#F1: #Antonelli fends-off @LandoNorris to take victory in dramatic #MiamiGP.

Antonelli Miami GP Victory – Andrea Kimi Antonelli bounced back from another poor start and got a massive undercut to beat and fend off McLaren’s Lando Norris and score his third consecutive Formula 1 victory at a dramatic Miami GP as Oscar Piastri completed the top three in the other MCL40 entry.

 

 

Further back – A late spin on the final lap from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc saw Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen grab fourth and fifth from the Monegasque driver.

 

As a result, Antonelli’s lead in the World Driver’s Championship increased to 20 points over team-mate George Russell as the sport heads to Canada in three weeks-time.

 

Mercedes hold a 68-point-advantage over Ferrari in the World Constructor’s Championship standings.

 

When the 57-lap Miami GP began, pole-sitter Antonelli got an equal start alongside Verstappen as Leclerc passed both cars into turn one slotting into the middle as Antonelli and Verstappen suffered a lock-up into turn one and ran wide.

 

Verstappen spun around tangling with Leclerc into turn two as further on into the tour – both Alpines’ Franco Colapinto and Ferrari’s Sir Lewis Hamilton contacted the latter taking on a bit of damage.

 

Hamilton made his way past Colapinto on the back-straight.

 

On the beginning of the second tour – Leclerc held a 1.3 second lead over Antonelli with Norris third, Piastri fourth, Russell fifth, Hamilton sixth, Colapinto seventh, Verstappen recovered to eighth, Lawson ninth as Albon completed the top ten.

 

Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg pitted for a new front wing.

 

In the battle for fourth on lap three, with Straight and Overtake mode on the main-straight – Russell overtook Piastri on the inside into the opening corner to take the position.

 

The stewards were looking into the Colapinto-Hamilton incident.

 

The fourth lap – The front three were starting to build a little gap here. Leclerc held a one second lead ahead of Antonelli, who was seven tenths clear of Norris – then Russell was 1.7 seconds back.

 

Further back, Hamilton was losing half-a-second a lap due to car damage from that collision with Colapinto. He had been on the radio to say he could not race like this.

 

And there was no further action from the stewards about that opening lap incident between Colapinto and Hamilton.

 

Towards the end of lap four, Antonelli used his Boost down the back straight and got Leclerc into turn 17… And Leclerc could not fight back.

 

The fifth tour – Antonelli looked clean and gone but no – he recharged his battery and retook the lead into turn 10. Norris meanwhile had been told to keep out of it, look after his own tyres and leave those two fighting, with chances likely to come later.

 

Leclerc retook the lead and on lap six – the Safety Car is called for Red Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, who was in the wall. And now Alpine’s Pierre Gasly had crashed too, in a separate incident. His A526 racer was parked half on the barriers but he has radioed to say he was okay.

 

Hadjar was also okay, as he thumped the steering wall in frustration.

 

Replays showed Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson suffer a lock-up into the turn 11 left-hander and collected Gasly’s Alpine who was turning left into the corner and caused the car to flip and tumble as the A526 entry ended up half on the wall meanwhile Hadjar lipped the inside of the barriers, broke his suspension and went straight on into the opposite wall.

 

Verstappen came into pit under the safety car for a set of the C3 white side-walled harder compound and emerged in 16^th place behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

 

Lawson became the third retiree as Hulkenberg also came in to retire his R26 entry to become the fourth.

 

Lap nine – Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas pitted for a set of softs on lap five as RB’s Arvid Lindblad was told that rain was 20 minutes away.

 

The order on lap 11 behind the safety car was Leclerc leading from Norris who passed Antonelli for second before the safety car deployment, Russell fourth, Piastri fifth, Hamilton sixth, Colapinto seventh, Albon eighth, Sainz ninth as Bearman rounded out the top ten.

 

When the safety car came in on the start of lap 12 – Race leader Leclerc got a bit of a jump out of turn 17 and moved away from Norris as they ran down into turn one.

 

Piastri was all over Russell and got him into turn one.

 

Hamilton attempted to follow him through but could not make that stick.

 

The 13^th tour – “That was super dangerous by Russell,” explained Piastri.

