Winners and losers from the 2026 Miami Grand Prix Qualifying

Kimi Antonelli, yet again, tops PlanetF1.com’s list of Winners from qualifying in Miami, but who else features, and who has made the Losers list?

Here is PlanetF1.com’s full list of winners and losers from the 2026 Miami Grand Prix qualifying.

Winners and losers from the 2026 Miami Grand Prix qualifying

Winner: Kimi Antonelli

Kimi Antonelli is very much getting used to this life at the front, with the Italian bouncing back from a relatively scrappy Sprint race to put in a masterful effort in Q3.

His first lap was enough to put him clear by more than three-tenths, giving himself a good buffer for the second runs; a run he failed to improve on, which could have been costly if others had found more.

“It was a good lap, very clean, put more or less everything together,” he said.

“Of course, yeah, then the last lap I probably got a bit too excited and I braked way too late, and I knew I wasn’t going to make the corner the moment I braked.

“But yeah, obviously luckily it was good enough, because of course you never know, especially with Max and Charles, because they’re very good in quali. So, I was pretty stressed on the way in, but yeah, happy that we were still able to keep the pole.”

Antonelli had put his scruffy Sprint race behind him by the time of qualifying, not dwelling on the events of the 19-lap race that started badly when a Mercedes miscalculation of the grip levels off the line meant he couldn’t get his W17 off the line easily.

From there, Antonelli had a few wayward track limits moments, resulting in an eventual time penalty, with the whole race seeing him fail to maximise his opportunities.

But, having shaken that off for the more consequential session of the day, Antonelli brimmed with giddy happiness as he spoke to the media afterwards, laughing and joking about the heat being like a “hairdresser in his face”, (he meant a hairdryer), and pointing out Shaquille O’Neal as the track DJ when the footage was on the screens in the press conference room.

If there’s pressure on Antonelli yet, he’s not showing it, and life is good for the Italian as he delivers at this very early stage of his career.

Loser: George Russell

While Antonelli flubbed his lines in the Sprint race, the Italian has overall looked more comfortable on track so far this weekend, and Russell ultimately looked a little anonymous in qualifying in contrast to Antonelli’s spectacular first lap in Q3.

Finishing fifth, almost four-tenths down on his teammate, Russell explained afterward that he felt he had more in the car but lost time due to an error at the final corner – a scenario that would have placed him a tenth or two, at most, behind Antonelli.

“I’m a little bit annoyed, but this is a track I’ve always struggled with,” he pointed out afterwards.

“Kimi was on pole last year and I was P5; today, he’s on pole and I’m in P5 and it’s just very low grip here, sliding around a lot.

“The tarmac is hot, similar to Brazil where Kimi, again, was more competitive. Whereas I much prefer the high-grip conditions, where the tyre and the car is more connected with the ground. So, yeah, just want to get through this weekend.”

With Russell in his seventh year in Formula 1, his admission that he still has bogey tracks, especially relative to someone as wet behind the ears as Antonelli, is a striking one.

Winner: Max Verstappen

It’s only a few short weeks ago since Red Bull looked completely off the pace of the leading trio of teams but, in the space of the five-week gap from Japan, the sizeable upgrade package introduced appears to have transformed the RB22.

This was hinted at in the Sprint race as Verstappen gave it his best against the likes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, cars that were well outside his reach in the earlier races.

But that hint became a firm clue in qualifying, as Verstappen was able to join in the battle at the very front and snatch a front-row position alongside Antonelli.

Granted, some of this may be track-specific, with one senior team source pointing out that the lack of high-speed corners at the Miami International Autodrome means the cars’ weaknesses are somewhat masked.

But Verstappen was a much happier figure after qualifying and, when asked by PlanetF1.com to expand on where he’s finding greater comfort behind the wheel, said: “Honestly, it’s everything, because before nothing really worked. I felt like a total passenger in the car.

“It could understeer, it could snap on me, it could feel different from one session to the other one without even touching parts. So, we understood a lot of stuff.

“I think we’re still not where we want to be in terms of understanding everything, but most of it. And that showed that here the car just feels a lot more together. I can finally drive how I want to drive also with just my steering inputs, and that helps a lot.”

Outright race victory may yet still be a step too far at this point, but the signs are good: Red Bull’s upgrades have clearly worked, despite lingering concerns regarding correlation that will remain until the new wind tunnel arrives.

However, one consideration that may be in the back of Verstappen’s mind may be the disqualification of teammate Isack Hadjar, whose floor volume was 2mm outside of tolerances.

With no indication that Verstappen’s car also went through this specific check in the post-session scrutineering, if there’s any chance his car is of a similar configuration to Hadjar’s, it won’t be rectifiable without breaking parc ferme rules… or potentially being copped in the intensive post-race scrutineering checks.

