Miami GP: Lando Norris rues McLaren strategy after losing out to Kimi Antonelli in battle for victory
Reigning world champion Lando Norris finished on the podium for the first time in 2026 but feels McLaren had a chance to win the Miami Grand Prix; Norris lost out to Kimi Antonelli in the crucial pit stop phase of Sunday's race
Sunday 3 May 2026 22:57, UK
Lando Norris believes McLaren missed an opportunity to win their first Grand Prix of 2026 after he was beaten by Kimi Antonelli.
Norris was leading approaching the only pit stop phase of Sunday's race by nearly two seconds over Antonelli but Mercedes pitted their driver first, which gave him a lap on fresher tyres compared to Norris.
When Norris pitted, he came out just ahead of Antonelli but the Italian teenager had more momentum and took the net lead down to Turn 4 - a position he would hold to make it a hat-trick of victories and extend his lead in the Drivers' Championship to 20 points over George Russell.
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Norris crossed the line three seconds behind Antonelli and said: "How did we not win this? We should have won guys."
He added post-race: "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 brought a significant upgrade package to Miami compared to Mercedes and Norris was fast from the off, converting Sprint pole into victory.
He only qualified fourth for Sunday's race but found himself in the lead after battling past Charles Leclerc and Antonelli in the first half of the race.
Norris accepts Antonelli may have had the pace to overtake him, even if McLaren had the right strategy, but wants to understand why the team were not more proactive.
"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 added: "We had an opportunity to win, 100 per cent.
"We were chased by a car that was a little bit faster than us, we were monitoring the weather at the same time and when Kimi pitted his out lap was just mega. 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."
Stella: We must not forget where we came from
The result means McLaren have lost more ground in the Constructors' Championship to Mercedes, as Oscar Piastri was third and George Russell finished fourth, with the Silver Arrows 68 points ahead of Ferrari and 86 points in front of McLaren.
McLaren dropped a lot of points in China after both drivers failed to even start the race, but were more competitive at the third race in Japan and appeared to have the joint-best car with Mercedes in Miami.
Stella said: "We don't have to forget where we came from. We came from a relatively difficult start of the season. We reacted.
"We always said internally, irrespective of where we are at the start, we know what we are capable of. So I think we have demonstrated [that]. Big, big thank you to the team for the hard work that led us to delivering all the upgrades in various areas of the car that made us competitive.
"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."
Formula 1 next heads to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend. Watch live on Sky Sports F1 on May 22-24. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
