.3 seconds covers P14 to P20. Sainz seems to be making an overtake train. Good on him! RBR seems to be having a bad race, as Hadjar sits in P11 and Verstappen P7 despite their drag-reducing performance upgrades. Aston Martins have a little catfight between them for P19 and P20.
Lap 5
Norris leads, Piastri follows close behind with Leclerc on his tail. Finally, our two Mercedes drivers in order of age (increasing) finish off our top 5.
Lap 6
No reported damage for the earlier wheel contact between Hamilton and Verstappen. Not much action at this point. Verstappen reports not being able to brake as his axle "is bouncing up and down." Antonelli recieves 2 track limit strikes and Russel overtakes for P4 at Turn 17. Antonelli tries to get that position back at T1 but ultimately manages to reclaim it at T11. Hamilton is pushed off by Verstappen, and Hamilton reports Max "overtaking [him] going off track." Max is instructed to return the position and complies, closing in once again as they head to the back straight. Verstappen overtakes at T17. Cadillac and Aston's tire choices aren't working out too well for them today. Hamilton's italian horse looks very unstable at the rear while we're onboard with him. VSC threats loom as Ocon's bargeboard flies off his Haas and Bearman nearly runs it over.
Lap 12
Black and white flag handed to Antonelli for track limits, and the FIA reports a clear track after that bargeboard from earlier. Leclerc hovers behind Piastri with about a second in terms of gap. Williams swaps Albon's front wing.
Lap 15
Hadjar looks for a move on Colapinto for P9 at Turn 11 as Leclerc attempts to scooch by Piastri at T1 but fails.
Lap 16
Leclerc has a pretty big slide at Turn 6, losing a few tenths of a second to Piastri ahead of him. Bit of dirty air now comes into play. +1.2 for Leclerc.
Lap 17
Hadjar gets by Colapinto for P9 at T5. Franco doesn't manage to take it back at T11.
Lap 18
The Astons are hosting their own race at the back, swapping places seemingly for fun now. Charles Leclerc loses out to Piastri as he goes off at T11.
Lap 19 - FINAL LAP
Leclerc seems to have overheated his brakes as he struggles to regain his lost time. Lando Norris brings it home as he crosses the line to win the Miami Sprint and Piastri makes it a McLaren 1-2 for the first time in 2026.
RESULTS
- Lando Norris: Leader
- Oscar Piastri: +3.766s
- Charles Leclerc: +6.251s
- George Russell: +12.951s
- Max Verstappen: +13.639s
- Kimi Antonelli: +13.777s
- Lewis Hamilton: +21.665s
- Pierre Gasly: +30.525s
- Isack Hadjar: +35.346s
- Franco Colapinto: +36.970s
- Esteban Ocon: +56.972s
- Oliver Bearman: +57.365s
- Carlos Sainz: +58.504s
- Liam Lawson: +59.358s
- Fernando Alonso: +76.067s
- Sergio Perez: +76.691s
- Lance Stroll: +77.626s
- Alexander Albon: +88.173s
- Valtteri Bottas: +89.597s
- Nico Hulkenberg: DNS
- Arvid Lindblad: DNS
- Gabriel Bortoleto: DSQ