F1 Miami GP live commentary and updates - sprint qualifying
Updates from qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix's sprint race
Live Commentary
By: Jake Boxall-Legge
And that's all from us - we'll catch you again tomorrow for the Miami sprint race - an Antonelli/Piastri front row should be pretty entertaining! Thanks for joining us!
"The last lap was mighty," Antonelli says to Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen. "It all came together, so I'm happy to get pole. Tomorrow's going to be nice to start on the front row, it'll be a bit of a different feeling."
And Russell's first on the scene to congratulate Antonelli, who also gets the hug of approval from Norris on his way to the scales.
"Not bad!", says F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, who delivers his congratulations to Toto Wolff. Pirelli motorsport chief Mario Isola is on hand to help Antonelli disconnect his radio from his helmet.
Top 10 for the Miami GP sprint grid
1. Antonelli
2. Piastri
3. Norris
4. Verstappen
5. Russell
6. Leclerc
7. Hamilton
8. Albon
9. Hadjar
10. Alonso
That's a sensational lap from Antonelli, who's had one practice session here and rocked up to beat both McLarens! George Russell is fifth, 0.3s behind his team-mate.
It's a 1m26.737s for Verstappen, who goes fastest for all of seven seconds, before Antonelli does a 1m26.482s! And the Italian's lap holds on, Piastri only does a 1m26.527s, and Norris is another half-a-tenth back!
It's a sprint pole for Antonelli!
Albon sets a 1m27.193s, so he's not going to be on pole. Verstappen's found some time in the first sector as well...
The rest of the field are now trickling out for their laps, with Russell's 1m26.791s to beat. Verstappen looks like he might be going for another tilt at a lap, but does he have enough life in his tyres to find more time?
It's a 1m27.070s from Verstappen, a strong benchmark for Russell - but it's one Russell beats, with a 1m26.791s. Mercedes is looking good so far.
Top 10 shootout
Business is open for SQ3! Verstappen and Russell are out on the road early - we get soft tyres for the final stage, having had mediums in SQ1 and 2.
SQ3 contenders
We've got Norris, Verstappen, Piastri, Antonelli, Leclerc, Hamilton, Russell, Albon, Alonso, and Hadjar all duking it out for sprint pole. Can anyone spring a sprint surprise?
Sainz had a lock-up at Turn 11, so he's put himself out of contention. Lawson, meanwhile, missed the apex at Turn 17 and lost time on his own lap.
SQ2 over
Hadjar lifts himself into the top 10, as does Alonso to push Albon into the bottom five.
Sainz isn't going to get a lap in here, Lawson doesn't get out of the bottom five, and Hulkenberg and Ocon are dropped back into the drop zone as Hamilton and Albon improve on their first laps.
Hulkenberg hurls his Sauber into seventh, as Norris does a 1m27.109s. Hamilton's now in the danger zone, as Ocon also improves to eighth.
Gasly gives the Turn 16 wall a hefty clout, so that's not going to help his efforts. He still gets ahead of Hamilton for now, but he missed the Turn 16 apex and he slaps the exit barrier with his rear tyre.
"I don't know how that Merc is legal," Albon says on the radio. Interesting, certainly - hopefully we'll find out what he means in due course.
It's our jobs, after all.
The inevitable McLarens - Norris does a 1m27.537s, but Piastri goes even quicker with a 1m27.354s. Leclerc goes sixth, just a little bit shy of Russell.
Albon and Hamilton are seventh and eighth - the rest are yet to set a time.
It's a 1m27.729s for Verstappen, but Antonelli finds more a tiny smidgen of extra pace to post a 1m27.727s. He's looking happy in his first-ever trip to Miami! Russell goes third.
SQ2 is under way
Alonso did an outlap and then got called to the weighbridge. Not ideal?
Eliminated in SQ1
16. Stroll
17. Doohan
18. Tsunoda
19. Bortoleto
20. Bearman
Doohan was a bit furious about his own botched release from the pit lane, which led to him being unable to do a lap. Tsunoda had a similar issue and was sent out after Verstappen, who then appeared to dawdle in the road at Turn 17 to peg back the Japanese driver.
Hadjar breaks out of the bottom five to push Stroll in - that looks like it's the drop zone firmed up! Russell, meanwhile, does a 1m27.688s to go top.
Doohan, Tsunoda, and Bearman don't make it to the line in time to do a final lap thanks to a long delay in the pitlane, they're out!