More from the Miami Grand Prix

Storm threat forces Miami GP start time change

Miami Grand Prix: Kimi Antonelli snatches pole in thrilling qualifying battle

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

Having been quite neck-and-neck with Charles Leclerc through the opening weekends of the year, this weekend has seen Leclerc put clear air between himself and his seven-time F1 World Champion after taking the upper hand through the Japanese race event.

Hamilton has been complaining about some deployment issues that have been affecting him down the straights, but clarified this was not an issue in qualifying in Miami after making plenty of changes to the car from the Sprint.

Admitting that he hadn’t “got the maximum” from his car in Q3 after being solid earlier in the session, Hamilton wound up sixth to Leclerc’s third, two-tenths of a second off the Monegasque’s pace.

“I don’t feel comfortable in P6; it’s not where I want to be,” he said.

“So I’m quite unhappy with P6, naturally. But I’m happy that with the changes going into qualifying, we progressed. We did improve. I think top three was probably possible.”

Leclerc had shown a clear pair of heels to Hamilton throughout the Sprint race, taking a comfortable podium finish, but was somewhat frustrated with his third-place qualifying position after feeling Ferrari had not made the same progress as its immediate rivals, although track conditions could have played a part too.

“The wind is definitely a factor,” Leclerc said of the deficit.

“I think track temperature wasn’t that different, so I don’t think that is a reason. But the wind has for sure changed a little bit.

“Whether it will affect our car more than others, I don’t believe in that. So, I think it’s somewhere else the answer.

“Maybe it is the track evolution and we didn’t anticipate that well, and maybe by just pushing a little bit more today in qualifying the weaknesses of the car were a little bit more apparent.

“So yeah, but I obviously didn’t have a close look at the data just yet as I just got out the car. So we’ll have to look at the details and try to understand where we lost most time.”

Winner: Alpine and Franco Colapinto

Alpine’s strong start to the season has continued, with Franco Colapinto making use of a new and lighter chassis to join in the battle with Pierre Gasly.

Originally in chassis number one, the one used for impact testing in the pre-season, Colapinto is now in chassis number three, which managing director Steve Nielsen confirmed before qualifying is “inside the weight limit”.

With the French driver the only driver equipped with the latest updates to the A526, with the team only managing to get one of its new rear wings made on time for Miami, Gasly was beaten by a half a tenth by the Argentinean driver.

It’s meant that there are two Alpines in the top 10, with Colapinto making it into Q3 for the first time this season, with Racing Bulls and Audi perhaps the nearest on pace behind Alpine.

“The pace is just coming more easily,” Colapinto said, speaking of how he’s feeling more comfortable behind the wheel, although he said he couldn’t quite gauge the impact of the new chassis.

“I can’t tell yet. I think we will see the data, but it’s just clear that I’m much more competitive. And that’s really positive,” he said.

“The upgrades we brought have delivered a step,” Steve Nielsen said ahead of qualifying.

“Of course, our competitors, particularly the ones in front, have done even more. There’s more coming to Montreal, and it will be a steady process throughout the year.

Loser: Audi

It was a difficult day overall for Audi, with mechanical trouble forcing Nico Hulkenberg out of the Sprint race before it even began; his second time not to take the start of a race after his Australian disappointment.

In qualifying, it was Gabriel Bortoleto’s turn as the Brazilian sat out most of Q1 while his team frantically worked to pull his car together after making significant changes to the car after a disqualification from the Sprint.

The two scenarios weren’t linked though, as he explained after his car brakes caught fire at the end of Q1, having failed to get through into Q2 after an heroic attempt from his side of the garage to get out on track.

“It is nothing to do with the disqualification,” he said.

“It was a completely different thing, in that we had to dismantle the whole car. They rushed to put things in place, and they did an incredible job, because ,by putting a gearbox back in place, the whole rear axle of the car in half an hour, it’s such a tough job, and they did it.

“But, going back to the track, we had so many problems again, but they’re understandable. I think it was already a miracle to go to the track, but we tried our best. We had problems. I had to stop the car on track, and nothing I could do about it.”

With Bortoleto emphasising that his concern was related to what happened before quali, meaning Audi had to rush to rebuild his car and put itself in a position where the car wasn’t completely healthy taking to the track, he was otherwise positive about the efforts made by his garage.

As for Hulkenberg, the German bounced back strongly from his pre-Sprint issues to take 11th place on the grid, and said he felt the situation had been maximised by his crew, praising the turnaround to get the car ready to return to the track in the three-hour window between the Sprint and qualifying.

Certainly, Audi’s pace appears competitive but, operationally, appears to be going through the teething problems expected of a new power unit manufacturer finding its feet, even if the experience of the Sauber squad remains.

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