Lando Norris, back in pole position: "A great reward for the team"

It made one wonder if Lando Norris He had retained the fire that had guided him to his first crown on the evening of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last December. Quiet since the start of the year, the Bristol native lacked bite and wasn't exactly helped by a McLaren far from its 2025 level and lacking reliability, to the point of having deprived it — as well asOscar piastri — to start in China. But great champions never die, as the saying goes, and the driver with the number 1 demonstrated this in a very fine way when making his only attempt on soft tires in Q3 in Miami.

However, from the start of the session, the dominant McLaren seemed to be the one bearing the number 81, driven by Oscar Piastri. The Australian lacked bite at the worst possible moment, when his teammate stepped up to secure his first pole position of the season in sprint qualifying, with a margin of 0,222 seconds over Kimi Antonelli: no small feat!

"It was great, it's a fantastic result for us, a great reward for the team," he smiled as he got out of his car. “We’ve made a lot of changes to the car to better feel the grip. We’ve worked hard. I really like Miami and the track too. It’s an excellent result, but it’s only the beginning of the weekend, there’s still a lot to do. But it’s good to start like this.”

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Is that pace enough to keep the Mercedes behind? 

Winner of his first Grand Prix Formula 1 In Florida in 2024, the Bristol native has a special connection with the Florida asphalt. Will this relationship be enough to reach his first podium in 2026 while maintaining the Mercedes Benz behind him? "It's difficult to know because every track is different, but it's a place where we've always performed well.", Lando Norris tempers. “We knew that the improvements we were bringing here would be a good step forward. We knew the estimates were correct. From the first lap of FP1, I felt that things were better, that I had grip on the rear axle. It’s great to see that materialize with this result.” He continues.

“It was complicated to do. In SQ2, the session was difficult, I was a second off. But I found something in my last attempt. [In SQ3], I didn't know if I should do one or two laps, but I was told I only needed to do one, and everything worked.”, he says. “I was immediately in the right window, the lap was good, apart from one corner, turn 16 before the straight. I completely messed it up. The conditions were also complicated, with the wind, which affected the cars' behavior. But we're off to an ideal start.”

Will he be able to maintain his lead in the sprint race at the start and reclaim victory? Find out from 18 p.m. on Saturday, May 2nd, for the first race of the weekend in Florida.