Stewards late in the session ruled Alexander Albon had exceeded track limits at Turn 6 and, invoking Article 11.7.1.a of the International Sporting Code, deleted his SQ1 time and consequently all his SQ2 lap times. The decision, made after SQ2 had already started, relegated Albon from P14 to P19 on the Miami Sprint grid and forced a reshuffle of the starting order.

Officials said the breach was not reported until SQ2 had begun, which meant Albon had already been allowed to contest SQ2. Racing Bulls flagged the infringement after replay footage suggested he went beyond the white line, and the automatic track-limits detection system did not register the event. Race control deleted nine lap times by six drivers in total, and only one of those deletions specifically involved Turn 6. Stewards reviewed Albon’s onboard footage after he had already gone out in SQ2 and summoned him during SQ3.

The late discovery directly affected Racing Bulls and Liam Lawson, who had been kept in the car to contest SQ2 and who publicly criticized the timing of the ruling, saying, “I could not understand how it happened,” “I honestly can’t understand how that’s possible,” and describing his weekend as “a series of bad events.” Drivers noted the white line at Turn 6 was hard to see because rubber from support events had obscured it, and race organizers planned to repaint the line overnight. Officials referenced a 2022 precedent in which Sergio Perez was later penalized after a belatedly discovered breach. The deletion promoted Carlos Sainz, Arvid Lindblad, Liam Lawson, Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez up the sprint order. Albon had originally progressed with a best SQ time of 1’30.988, while Lawson was eliminated in SQ1 in 17th with a 1’31.043, missing the SQ2 cut by 0.06 seconds; Racing Bulls finished with both cars outside the top 15 (Lindblad 16th, Lawson 17th).