Qualifying + Race | Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix
Author(s): Lucian Raileanu
Date: 2026-05-03
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INTRO
Since 2022, the 5.412km (3.363 miles) circuit surrounding the Hard Rock Stadium has provided some interesting races with the famous Miami skyline overlooking the track. Max Verstappen proudly holds the record of two wins here, with Oscar Piastri being last years victor. This year, Miami offered a very chaotic, cinematic and interesting race with the new regulations. Let's take a look at it, shall we?
QUALIFYING
Before we look at the race, we'll cover the eventful qualifying from Saturday. The three Qualifying sessions were fairly uninteresting in all but did have a few key moments.
Q1
Gabriel Bortoleto was rushed out of his garage near the end of this session, barely eeking out a lap, but shortly after taking the line experienced a left rear brake fire leaving the end of Q1 glowing orange. He managed to pull to the side near the marshals, who swiftly put out the fire. Aston Martin also saw some issues, with Alonso fighting the car to prevent a spin. Oscar Piastri only just managed to escape Q1 by outqualifying Lindblad by about two tenths of a second. ELIMINATED IN Q1: Lindblad, Alonso, Stroll, Bottas, Perez, and Bortoleto.
Q2
Q2 was mostly uneventful. We saw McLaren lose a bit of the unusually fast pace they had in Q1, with Piastri outqualifying his teammate by just under four tenths of a second. ELIMINATED IN Q2: Hulkenberg, Lawson, Bearman, Sainz, Ocon, and Albon.
Q3
McLaren found that fast pace once again as they held a place within the top five for most of the session. Alpine somehow got both of their cars to Q3, with a speed nobody really expected after a fairly disappointing season last year. TOP 5 AFTER Q3: Antonelli, Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris, and Russell.
POST-QUALIFYING
After the qualifying sessions, Isack Hadjar was disqualified from Qualifying due to a technical issue: small sections of the floorboard were protruding outside the permitted volume by 2mm. The times he set were deemed satisfactory, meaning he would have been permitted to start from the back of the grid, but he was eventually sent to start from the pit lane after elements from the power unit and the control electronics were changed under parc fermé.
RACE DAY
With the race pushed forward three hours to avoid rain, drivers all lined up with the medium tires affixed to their cars aside for Hadjar in the pitlane with hards. 40% rain risk (FIA data)* meant teams had intermediate tyres on standby just in case.
* Individual teams had wildly conflicting data. McLaren reported rain on Lap 40, Cadillac expected rain within a few laps, and RB reported a rain cell 20 minutes away. Luckily, we did not see any rain during this race.
LAP 1
Right at turn 1, Antonelli goes wide and off track. Leclerc and Verstappen storm through, and Verstappen immediately spins at T2. Hamilton goes off track to avoid Max's car and Charles Leclerc flies through to take the lead. Antonelli recovers from his wide turn and ends up P2. Hamilton is in for a bumpy ride today after he makes contact with Colapinto in turn 11 and ends up losing his front right bargeboard. Hulkenberg additionally pits for a new front wing.
LAP 3
Antonelli closes the gap on Leclerc to 0.8 seconds after his loss of places from Lap 1. At the same time, Piastri's trying to get past Russell to secure P4 but can't quite manage to squeeze by. Hadjar also making surprising progress after his pitlane start, already getting to P16.
LAPS 4-5
Antonelli steals the lead from Leclerc down the back straight and the Monegasque is unable to do much against it. Leclerc, however, grabs the place back at T11. Kimi tries to go around at T17 but ultimately has to give it up for the time being as he defends from the papaya-colored McLaren of Lando Norris. Lando's team then tell him to "stay with them, let them yo-yo."
LAP 5-7
DOUBLE YELLOW / SAFETY CAR Hadjar goes into the apex wall at the T15 chicane and destroys his suspension. He seems to be quite mad, hitting his steering wheel and helmet repeatedly. Simultaneously, Gasly's gets flipped as Lawson dives down the inside and makes contact. Both drivers come out okay, but Lawson and Gasly retire after the incident. Hulkenberg also retires shortly after returning to the pitlane, no reason given. This means we have four drivers gone within the first ten laps: Hadjar, Gasly, Lawson, and Nico Hulkenberg.
LAP 7
Verstappen pits for hards under SC.
LAP 12
GREEN FLAG - SC RESTART Leclerc gets a great launch after the safety car returns to the pits and maintains P1. Verstappen is working his way up from P16 after his pit stop. Chaos around this point as Russell attempts to move up on Piastri and Hamilton tries a swoop on Russell while under pressure from Colapinto. Perez also moves up to P12.
Lando Norris moves up to P1 into T11. Russell reports being "in the wrong strat mode" and tells his team to keep an eye out. Antonelli moves by Charles at T17 and then drops back as Leclerc takes the place back at T1. Antonelli finishes the yo-yoing at T11 as he gets past Charles, who can't do anything as he's too far back.
LAP 15
Verstappen flies by Ocon for P11. +0.8 second gap to Bearman, who's sitting in P10. Yellow flag for Stroll going off at T17, but it doesn't last long as he manages to pull himself back onto the track. Verstappen up to P10 now, and he scrapes past at T1 to claim P9. Leclerc gets passed by Oscar.
