HONDA The Power of Dreams

Sprint|15th

Qualifying|17th|1 min 31.098 s

Sprint|17位

Qualifying|18th|1 min 31.164 s

At noon local time on Saturday, May 2, the Sprint for the Miami Grand Prix took place.

Following the cancellation of the two Middle East rounds, Miami became Round 4 of the season, held after a one-month interval since Round 3 in Japan. During that period, Honda focused heavily on vibration fixes for the power unit (PU), introducing the second new PU of the season for this event.

In Sprint Qualifying on Friday, both AMAF1 cars suffered from front locking issues. Alonso had his best lap deleted for a track limits violation, and his second-best lap failed to meet the 107% threshold. Stroll, meanwhile, was unable to record a representative lap time. However, as both drivers had set sufficient times during Free Practice, they were permitted to start the Sprint.

For the 19-lap Sprint, both Alonso and Stroll selected soft tires. Following a pit-lane start by another competitor, Alonso lined up 19th and Stroll 20th. Both drivers made clean starts, with Stroll completing Lap 1 in 19th and Alonso in 20th.

The pair remained closely matched throughout the race, occasionally exchanging positions as the Sprint progressed. Pit stops among front-running cars on Lap 14 promoted Stroll to 17th and Alonso to 18th. After the two swapped positions again on Lap 17, Alonso made a bold overtake on the back straight on the final lap to move into 16th before taking the checkered flag. Post-race disqualifications among cars ahead ultimately elevated Alonso to 15th and Stroll to 17th.

Qualifying began at 4 pm local time under sunny conditions, with ambient temperatures of 34°C and track temperatures reaching 52°C.

During the 18-minute Q1 session, Alonso and Stroll each used three sets of new tires across three runs. Alonso improved from 1 min 31.661 s to 1 min 31.098 s before aborting his final run and returning to the pits. Stroll also improved from 1 min 32.308 s to 1 min 31.164 s, but was unable to improve further on his final attempt. Neither driver advanced beyond Q1. Following post-session disqualifications among cars ahead, Alonso was classified 17th and Stroll 18th.

“I feel performance in Qualifying improved a little compared to yesterday and the Sprint, and it's a relief that the PU vibration issues have improved which was a big focus over the break.   Unfortunately, we had some gearbox issues which limited us, so we need to understand them tonight and try to fix things for tomorrow. We haven't run in the wet yet, so if the weather changes it will be a learning experience for us and everyone on the grid. Let's see what we can do.”

“It feels like we've made some small progress since Sprint Qualifying yesterday. We had some issues with traffic on the last run in Q1 and didn't get the tires in the right window so we lost time there. We know the areas we need to work on and improve, but that's going to take time. We'll see what we can do tomorrow, the weather will play a big factor for everyone.”

“After four weeks away from racing and working in HRC Sakura, we have developed some fixes for the vibrations. This wasn’t only for the battery side, but also for the driver comfort and driveability.

“During today's sessions we confirmed that they work as expected on the data and we also got positive feedback from the drivers. This is a promising element for us and it's thanks to the hard work of both factories - HRC and AMAF1 Team.

“FP1 was a smooth session from a power unit perspective, as was Sprint qualifying, which is another step forward in terms of reliability, so we will keep pushing. We have optimized the energy management under these new regulations - still, we are learning and we will continue to do so through the Sprint race and into qualifying for the race.”

“We had another day of smooth sessions, completing full distance in the Sprint race in very warm weather. This is a positive thing to see how our power unit works in this heat, which confirms our reliability steps in these severe temperatures.

“We have qualified for tomorrow's race ahead of Cadillac, which is another small step in the right direction. Of course, P18 and P19 is not where we want to be, so we know that we need to improve our performance.”