Formula 1 held its annual Miami Grand Prix in Miami Gardens, Florida, this past week. Here are some of the biggest stories coming out of Hard Rock Stadium.
Norris takes sprint race
In six of 22 locations this season, F1 runs sprint races the day before the Grand Prix itself. The races are a third of the length of a normal Grand Prix and offer eight world drivers’ championship points to the winner. McLaren’s number one driver and defending drivers’ champion, Lando Norris, took pole position in Friday’s sprint with the second fastest qualifying time of the weekend, then held off teammate Oscar Piastri early Saturday afternoon by almost four seconds to take the victory.
Antonelli dominates qualifying, wins pole
Qualifying for the race itself took place late Saturday afternoon. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, winner of two of the season’s first three races and now the youngest drivers’ championship leader in F1 history, cruised through qualifying races to become one of the top 10 vying for pole position. Antonelli put up the weekend’s fastest time in the third and final qualifying session, winning the lead position for the Grand Prix the next day.
Chaotic start to race leads to crash
Turn one of the Grand Prix set the tone for the craziness to come. Both Antonelli and star racer Max Verstappen’s brakes locked up on the race’s first corner, allowing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who started third, to pass both and take the race lead. Trying to make up time going into the second turn, Verstappen got too aggressive with his car, causing him to lose control of the vehicle’s rear. Verstappen managed to pull his car into a 360-degree spin, miraculously preventing a crash and keeping him in the race, though having to fight back from a fall to ninth position.
In the sixth lap, Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson’s gearbox malfunctioned and caught the back wheel of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, causing Gasly’s car to fly into a barrier. Fortunately, Gasly was unharmed, but both he and Lawson were unable to continue the race. When the lap six incident triggered a caution and a safety car, Verstappen opted to pit for hard tires, pushing him all the way back to 16th place but allowing him to avoid pitting again in the race.
Antonelli tops Norris to win Grand Prix
Leclerc was passed by both Antonelli and Norris relatively quickly, setting up a two-way battle for the race win. Norris held the lead for 15 laps, but eventually succumbed to Antonelli, who led the race’s final 29 laps to win the Miami Grand Prix and the 25 championship points accompanying it, with Norris finishing second and Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri rounding out the podium after a last-lap spinout pushed Leclerc from third to sixth. Things then got worse for Leclerc post-race when he was handed a 20-second penalty for exceeding track limits and dropped to eighth.
Meanwhile, Verstappen put in a classic performance of his own. Sitting in 16th place after his pit stop under caution, Verstappen utilized his fresh tires, world-class driving ability and others’ pit stops to climb all the way to third place. Toward the end of the race, Verstappen was passed by Piastri, Mercedes’ George Russell and Leclerc, but after Leclerc’s last-lap spinout, Verstappen passed him once again to finish fifth place in comeback fashion.
What’s next in F1
After three wins in the series’ first four races, Antonelli holds a strong lead in the drivers’ championship, with his closest competitor being his teammate George Russell, who won the first race of the season in Australia. Having won all four Grand Prix races this season, the Mercedes team now has a commanding lead in the World Constructors’ Championship, 70 points ahead of Ferrari. Formula 1 will next race the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal starting on May 22.