Norris credits upgrades for McLaren's Miami pace

Lando Norris says McLaren’s upgrades delivered the expected improvement that allowed it to overhaul Mercedes at a track the team has regularly been strong at, after being fastest in Sprint qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix.

Mercedes dominated the first three rounds of the season and locked out the front row in every qualifying session before arriving in Miami, with its smallest advantage over one lap being the 0.35s gap to Oscar Piastri in Japan. In Miami, however, Mercedes only brought limited developments while a number of teams introduced upgrades, and Norris duly outqualified Kimi Antonelli by 0.222s, with George Russell over 0.6s off down in sixth place.

“It was great,” Norris said. “Perfect result for us, nice way to reward the team. We got a lot of new upgrades on the car, so it's nice to feel some grip again, and nice to reward the guys and the girls that have put a lot of work into this.

“I've always loved Miami, honestly, both on and off the track, so it's a good result for us. Of course, just the beginning of the weekend, we still have a long way to go, but nice to tick it off by doing this.

“It's tough to know [if Mercedes was catchable so soon], every track's different, right? So we've known that this track has always been good to us, but we knew that what we were bringing was going to hopefully do a good step, and it has. So it's nice that our estimations are proved correct, and the team deserved that, they put a lot of work into all of these things.

“But since the first lap today, I felt comfortable, and I was like, ‘Oh, I've got a bit of rear grip’, and I felt good. I've always felt good around here, and it's always good to do it, so good to start the weekend with a pole.”

Norris called the car “night and day better” on team radio, and McLaren nearly locked out the front row itself, with Antonelli just 0.017s quicker than Oscar Piastri. The defending champion says preventing tires from overheating during a qualifying lap was one of the bigger challenges on Friday, with his own lap times fluctuating during the session.

“It was pretty tough. I mean, my Q2 was pretty woeful. I was, like, one second off, so it didn't fill me with confidence into the final run, and I was debating whether we do one lap or two laps. Will [Joseph, race engineer] pushed me and said, ‘Lando, we're doing one lap’, and it paid off.

“So it's been good work from the whole team, we got everything in a good window straight away, so I'm very proud of them. But the lap was good. It was good, apart from one corner, Turn 16 onto the back straight, completely missed it, just didn't want to get it today. Difficult conditions also with the wind - the wind can play a big effect. So, I'm happy to be back here. It's been a little while, so just a perfect way for me to start the weekend, too.”