McLaren’s Lando Norris beat out Mercedes’ young star and Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli for pole position in spring qualifying Friday at the Miami Grand Prix.

Norris emerged from a one-lap shootout in SQ3 0.222 seconds better than Antonelli, with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in third, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc fourth and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fifth.

The Brit earned McLaren’s first P1 of the young season with his SQ3 time of 1:27.869.

“It was great, a perfect result for us,” Norris said, per Formula1.com. “A nice way to reward the team. We’ve got a lot of new upgrades on the car, so it’s nice to feel some grip again and nice to reward the guys and the girls that have put a lot of work into this. I’ve always loved Miami, both on and off the track. It’s a good result for us. Of course, it’s just the beginning of the weekend, still a long way to go but nice to kick it off by doing this.”

Norris is the reigning F1 World Drivers’ champion and won seven Grand Prix last year; he also earned his first F1 victory at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix. Meanwhile, the 19-year-old Italian Antonelli has won each of the last two F1 stops, the Chinese and Japanese Grand Prix, starting from the pole each time.

Next comes the Sprint on Saturday at noon. The Miami Grand Prix is slated for Sunday afternoon.

–Field Level Media

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami make a fourth attempt at earning their first win in their new stadium on Saturday night when they welcome an Orlando City squad managing an unusually busy recent schedule.

The Herons (5-1-4, 19 points) earned consecutive away wins in their first two matches following the resignation of manager Javier Mascherano in early April and the takeover of Guillermo Hoyos on an interim basis.

But they settled for a 1-1 home draw to New England on Saturday, which marked the third time in as many matches at the freshly unveiled Nu Stadium that honors have finished even.

Versatile defensive midfielder Facundo Mura thinks there have been noticeable, positive changes under Hoyos, who previously was serving as the club’s sporting director.

“Even though we couldn’t win in the last round, we’ve taken seven of the last nine points, and we feel we’ve improved, especially mentally,” Mura said. “So I think we’ll arrive in good shape for the next game.”

Messi has not added to his team-best total of seven goals in Miami’s last two league matches. But he and his teammates have enjoyed a full week to train under Hoyos after navigating a stretch of three games in eight days following the managerial switch.

Messi scored two goals when Inter Miami won 4-2 at Orlando City on March 1. He has eight goals in five meetings against the Lions across all competitions.

Meanwhile, Orlando (2-7-1, 7 points) will play for a second time in about 72 hours and a seventh time in 21 days while managing a run to the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals.

Learning how to balance his players’ workloads has been on-the-job learning for interim manager Martin Perelman, who took over for Oscar Pareja following a three-match losing streak to start the season.

Complicating the equation is a lengthy injury list that includes key attackers Duncan McGuire and Marco Pasalic, who missed last weekend’s 3-2 league loss at D.C. United and Wednesday’s 4-3 Cup triumph over the New England Revolution.

“It’s not an easy task, especially because now we are recovering some of our guys,” Perelman said. “But we’ve had a lot of injuries, so that makes more difficult the task of (monitoring) loads. But the players are responding. They are doing a huge effort, an amazing effort.”

–Field Level Media

Cameron Young built a five-shot advantage at the Cadillac Championship by posting a 5-under-par 67 on Friday at Trump National Doral outside Miami.

Young rocketed up to 13-under 131 while Alex Smalley (second-round 71) found the water on No. 18 for a bogey that dropped him into a tie at 8 under with Canada’s Nick Taylor (70) and Jordan Spieth (71).

After capturing the biggest title of his career six weeks ago at The Players Championship, Young finds himself halfway to a Florida double at the PGA Tour’s newest $20 million, no-cut signature event. The PGA Tour returned to Trump National Doral and the famed “Blue Monster” for the first time since 2016.

Spieth remains in contention after a ho-hum round. He was 1 over through 15 holes before salvaging the round with birdies at Nos. 16 and 18. Spieth seeks his first win since the 2022 RBC Heritage.

Gary Woodland (69) sits alone in fifth at 7 under.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (67) moved into a tie for sixth at 6 under alongside South Korea’s Si Woo Kim (68), Canada’s Taylor Pendrith (67), Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan (68), Brian Harman (70) and Englishman Alex Fitzpatrick, whose 66 ranked among the top three rounds of the day.

Fitzpatrick, the younger sibling of World No. 3 Matt Fitzpatrick, became a full PGA Tour member when he and his brother won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event on Sunday.

–Field Level Media