 

Up-front, Norris was closing on Leclerc, and Antonelli was sticking with these two. Piastri was 1.4 seconds back now and trying to catch up.

 

The 14^th tour – Norris grabbed the lead of the race at the end of the 13^th lap, but could he stay ahead was the question? Yes! And now Antonelli overtook Leclerc. All change here – we’ve had Leclerc, Antonelli and now Norris leading thus far.

 

And now Leclerc attacked and retook P2 from Antonelli. All of this was helping Norris to run away.

 

Meanwhile, Russell was on the radio complaining he was in the wrong strat mode. “Keep an eye out guys,” the Briton grumbled.

 

Lap 15 – Antonelli took the place back from Leclerc into turn 12 on the last lap.

 

So, Norris lead by 1.8 seconds over Antonelli and looked set to check out in clean air as he did in the Sprint yesterday. The Mercedes driver had his hands full battling with Leclerc.

 

Further back, Verstappen was climbing back through the field and was up to 11^th place.

 

The 16^th tour – Norris was driving sensibly here, not trying to pull too far away and take too much out of his tyres – he would want them to last to any possible rain window.

 

Antonelli and Leclerc’s battle had enabled Piastri to catch back up in fourth, Russell was struggling slightly in fifth place and so was Hamilton in sixth with that damaged car – he made contact with Colapinto on the opening tour.

 

Verstappen past Bearman and back into the points, but the four-time world champion had been noted for crossing the line at pit-exit.

 

The 17^th lap – Verstappen tried to make a move on Albon. They fought hard, and the Dutchman was not having an easy time of it in the midfield. But he finally made his way through into turn one, and he was not leaving anything out there.

 

Leclerc and Piastri were now slugging it out for third place.

 

Lap 18 – Norris held a 2.6 second lead over Antonelli, running in clean air really aiding the reigning world champion as it did in the Sprint. Leclerc had fallen 3.2 seconds behind Antonelli, and he had Piastri for company.

 

Replays showed Verstappen picking off Sainz for eighth by the way, another former team-mate of his. And he was irate in the cockpit; he was unhappy with some of Albon’s defencing tactics on the last tour.

 

Lap 19 – The drivers were being told there was a shower of rain coming in 2-3 laps, and the teams would all want to limp round on the slicks if they can. Worn slicks. This could get interesting.

 

The 20^th lap – This had been an action-packed race so far at this stage of proceedings – and Norris had pretty much kept out of danger, kept out of trouble and minded his own business to climb into the lead.

 

He lead by three seconds from Antonelli.

 

As for Verstappen’s pit lane exit moment, that was going to be investigated after the race.

 

Russell pitted from fifth on lap 21 for a fresh set of the C3 harder tyres and came out in 12^th place behind Esteban Ocon’s VF-26 entry.

 

On lap 22 – Leclerc reacted to Russell’s stop and came in for a set of the hards, suffered a slow stop and the latter made his way past the Ferrari as he passed the pit-exit.

 

Antonelli reported very light rain into turns seven and eight.

 

Leclerc asked: “Why did we stop? When is the rain?” and the team did not respond.

 

Lap 23 – Norris led from Antonelli, Piastri, Hamilton and Verstappen – the Dutchman getting past Colapinto.

 

The 24^th tour – The situation was Norris leading on the medium tyres, his original set. Antonelli and Piastri followed, also both on their original rubber. The undercut was working, as Russell was effectively in-front of Piastri now once the McLaren man stops. Teams were told that the rain expected would be heavy.

 

The 25^th lap – Leclerc made his way ahead of Albon into the turn one right hander to move up into ninth place.

 

Bearman was just told the rain would be light and could stay out. Who will be right was the question? A few spots of rain were falling in the pit-lane, but it looked like this one might mostly miss the track – but it was not the only weather cell out there around Miami.

 

Lap 26 – “Quite a few spits of rain,” said race leader Norris. He led by 2.2 seconds from Antonelli, Piastri was 9.9 seconds behind the Italian.

 

Those three were all on their original tyres, which were now slightly worn.

 

But still, the rain was falling very, very lightly. Nothing yet to make the track wet, not with an ambient air temperature of 28 Degrees.

