Ferrari’s much‑vaunted Miami upgrade looked potent in the only 90-minute practice session, with Charles Leclerc topping the lone run in the upgraded SF‑26 with a 1:29.310, about 0.297 seconds clear of Max Verstappen. The upgrade failed to deliver over a single hot lap in Sprint Qualifying, and Leclerc slipped to fourth in SQ3, nearly four‑tenths adrift of Lando Norris’s sprint pole time. Ferrari blamed the loss of single‑lap performance to the soft compound tires and said the team would work overnight to understand the shortfall while expressing confidence in stronger race pace.

McLaren’s upgrade arrived as a clear step forward. Lando Norris posted a 1:27.869 to take Sprint pole, McLaren’s first pole of the season, and Oscar Piastri backed that up with strong practice and a P3 in Sprint Qualifying. Teams had brought wide upgrade packages to Miami, and McLaren’s aerodynamic and technical revisions appeared to return the team to the front, ending Mercedes’ recent one‑lap advantage. Red Bull showed signs of improvement in practice but lacked the outright SQ3 pace to match McLaren, and tire choice and execution emerged as decisive variables for Sprint order.

Mercedes’ weekend was punctuated by power‑unit and packaging concerns that limited running and complicated qualifying preparation. Both Mercedes cars reported engine or turbo issues in practice that prevented planned soft‑tire runs. Kimi Antonelli suffered a power‑unit problem, and George Russell reported unusual turbo noise. The team still extracted a P2 from Antonelli and P6 from Russell in Sprint Qualifying, but Lewis Hamilton finished seventh and said the car didn’t feel particularly great. With only a single practice to evaluate packages, teams left Miami facing a tighter, more fluid pecking order and a night of work to diagnose reliability and tire problems before the race.