McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished P2 in the Sprint Race at the F1 2026 Miami GP, +3.766s behind his teammate Lando Norris.
Piastri managed to gain one position by the start of the race, as Antonelli, who had qualified P2, fell behind thanks to another bad start. After that, the Australian driver remained in second position throughout the short Sprint.
Norris led the race by 3 seconds as Piastri struggled to stay close. He had a brief moment where he went wide, and Charles Leclerc got closer, but Piastri stayed put. By the end, he was able to stay ahead of the Ferrari.
Piastri on McLaren’s 1-2 at the Miami Sprint Race
After the Sprint, during the top 3 interviews with David Coulthard, Piastri reflected: “Yes, I think mostly it was, yeah, obviously a little bit defiant to try and stay with Lando, but overall it was a good day or a good morning, obviously.”
Coulthard mentioned just before the race Piastri had been “pretty positive with the way qualifying went” and spoke about the upgrades McLaren brought to the Miami GP.
Even on Friday, after the Sprint Qualifying, Piastri had talked about the MCL40’s potential.
Following the cancellation of the two Middle Eastern rounds, teams had a few weeks to work on performance in the 2026 F1 regulations. So far, McLaren appears to be one of the constructors that brought the better upgrades.
Piastri is hopeful for qualifying ahead of the F1 2026 Miami GP
Just in a few hours, cars will roll back onto the track for the 2026 Miami Qualifying ahead of the main race on Sunday.
During the post-race interview, Piastri briefly said: “So, yeah, we’ll try and see what we can do for qualifying. I think everyone else will learn a lot, but so will we.
“So, hopefully we can maintain that through the rest of the weekend.”
After the Sprint Race, last year’s Miami Race winner Oscar Piastri collected 7 points. He currently sits P6 in the Drivers’ Championship with 28 points. He is just behind his teammate Lando Norris, who is P5 with 33 points.