The current elimination zone is Doohan, Tsunoda, Bortoleto, Bearman, and Hadjar. We'll watch keenly, as this is surely going to go down to the final few seconds.
Hadjar has lost a lap, so he'll have to go again. In the meantime, Bortoleto apes Leclerc by touching the Turn 16 wall.
In the meantime, Doohan needs assistance in the pitlane, as he's not been able to turn the car into the fast lane - the second runs are about to begin.
Hamilton threw his car up to second as Leclerc goes up to third, just over a tenth behind his team-mate after a brush with the wall at Turn 16.
But that's all cast into disarray when the McLaren and Mercedes duos enter the scene, as Norris goes fastest with a 1m27.890s. Piastri is 0.266s shy of his team-mate.
Antonelli then posts a 1m27.858s to go even quicker. It's hotly contested here.
Tsunoda appeared to encounter traffic from the Ferraris on his opening lap, so his first time doesn't look so healthy. Verstappen posts a 1m27.953s for his opening gambit, as Albon is just over 0.4s adrift.
Doohan's trying to dob in Lawson as the pitlane scramble began in earnest, as everyone wanted to stake their place on the track. As we said, short sessions in sprint quali, so you want to get a lap in swiftly...although the McLarens had decided to avoid the queue and stayed in the garage for a bit longer.
SQ1 is open for business
Track temp's up to 50C, so the tyres are going to be screaming hot. There's already a mighty queue to leave the pitlane - but the Saubers are first onto the road, as is Tsunoda.
Bearman's car has been repaired, so he'll be able to go out for sprint qualifying - and hope that he doesn't have any similar issues!
These sprint qualifying sessions are shorter, so expect the drivers to fuel up for a couple of hot laps on the same set of tyres as they try to break into the business end of the session.
We've got 10 minutes until sprint qualifying begins, and we've had very little qualifying pace to go on after free practice following that red flag.
Has Verstappen got enough pace to challenge the McLarens with his new floor? We can't discount Leclerc either, as the Monegasque has been finding more performance in his Ferrari as he continues to tweak the set-up to his liking. And what pace does the Mercedes duo have? We'll have our answers soon!
Oakes: "Today, it's the case" that Doohan will drive at Imola, not Colapinto
Alpine boss Oliver Oakes has also denied rumours that Franco Colapinto would replace Jack Doohan at the next round in Imola, following suggestions that the Argentine will step up after an apparent gaffe from an Argentine sponsor on TV.
Horacio Marín, CEO of Argentina's state-owned oil company YPF, said in a television interview on La Nación+ - when he thought he was off-air - that Colapinto would debut with Alpine at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Here's the full story:
2026 regulations - will deployment rules change?
Since then, we've had a bit of chat over the 2026 power unit regulations; it's emerged from last week's F1 Commission meeting that a number of teams are concerned about the energy deployment and running out of useable electrical energy from the battery. This would require drivers to lift and coast to regenerate.
"It's not a new concern - it's one that's been flagged from two years ago from all of the power unit manufacturers," Christian Horner said. "With the the amount of harvesting that there is. Inevitably the the chassis designers will outperform the the criteria of the regulations and therefore a consequence of that will be the amount of lift and coast that there will be in a grand prix."
2026 Formula 1 rules
Photo by: FIA
"We don't know how it's going to pan out next year: are we going to see energy harvesting disasters in Baku and Monza?" Toto Wolff added. "I don't know, we hope not and what we have signalled is that rather than act now based on assumptions like we have been great at in previous years and then we've overshot or undershot, and as Christian said it's not like you need to throw the hardware away and then come up with something new. It's within the software, it's within the bandwidth of what you can do."
FP1 recap
Oscar Piastri headlined the session from Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, and the two Williams drivers - although many of the drivers didn't get a full soft-tyre lap in at the end after a red flag produced by Ollie Bearman.
Bearman hit the wall at Turn 12 after losing the rear on the exit of the previous corner, sustaining a relatively low-speed spin at the wheel of his Haas.
F1 Miami GP sprint qualifying
...and we're back! Thank you for joining us, as we work our way through sprint qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix weekend! Three stages, 44 minutes on the clock, and 20 grid places to decide for Saturday's shorter race around the Hard Rock Stadium.
SQ1 will begin in 30 minutes, so you've got time to get comfortable.
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