Miami Grand Prix Start Time Advanced Three Hours

Piastri added: 'It's just going to be what happens with the power-unit, how you get power, where you get power is in a computer's hands. Just making sure that that does roughly what we expect. Max Verstappen, a four-time champion, stated: 'Quite slippery.

It's quite a handful. It's not going to be easy. Verstappen, the Ferrari pair, and Isack Hadjar are among the few drivers to have driven one of the new 2026 cars in the wet. Isack Hadjar crashed in the wet during pre-season testing in Barcelona.

The 2025 Miami Grand Prix sprint race began in wet conditions. Kimi Antonelli finished fourth but was demoted to sixth for excessive track limits breaches and received a five-second penalty.

Norris stated: 'Nice to be back on the top step! A good day for us. It was hot out there and sweaty. I was pushing, trying to find that balance of pushing and staying relaxed to not make mistakes. Norris also stated that McLaren will make only minor changes to his car after the sprint race win, adding: 'Probably not too many.

It's worked so far. We will change a couple things. Piastri stated: 'I’m mostly satisfied. There’s obviously a little bit to find to try to stay with Lando, but overall, it was a good morning. We’ll try to see what we can do for qualifying.

Charles Leclerc, who is 28 years old, stated: 'The upgrades worked well. Thanks to the team that have done massive work over these five weeks. I'm not satisfied with P3. Qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix took place at 9pm on Saturday, with the main race scheduled to commence 24 hours after qualifying.

Kimi Antonelli, the championship leader, qualified on pole for the Miami Grand Prix, followed by Max Verstappen in second, Charles Leclerc in third, and Lando Norris in fourth. McLaren, Red Bull, and Ferrari brought major upgrades to their cars for the Miami Grand Prix, while Mercedes brought only minimal developments.

Mercedes is saving their big step for the next race in Canada, where McLaren will have further new parts.

Verstappen stated that Red Bull's step forward after being a second off the pace at the last race in Japan was incredible and massive. He added: 'When I get a car that is more together, I get more confidence, and I can finally also push a bit more. Then I try to always extract the most out of it.

And that's what we've done. The previous two scheduled grands prix in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were cancelled because of the war in the Middle East.

The BBC News article was published on 3 May 2026 at 00:36 BST and updated 27 minutes before the current time.