Alex Albon loses sprint grid spot to missed F1 track limits offence at Miami Grand Prix

Alex Albon has lost his original P14 and tumbled down the grid for the Miami Grand Prix sprint race after a track limits offence in SQ1 was flagged by Formula 1 rival Racing Bulls.

Albon just scraped through into SQ2 in P16, leaving a frustrated Liam Lawson in P17 and unable to progress.

The VCARB team then spotted a potential track limits offence at Turn 6 on the onboard video and flagged it to the FIA.

Meanwhile Lawson got back in his car on the assumption that Albon would lose his time and a spot in SQ2 would thus open up.

For reasons unclear to the FIA the offence had not been registered by the system that usually checks for track limits, and which had flagged several other drivers during the session.

However by the time the FIA checked the incident SQ2 had started, and Albon was out on track, and it was too late to pull him out of the session and allow Lawson in. 

Instead Albon was summoned to the stewards after the session after earning P14 .

"Alex did track limits, but I think they realised too late,” said Lawson. “And because he'd already gone out on track… Honestly I can't understand how that's possible, but from our understanding, he's literally done track limits and then gone through to Q2."

A precedent was set with a similar incident in Bahrain in 2025 involving Nico Hulkenberg, when the Sauber driver lost both his SQ2 time and his best SQ1 time, and the Miami stewards followed the same procedure.

Albon thus drops from P14 to P19, while Carlos Sainz, Arvid Lindblad, Liam Lawson, Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez all move up.

"During SQ1, Car 23 clearly exceeded track limits in turn 6. However this was not reported to the Stewards until SQ2 had commenced," the FIA stewards explained. 

"Car 23’s time recorded on the lap that track limits were exceeded was sufficient to place it in SQ2. Hence at the time the Stewards were informed that Car 23 had left the track and that its lap should have been potentially deleted, it was already on track in SQ2.

"As this was an unusual situation, the stewards have decided to settle the matter by exercising their authority under Article 11.7.1.a of the International Sporting Code by deleting the lap time of the lap in question in SQ1. As Car 23 should not have proceeded into SQ2, all lap times from SQ2 will consequently be deleted."

Drivers reported that it’s hard to spot the white line at Turn 6, possibly due to rubber laid down by support events. The line will be repainted overnight.

Speaking prior to being summoned Albon indicated that he was pleased with the upgrades on the FW48.

"I think that's progress from the team,” he said. “Upgrades are working. I think exploring different philosophies today. Obviously not much time to test things, being a sprint weekend, but still trying them anyway. I think we've learned a lot now.

“I think tonight, we're just going to go through the day to figure out what's good, what's bad, and for our first go at it, I'm happy.”