Miami race brought forward because of storm threat

The 2025 Miami Grand Prix sprint race began in wet conditions [Reuters] The Miami Grand Prix has been moved forward by three hours to 18:00 BST (13:00 local time) because of the threat of thunderstorms. And world champion Lando Norris says the Formula 1 drivers will be "thrown in at the deep end" by the expected wet weather on Sunday. The McLaren driver is one of the vast majority of the grid who have not yet experienced the 2026 cars in wet conditions, following the biggest rule change in the sport's history.

The massive amount of electrical power available in the new engines, and the issues teams have been having deploying it in a predictable manner, threaten "a bit more chaos," as Norris puts it. "I don't know how wet it's going to be," said Norris, who qualified fourth behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. "It's going to be a big challenge on race day for everyone to perform, find the limit.

"Obviously, you can't afford to make any mistakes. We're thrown in the deep end, but that's what we're here to do. I look forward to it.

" Antonelli on Miami pole from revived Verstappen How to follow Miami Grand Prix on the BBC The change to the start time of the race comes after the previous two scheduled grands prix, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, were cancelled because of the war in the Middle East. The decision was made by commercial rights holder F1 and governing body the FIA on Saturday evening in Miami. A statement from F1 and the FIA said it was made because "the weather forecast (predicts) heavier rainstorms later in the afternoon close to the original planned race start time".