Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri admit McLaren back to reality after messy Miami qualifying

Both drivers pointing to a messy session and a loss of pace relative to rivals. Norris had taken pole in Sprint Qualifying and converted it into victory in the Sprint, but McLaren could not repeat that performance a few hours later as Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull closed in.

“I feel like I was doing a better job, but just we were slower,” Norris said after qualifying P4. “It was just a lot trickier, a much more messy session from our side as a team, myself included.”

The Briton said the drop in performance compared to Friday was unexpected, even accounting for changing conditions: “The weird thing is how much pace we lost from yesterday to today. Some of that is conditions, it’s hotter and the wind was a bit different, but we need to understand that first.”

Norris added that McLaren may simply have been flattered by rivals underperforming earlier in the weekend: “It wasn’t like we did a bad job, it was just yesterday I think everyone else did do a bad job. We are more where we deserve to be.”

On the other side of the garage, Piastri endured a more difficult session, qualifying seventh after a tense escape from Q1 and struggling to find rhythm in the hotter, windier conditions.

“Just a very messy session and a lot of things didn’t quite work the way we expected,” Piastri said. “It’s quite windy, extremely hot, so it just puts everything to the test.”

The Australian said the car itself had not changed significantly: “The car didn’t feel really much different. I think the others just caught up and maximised what they had a lot better.”

Piastri described the result as a reset after McLaren’s early weekend high: “Not a huge surprise, a little bit of a kick back down to reality. There are things on our side that we can do better, so plenty to work on.”

Team boss Andrea Stella said McLaren’s Miami weekend showed clear progress in the Sprint Race one-two earlier in the day, despite a more difficult qualifying session: “Overall, it’s been a positive weekend so far."

The McLaren boss revelaed: "We introduced an important upgrade and have seen an improvement in competitiveness. It’s the result of relentless work in Woking and at the track, and a promising sign with more upgrades coming in Montreal.”

Stella pointed to the increasingly tight field, stressing how execution has become decisive: “We have seen the closest pecking order of the season so far, and how important execution is in every session. We optimised our potential in Sprint Qualifying and the Sprint Race with a 1-2, but it was not as smooth in qualifying.”

With four teams in the top positions and minimal gaps, small details proved costly, Stella acknowledged: “We did not have the cleanest session and others did a better job, the opposite of yesterday,” he said.

Despite his cars starting from P4  and P7, Stella remains confident: “We believe we can fight for top positions tomorrow, especially with the weather looking unpredictable. Execution will be crucial.”

With Kimi Antonelli taking pole for Mercedes and rivals closing the gap, McLaren now face a more competitive Miami Grand Prix scenario than their Sprint performance had suggested.