Kimi Antonelli owns George Russell as McLaren challenge Mercedes dominance in Miami Sprint Quali

Formula 1 returned after a four week break with an extended practice session to help teams adapt to the latest 2026 regulation tweaks, but Mercedes failed to find an early rhythm with their W17.

Antonelli’s day was compromised by a battery issue that prevented any soft tyre running in practice, yet the Italian rebounded strongly in Sprint Qualifying. “We knew coming into this weekend that we would be in for a battle. Most teams have brought significant upgrades here and we knew that they would close the gap to us.

“With that said, I think we did a great job to recover from a difficult day to secure P2 for tomorrow's Sprint. I was struggling with the car on the Medium tyre but it felt better on the Soft compound. I think we have more performance to bring over the rest of the weekend.”

Russell, meanwhile, was left searching for answers after a frustrating session: “Whilst today was Sprint Qualifying and therefore not the most critical session of the weekend, we are disappointed with how our Friday turned out.

“We were overheating the tyres in the middle sector and struggled to find the right balance with the car. We will need to improve if we are to be in the fight at the front," added Russell.

He also pointed to the gains made by rivals: “It was both surprising and impressive to see the size of the jump McLaren and Ferrari have made."

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin admitted the team had not maximised the limited running on a Sprint weekend: “It’s always important to hit the ground running on a Sprint weekend and we unfortunately didn’t manage that today.

“We didn’t have the car in the right place in FP1, and the drivers were struggling to put laps together from the off. We will work hard to improve that for Grand Prix Qualifying and into Sunday’s race," said Shovlin, adding that energy management and overall set up remained key areas to address overnight, with rivals appearing to have found more performance in Miami

Despite the setbacks, 2026 F1 championship leader, Antonelli’s front row start offers Mercedes a chance to limit the damage in Saturday’s Sprint, while the focus remains on extracting more pace ahead of qualifying for the main race.