Lando Norris says McLaren missed a clear chance to take their first Grand Prix win of 2026 after he was beaten by Kimi Antonelli in Miami.
Norris led by almost two seconds heading into the only pit-stop phase, but Mercedes called Antonelli in first. The Italian’s fresh-tyre out-lap gave him the undercut advantage. When Norris stopped he rejoined just ahead, but Antonelli had more momentum and swept into the lead at Turn 4, which he held to claim a hat-trick of wins and extend his Drivers’ Championship lead to 20 points over George Russell.
Norris finished three seconds behind and was frustrated. “How did we not win this? We should have won guys,” he said. “We just got undercut – no excuses other than that. We got undercut, we should have boxed first. Kimi did a good job. Hats off to Merc and Kimi, they drove a good race. I’m gutted to miss out on a win here in Miami, I think it was possible today. But not the pace to get past him in the end, so we take it on the chin. But it’s still a positive weekend altogether.”
McLaren had brought a significant upgrade package to Miami and were quick from the start; Norris turned his Sprint pole into victory and, despite qualifying only fourth for the race, moved into the lead after passing Charles Leclerc and Antonelli in the opening phases.
Norris accepts Antonelli may have been quicker overall but wants answers on McLaren’s timing. “I think we just have to be honest and say we should have boxed before. We shouldn’t have been waiting,” he told Sky Sports F1. “He was quite a bit quicker at that point of the race. I told the team I didn’t quite have the pace compared to him at that point and we didn’t really seem to do a lot about it. We have to review things. We could have fought for the win more. I don’t know if he would have had better pace, his pace was better than us today. Maybe he still would have overtaken me, but we could have done more to defend for the win.”
Team principal Andrea Stella agreed McLaren left a win on the table. “We had an opportunity to win, 100 per cent,” he said. Stella cited Antonelli’s “mega” out-lap and some lost time in McLaren’s pit execution as key factors. “We couldn’t match it with our performance in the in lap, we lost possibly a little bit of time in the execution. We could have done better but we are very happy. We take all the positives out of this weekend. We are there, there is some new stuff coming for the coming races so exciting time ahead of us.”
The result sees Oscar Piastri finish third while George Russell was fourth, leaving Mercedes comfortably ahead in the Constructors’ standings — 68 points up on Ferrari and 86 ahead of McLaren. McLaren have recovered from a difficult start to the season, including a double non-start in China, and Stella emphasised the team’s progress after delivering multiple upgrades. “I think Mercedes still have a little bit of an advantage on us but it’s good to be there and the championship is very long,” he added.
Formula 1 now moves to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend on May 22-24.