Norris keeps Miami Sprint pole after FIA ruling

Lando Norris will start the Miami Grand Prix Sprint from pole after stewards cleared the McLaren driver of driving unnecessarily slowly in qualifying, preserving the top spot he earned by 0.222 seconds over Kimi Antonelli.

Norris had been summoned after Friday’s session because officials believed he may have breached the Race Director’s maximum-time requirement between the Safety Car lines during SQ2. The reported limit was 108 seconds, and the investigation put his first Sprint pole of the season briefly in doubt.

In their verdict, the stewards said: "Car 1 failed to stay below the required time limit as stipulated by the Race Director’s Competition Notes." But they also found that Norris had been within the approved delta for almost the entire lap until just before Turn 17, when he was "suddenly" passed by Nico Hulkenberg.

That moment proved decisive. The stewards said Hulkenberg’s pass forced Norris to react and create "a necessary and appropriate gap to set up a push lap," and they treated that as an extenuating circumstance. Their conclusion was that Norris "did not drive unnecessarily slowly," meaning no penalty and no change to the Sprint grid.

The ruling leaves intact the lap that put Norris on top for McLaren with a 1:27.869 in SQ3. Antonelli will still start alongside him on the front row, with Oscar Piastri third after ending the session 0.239 seconds off his team-mate.

Norris said after qualifying that the session had been far from straightforward. He described SQ2 as "pretty bad" after falling well off the pace, then said he and race engineer Will Joseph had to decide whether to run one lap or two in the final segment.

That final call delivered the result McLaren needed. Norris said the pole lap still included an error at Turn 16, with difficult wind conditions adding to the challenge, but the cleared investigation means the performance stands as the perfect start to his Sprint weekend in Miami.