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Lando Norris of McLaren impressed Karun Chandhok with his “incredible” car control, after brushing the wall en route to scoring pole for the Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix.
The 26-year-old topped the timesheets in SQ3 on Friday to score his first pole of the 2026 season. Norris had not qualified higher than P3 at either of the opening three rounds, which he also secured for an F1 Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix with a lap time 0.621s shy of pole.
Norris headed the field after Sprint Qualifying at the Miami GP by 0.222s over Mercedes ace Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Briton also enjoyed a 0.239s margin over his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in P3, after the papaya pals each registered lap times of 1:27.869 and 1:28.108.
Reigning drivers’ champion Norris was the only person to produce a time in the 1:27s during qualifying for the F1 Sprint at the Miami GP. Yet Norris admits he lacked “confidence” ahead of SQ3 in Miami, having produced a “pretty woeful” run for P7 in SQ2 on the medium tyres.
Lando Norris scores pole position for the F1 Sprint in Miami! Rate his chances of converting it into the win out of 10?
It is the first non-Mercedes pole of 2026!
Lando Norris amazes Karun Chandhok with his car control en route to scoring Sprint pole in Miami
Norris’ pole position lap during Sprint Qualifying on Friday was also not completely flawless, as he had a moment as he exited Turn 16. The McLaren ace had even gone within inches of disaster at Turn 14, as he pushed the limits to take as tight a line as possible into the corner.
READ MORE: How to watch the 2026 Miami GP, including the Sprint, plus weather forecast
The Bristol-born star putting his McLaren MCL40 as close to the wall at Turn 14 as he dared amazed Chandhok. He was in awe of Norris’ “beautiful judgement” to take the risks to open the corner for a straighter line out of the chicane, as it let him accelerate again much earlier.
Chandhok said on Sky Sports F1 (01/05, 22:33): “I just want to show you. Look at him up against that wall. It’s incredible, isn’t it, to see how close he is to that wall there?
“Beautiful judgment from Lando Norris, brings the car back. Now, he talked about this slight under rotation into [Turn] 16. Look at the front left tyre there, and it’s unfortunately slightly in the shadow, but you can see he just had a bit of a lock-up slightly wide of that kerb.
Top spot secured 🔥 But will Antonelli take it away tomorrow?
Read the full Sprint Qualifying report here 👇
“And then he gets that snap as he tries to unleash the power down the back straight. So, Lando himself said that was the only thing that he felt he didn’t quite get hooked up around the lap.”
Mercedes ace Antonelli ultimately emerged as Norris’ main rival for pole for the F1 Sprint at the Miami GP with a great final lap in SQ3 of his own. But the Italian, who leads the drivers’ standings entering this weekend, did not take quite as much risk as Norris through Turn 14.
Antonelli also got very close to the wall through Turn 14 but not as tight as Norris did, which left the 19-year-old needing to use more steering input for the right-hand Turn 15 out of the chicane. Had Antonelli taken the exact same line as Norris, his deficit might have been less.
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