Antonelli outduels Norris for Miami GP win

Kimi Antonelli claimed his third successive victory after seeing off a challenge from Lando Norris in a Miami Grand Prix constantly under threat from rain that never arrived.

Pole-getter Antonelli got a reasonable start off the line, but Max Verstappen got the better launch from second place. The Dutchman, though, seemed initially more concerned about blocking Lando Norris, starting directly behind him, by jinking to the right to close the inside line.

Verstappen then moved back towards the middle of the road for the braking zone but ran deep and off the road, as did Antonelli. It allowed Charles Leclerc, with a typically great start from third, to sweep through Turn 1 unchallenged and take the lead.

Verstappen attempted to keep up but spun his Red Bull Racing car over the flat curb at Turn 2. Norris, Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton – who would pick up damage in contact with Franco Colapinto a few moments later – followed Leclerc past the rotating Red Bull Racing driver. Fortunately missed by the charging field as he completed a perfect 360, the four-time champion dropped to 10th.

Antonelli pressured Leclerc for the lead, and they traded places in the opening five laps as Norris kept a watching brief. The McLaren, much more competitive in race trim than it had been during qualifying, pounced on the Mercedes on lap 6 to move up to second place.

It was perfectly timed, just moments before the safety car was deployed for dual crashes.

Isack Hadjar was the first to find the fence, clipping the Turn 14 apex and shattering his suspension, his car careening into the barriers and out of the race. Further up the road, Liam Lawson suffered a gearbox failure, locked up into Turn 17 and tagged Pierre Gasly, whose Alpine flipped over and landed on the outside barrier.

Red Bull Racing rolled the dice, stopping Verstappen early for a set of hard tires. It dropped him to 16th, down from eighth, setting him up for a significant recovery.

Leclerc managed the restart well on lap 12, but his lead wasn’t to last. Norris used his boost to breeze past the Ferrari into the first turn, and Antonelli made short work of the Monegasque at the end of the lap. Leclerc passed back into the first turn, but the Italian made the move stick at Turn 11.

Norris by then was almost 1.5s clear, and with no heavy rain on the radar, attention began turning to pit stops. Russell, stuck behind Piastri, was first in on lap 20. Leclerc responded on the following lap, but a slow spot dropped him behind the Mercedes.

Having worked once, Mercedes pulled the undercut trigger for Antonelli ahead too, bringing him in on lap 26. Norris responded on lap 27 but rejoined the race behind the Mercedes.

Antonelli reported a variety of car problems in the second half of the race, including downshift problems and overheating tires, but Norris couldn’t make an impression on the leader, and gradually the McLaren faded in his mirrors, allowing the Mercedes driver to manage his problems on the way to a 3.264-second victory.

“We did a massive undercut and then we managed to bring it home, even though it was not easy,” Antonelli said. “This is just the beginning. The road is still long, but we’re working super hard. The team is doing an incredible job. Without them I wouldn’t be here. Thanks to them, to my family. I’m going to enjoy this one and then get back work.”

The win extended Antonelli’s championship lead over teammate Russell to 20 points.

Norris lamented losing track position at the pit stop, believing victory could have been his with an earlier service.

“We just got undercut,” he said after scoring his first grand prix podium of the season. “There are no excuses other than that. We should’ve boxed first.

“I think as a team we have to be happy. I’m gutted to miss out on a win here in Miami. I think it was possible today, but I didn’t have the pace to get back past him in the end. We take it on the chin, but still a positive weekend altogether.”

The battle for the final podium place was decided by Verstappen’s long-shot, early-stop strategy, which promoted him briefly into the lead after the stops of Antonelli and Norris stops.

Though his aging hard tires were no match for those on fresh rubber, a brief battle with Leclerc for third allowed Piastri – who had had a quiet race off the pace of his McLaren teammate and a slow pit stop to boot – to close the gap to the Ferrari and re-enter the podium battle.

Piastri hooked onto Leclerc’s gearbox on lap 55 and shadowed him until launching a move into Turn 17 on the penultimate tour. Leclerc slid luridly out of the corner attempting to keep up, putting paid to any response and allowing Piastri to secure third and McLaren’s first double podium of the season.

“The pace seems more encouraging again today,” he said. “I had to make a few overtakes at the end of the race – it was a pretty late charge.

“Thanks to the team. Clearly we were a step closer in performance once again. It’s nice to see. I think this weekend we showed that if we get track position, we can hang onto things well. We were close in Japan, but we’ve definitely taken a step forward.”

Leclerc’s pain got considerably worse, spinning 360 over the curb at Turn 3, tagging the wall and damaging his car. Forced to limp through the final lap, he became an easy target for Russell and Verstappen.

Russell was carrying damage of his own, his front wing dragging on the ground after tagging Verstappen’s rear wheel in their battle for fourth place, but he nailed a move at Turn 17 to scythe past Leclerc into fourth – a commendable recovery at the end of an at-times anonymous performance for the Briton.

Verstappen, his tires ailing, slipped through to pinch fifth from Leclerc, beating him to the line by just 0.296s.

However, all three drivers will be investigated by the stewards after the race – Verstappen for a pit lane infringement, Russell and Leclerc for causing a collision, and Leclerc for driving a car in an unsafe condition and for leaving the track multiple times and gaining an advantage on the final lap.

Leclerc finished sixth ahead of Hamilton, whose first-lap damage had him play no part at the front of the field. Colapinto matched his career-best finish of eighth ahead of Williams teammates Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.

Oliver Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto, Esteban Ocon, Arvid Lindblad, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas completed the list of finishers, all lapped, while Nico Hulkenberg retired after his first pit stop.

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