Miami GP sprint grid order changes as Lando Norris learns penalty fate | F1 | Sport

The result of qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix sprint race changed overnight as the Formula 1 stewards handed out a post-session penalty to Alex Albon for a rule violation missed during the session itself. Meanwhile, Lando Norris escaped punishment himself after he was investigated following his impressive drive to pole position for Saturday’s short-form race in Florida.

Norris pipped championship leader Kimi Antonelli to top spot on the timesheets on Friday, but was investigated after the session. The stewards found that the McLaren driver had failed to follow the race director’s instruction to not exceed a lap time of 1:48.000 at any point during Sprint qualifying.

However, after hearing from Norris and a McLaren team representative, they decided that no further action was warranted. They accepted the explanation given: That Norris had been on target to meet the prescribed maximum lap time during that cool lap during the second part of Sprint qualifying, until he was overtaken late in the lap and so he slowed to set up a gap between him and the other car so he could start a flying lap.

But while the stewards took no action there, they did punish Albon after the end of qualifying. Albon looked to have made it safely through to SQ2 but it was soon discovered that he had exceeded track limits on his quickest run. Crucially, though, the FIA had only realised that after SQ2 had already begun.

That meant Liam Lawson, who was the fastest of the six drivers knocked out in SQ1, was wrongly denied the chance to take any further part in Sprint qualifying. Albon will get no benefit, though, as the stewards deleted all his SQ2 times and also his fastest SQ! lap, dropping the Williams driver from 14th place on the grid down to 19th.

That punishment follows the precedent set last year when Nico Hulkenberg was given the same punishment for a similar incident in Bahrain, when his track limits violation was discovered too late. The stewards said: “During SQ1, Car 23 [Albon] clearly exceeded track limits in turn six. However this was not reported to the stewards until SQ2 had commenced.

“At the time the stewards were informed that Car 23 had left the track and that its lap should have been potentially deleted, it was already on track in SQ2. As this was an unusual situation, the Stewards have decided to settle the matter by deleting the lap time of the lap in question in SQ1. As Car 23 should not have proceeded into SQ2, all lap times from SQ2 will consequently be deleted.”

That ruling offers little comfort, though, to Lawson and Racing Bulls who were denied the chance to secure a better starting spot for the Sprint race. The Kiwi had even remained in his car until after the start of SQ2 while the team said they were “waiting to hear about whether another car would be disqualified”, suggesting they were aware of Albon’s potential track limits violation before even the stewards were.