MIAMI: World champion Lando Norris beamed in the Florida sunshine Friday after steering his upgraded McLaren to pole position for Saturday&#39;s sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix.&nbsp;The 26-year-old Briton made the most of the extensive upgrades on his car to outpace Mercedes&#39; Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli, at 19 the youngest man to lead the drivers&#39; championship in F1 history, and end Mercedes&#39; early season domination.&nbsp;&quot;I&#39;ve always loved Miami, both on and off the track,&quot; said Norris, who claimed his maiden F1 triumph at the compact circuit built around the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens in 2024. &quot;And this is a good result for us, but still only at the beginning of the weekend.&nbsp;&quot;There&#39;s still a long way to go, but it&#39;s nice to kick off by doing this. We&#39;ve got a lot of new upgrades on the car and it is nice to feel some grip again -- and nice to reward the guys and girls who have put a lot of work into this.&quot;&nbsp;Asked if he felt this indicated that the defending constructors&#39; champions had regained the initiative from McLaren, Norris was cautious.&nbsp;&quot;It&#39;s so tough to know because every track is different. We&#39;ve known that this track has always been good to us, but we knew that what we were bringing was hopefully going to be a good step so it&#39;s nice that our estimations have proved to be correct.&nbsp;&quot;The team deserve that... Since the first lap today, I felt very comfortable and I thought I had a bit of rear grip, so it is good to start with pole.&quot;&nbsp;McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, who won last year&#39;s race, was a close third ahead of Ferrari&#39;s Charles Leclerc, four-time Max Verstappen of Red Bull and early season leader George Russell of Mercedes.&nbsp;Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was seventh in the second Ferrari, the Italian team along with Red Bull having brought major upgrade packages to the Miami race.&nbsp;It was the first time this year that Mercedes had been outpaced in a qualifying session, after three races run before the five-week hiatus due to the conflict in the Middle East.&nbsp;A disappointed Russell said: &quot;I think it is pretty surprising how big a jump McLaren and Ferrari have made. It&#39;s much bigger than we expected, even if this has never been a favorite circuit for me.&quot;&nbsp;He added that he had struggled with overheating tyres and other problems throughout Friday.&nbsp;Verstappen was also disappointed, but realistic and said he could see the positives in Red Bull&#39;s improved performance thanks to their upgrades, but added that the team were still &quot;very weak&quot; in the high-speed section of the track.&nbsp;&quot;We need to work on that,&quot; he said, a comment repeated by Ferrari&#39;s Hamilton, who said he had hoped Ferrari&#39;s extensive upgrade package would have delivered greater rewards.

Racing

Lando Norris takes pole for the Miami Grand Prix sprint, using McLaren upgrades to beat Kimi Antonelli and end Mercedes’ dominance. Oscar Piastri is third, while rivals Ferrari and Red Bull show improvement but face performance challenges.

Joy for Norris in Miami as McLaren end Mercedes run

ISLAMABAD: Oscar Piastri grabbed pole position for the penultimate race of the Formula One season when he edged team-mate and title rival Lando Norris as time expired in Saturday&#39;s qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix. Piastri had cut Norris&#39;s lead in the championship to 22 points by winning the sprint race earlier in the day. Red Bull&#39;s Max Verstappen, the only other driver who could win the title, qualified third. The defending champion is 25 points behind Norris. George Russell was fourth in a Mercedes. Norris took an early grip on the final qualifying session, which was then interrupted after Carlos Sainz came out of the pits with plastic wrapping around one of the tyres on his Williams and it peeled off on a corner. At the re-start, the drivers had enough time for a flying lap, but Norris abandoned after starting badly. &quot;I just had a bit of understeer and was going to go off so I had to abort,&quot; said Norris. &quot;Which was a shame, but it&#39;s the way that it is.&quot; Piastri made the most of his opening. &quot;That was mega,&quot; the Australian shouted into his radio. The fastest qualifier has won all three previous Qatar Grand Prix, although in 2024, Max Verstappen incurred a penalty in Q3, was demoted to second on the grid but won anyway. Norris said he believed he had a chance. &quot;You never know. The first couple of laps are always opportunities for everyone but after there I think it&#39;s probably going to be pretty straightforward for everyone too,&quot; he said. Piastri, who needs to finish ahead of Norris to take the title race to the wire, said he was looking forward to it. &quot;It will be a tough race. Hard work but incredibly fun,&quot; he said. Earlier, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton continued to struggle, posting the 18th fastest time in his Ferrari in the 20-car first qualifying session and failing to advance. It was his fifth straight early exit in qualifying.

Oscar Piastri claimed pole for the Qatar Grand Prix, edging Lando Norris. Max Verstappen qualified third, while Lewis Hamilton failed to advance, finishing 18th.

Title-chasing Piastri takes pole for Qatar Grand Prix

<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;' id="isPasted">BAKU: Standings leader Oscar Piastri crashed on the first lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday to hand his McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris a chance to slash Piastri&#39;s lead in the Formula 1 title fight.<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>Piastri seemed to false-start and then nearly stall off the line, dropping to the back of the field before sliding into the barrier as he tried to recover places.&nbsp;<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>The Australian crashed for the second day in a row in Baku after also hitting the barrier in qualifying.<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>The incident was a blow to McLaren&rsquo;s chances of sealing the constructors&rsquo; title.<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>Norris started seventh and his McLaren teammate Piastri ninth for Sunday&#39;s race after a chaotic qualifying session with plenty of crashes, rain, and red flags.&nbsp;<p style='box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 2; padding: 0.2rem 0px 0.8rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: "AP Font", "AP Font Local", Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;'>Red Bull&#39;s Max Verstappen took pole position in Azerbaijan for the first time in his career.

Azerbaijan Formula One Grand Prix in Baku

Oscar Piastri crashes on lap one of the Azerbaijan GP, giving teammate Lando Norris a chance to close the gap in the F1 title race.

Articles tagged with "Lando Norris"

Joy for Norris in Miami as McLaren end Mercedes run

Title-chasing Piastri takes pole for Qatar Grand Prix

McLaren's F1 leader Oscar Piastri crashes out of Azerbaijan GP