As the safety car peeled into the pits with less than a lap to go, Lando Norris’ papaya orange McLaren crossed the finish line to clinch the Miami GP sprint win on Saturday afternoon.
The second sprint race of six across the 2025 F1 season began in a chaotic fashion — even before the 20 cars lined up on the starting grid as Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari slipped off the rain-slick track and hit the barriers. The mini-race was more of a tyre strategy test as the clouds parted and the track dried up.
After a wet weather delay, the five lights went out and Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli lost his pole-sitter position off the starting line to Oscar Piastri, who led the majority of the 18-lap race, as the two nearly collided.
The 18-year-old was positioned to become the second-youngest F1 race winner but fell short as he lost three places in the first lap. Antonelli, who hoped to cross the checkered flag first, had his dreams of standing on the top podium step crushed as he finished in seventh.
Miami sprint race points
1. Lando Norris (McLaren) - 8pts
2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 7
3. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) - 6
4. George Russell (Mercedes) - 5
5. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) - 4
6. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) - 3
7. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) - 2
8. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) - 1
Piastri stretched the gap as the rest of the field trailed behind, but it was Norris who came out on top after a series of safety car stoppages.
The first came when Carlos Sainz, who spent most of the sprint race battling Esteban Ocon for 12th, clipped the wall on turn 14, resulting in a retirement back to the Williams garage.
A second safety car paused the race when Liam Lawson ran into the back of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin in turn 12, causing the car to pirouette across the drying track before the front wing crumbled into the barriers.
After qualifying in fourth and moving up to third, Max Verstappen’s race was foiled by a 10-second unsafe release penalty for hitting Antonelli while leaving the pits. The four-time world champion finished in 17th, just ahead of the trio of retirements: Alonso, Sainz and Leclerc.
But another world champion stood out with a strong sprint drive. Lewis Hamilton showed flashes of his lucky Chinese Grand Prix Sprint win in Miami on Saturday as he sailed into a third-place finish and clinched fastest lap after fastest lap.
The Ferrari driver, who is still adjusting to his new car, will look to replicate the sprint drive in Sunday’s feature race.
The drama continued post-race as the stewards made their way through a number of incident investigations. Verstappen wasn’t the only one penalised; Lawson, Alex Albon, and Oliver Bearman were all given five-second penalties to drop down the rankings.
Qualifying for the Miami GP feature race begins at 21:00 BST on Saturday. The race will take place at 21:00 BST on Sunday 4 May.