FIA: Noted Verstappen for crossing pit line at exit, Noted Albon and Alonso for yellow flag infringement
LAP 18
Verstappen goes around Sainz at T1 and climbs up to P8. Piastri also overtakes Leclerc.
LAP 18-22
As the sky gets darker over the Miami International Autodrome, George Russel is the first of the frontrunners to pit for Hard tyres now that the one-stop pit window is open. Leclerc comes in shortly after and has a slow 3.7s stop due to the front right wheel refusing to come off. Russell undercuts and goes out in front of Leclerc.
LAP 23
Leclerc and Russell pass Ocon. Russell moves into P9 with no fight from Bearman. Leclerc is unhappy about his loss of position and the traffic, and he radios to his team to request that they "please speak with [him], [he] is here as well." Russell and Leclerc make the approach to Albon for P8.
LAP 24
Small drizzles in the pitlane. Verstappen gets by Hamilton for P4 at T17. Antonelli boxes for fresh Hards.
LAP 27
Norris, Hamilton, and Piastri all box for Hards. Antonelli resumes his race lead around the T10-11 straight.
LAP 30
Bottas gets penalty for speeding in pitlane. Leclerc climbs up to P5 at T1 as he passes Russell. Still waiting for Colapinto, Ocon, Bortoleto, and Alonso to pit. Bottas comes in, takes his drive-through penalty and drops even further back than he already was.
LAP 35
Fernando Alonso has yet to pit.
Antonelli shouts on the radio: "GEARBOX, GEARBOX! I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE PADDLE!" No drop in pace yet. He later reports throttle issues.
Meanwhile, Piastri forces Russell to defend at T17 and then follows through with the overtake at T1 and climbs to P5. Mercedes report Kimi's issues being fixed as Russell gets back at Piastri at T11. However, Piastri doesn't like that and immediately dives back on the inside right before T17 and keeps it into T1.
LAP 37
Antonelli brings us into Lap 37 as Alonso has yet to box. Speaking of Kimi, he reports his rears having issues to his team and recieves a reply of "It's just temp Kimi, just temp." Russell drops further back behind Oscar with a gap of +1.5.
LAP 39
As we approach Lap 40 questions of whether rain will arrive or not begin to float. Anyways, Ollie Bearman gains on Albon for P10. Stroll comes in for a second stop onto Softs. Pretty remarkable, considering Alonso still hasn't done his first. Norris keeps struggling to get past the +0.8 barrier from Kimi Antonelli as he is being affected by the dirty air.
LAP 43
Alonso finally boxes for new Hards after dragging out one set of mediums for the whole race. Verstappen is now on the oldest tyres of anyone.
LAP 44
Black and White flag for Bottas for ignoring blue flags. Bortoleto getting close to Ocon in P12.
LAP 46
Leclerc closing in on Max. Bono reports a second strike for track limits after Lando tells his team to report Antonelli for going outside the lines.
Leclerc opts to not pass at T17 but blasts by at T1. However, Max goes straight around the outside at T3 but can't hold it and Leclerc follows through with the overtake at T11. Meanwhile, Bortoleto gets past Ocon also at T11.
LAP 48
Perez and Alonso fighting over P15 bragging rights. Antonelli's complaining about downshifts again to claims of it being monitored. Gaps growing up and down across the board. Piastri overtakes Max.
Russell reports that the car feels a lot more together and he gains on Max by eight tenths.
LAP 53-54
Alonso passes Perez once more and Russell now catches Max. George puts pressure on Verstappen's screaming tyres and gets denied two moves at T17 and T1. Russell's front wing is sparking on the ground with some damage. Max thinks George hit his tyre. Despite the damage, George keeps gaining and eventually passes on the straight only to get passed again by Max.
LAP 56
Norris gets reports of a problem with the rear wing dropping out. Meanwhile, Piastri goes for a move at T11 but can't get by. George tries the same and also fails.
FINAL LAP
Piastri gets P3 at T17, Russell also passes Max at T17. Charles Leclerc spins and manages to keep it out of the barrier. Seemingly a car issue.
As the checkered flag falls, Kimi Antonelli wins the Miami Grand Prix! THe first time the Miami GP has ever been won from the front row and the first time a driver has ever taken their first three poles to the flag. Lando crosses into P2, Piastri into P3, and Russell takes P4. Leclerc is overtaken by Max right before the line into P5, meaning Charles gets sixth.
POST-RACE
The FIA was handing out penalties post-race with Max getting a five second penalty for that earlier pitlane line warning, and Charles getting a 20-second penalty for leaving the track on multiple occasions.
Final Results
- Kimi Antonelli: Leader
- Lando Norris: +3.264s
- Oscar Piastri: +27.092s
- George Russell: +43.051s
- Max Verstappen: +48.949s
- Lewis Hamilton: +53.753s
- Franco Colapinto: +61.871s
- Charles Leclerc: +64.245s
- Carlos Sainz: +82.072s
- Alexander Albon: +90.972s
- Oliver Bearman: +1 lap
- Gabriel Bortoleto: +1 lap
- Esteban Ocon: +1 lap
- Arvid Lindblad: +1 lap
- Fernando Alonso: +1 lap
- Sergio Perez: +1 lap
- Lance Stroll: +1 lap
- Valtteri Bottas: +2 laps
- Nico Hulkenberg: DNF
- Liam Lawson: DNF
- Pierre Gasly: DNF
- Isack Hadjar: DNF