 

Antonelli pitted on lap 27 along with Bearman for a set of the harder compounds and both emerged in fifth and 14^th respectively.

 

Race leader Norris was told to box and came in for his fresh set of the harder compounds and came out behind Verstappen.

 

Antonelli managed to jump the McLaren to take the net lead as Hamilton also stopped and the Ferrari driver came out in ninth place behind Sainz.

 

Piastri pitted on lap 28 for his fresh set of harder tyres and came out in seventh place behind Leclerc.

 

Williams’ Carlos Sainz also stopped for his fresh set of harder tyres and emerged in 11^th place behind Audi’s sole-running Gabriel Bortoleto.

 

Lap 29 – Verstappen now led from Antonelli, but Norris’ tyres were up to temperature, and he was all over the back of the championship leader.

 

But first, Antonelli picked off Verstappen for the lead – whose tyres were 20 laps older.

 

Norris also made his way ahead of Verstappen to take second place.

 

The 30^th lap – Antonelli was leading by 1,5 seconds from Norris, Verstappen was third and Colapinto was in fourth place, but he had not pitted at this stage.

 

Russell was next in-front of Leclerc and Piastri. That early stop helped the Mercedes driver.

 

And Bottas was hit with a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.

 

The 31^st tour – Leclerc was very disgruntled with his pit-stop, but he had now finally got back past Russell. The Ferrari driver was up to fifth, which would be fourth when Colapinto pits.

 

Piastri was ahead of Hamilton, who was still nursing that damaged car – he was approximately half-a-second off the pace per lap thanks to losing downforce.

 

The 32^nd lap – Colapinto finally pitted from fourth on a set of the harder compounds and came out in eighth place behind Hamilton.

 

Out-front – Norris was eating into Antonelli’s lead – the youngster was not checking out in clean air like expected. Just one second between the top two, so Norris would have Boost mode to play with.

 

Lap 34 – “I have a problem with the gearbox, with the paddle!” That was Antonelli’s slightly frantic radio message and Norris was closing in as a result.

 

He could not make a move though, and further back, Piastri was all over the back of Russell in the battle for fifth place.

 

On lap 35 with Overtake and Straight Mode – Piastri made the dive on Russell into the turn one right hander to move up into fifth place and however – Russell responded and made his way back ahead of the McLaren into turn 11 to snatch the place back.

 

Piastri once again reclaimed the spot back on the rundown to turn 17 to move back into fifth place.

 

Lap 36 – Antonelli lead from Norris, but the McLaren driver was within a second and had Boost.

 

Verstappen was comfortable in third at this stage, and Leclerc was also in no man’s land in fourth place.

 

The situation with 21 laps to go – The race looked set to be dry to the end.

 

Secondly, Antonelli and Norris look to be in a two-horse race at this stage for the win.

 

Third place was up for grabs, and all depends on whether Verstappen’s very old hard tyres could last the distance.

 

Leclerc led early on but was fourth, six seconds behind the Dutchman.

 

And then came a fun battle between Piastri and Russell – Piastri was the man on the move and most likely to climb back through the field.

 

The 39^th lap – Antonelli was leading by just seven tenths of a second over Norris. Norris was weaving behind, trying to keep out of the hot, dirty air from the Silver Arrow. The leader of the Championship versus last year’s World Champion. The pole sitter versus the pole sitter from the Sprint.

 

Further back, Verstappen’s tyres were looking fine, and Piastri was closing in on Leclerc slowly.

 

Lap 40 – Both Aston Martin entries were still in the race – and Alonso was yet to stop, waiting perhaps for rain or a Safety Car. The double world champion was 15th, ahead of Perez, Stroll and Bottas.

 

The 41^st tour – Norris still had Boost, as he was still just one second back. But he was not exactly crawling all over the back of Antonelli’s Mercedes. Instead, he was trying to cool his tyres again. Those two just had to lap Alonso, who did get out of the way swiftly.

 

Lap 42 – The Italian was not driving away with this, but Antonelli slowly but surely was looking more and more comfortable out there as the race went on.

 

His team-mate had just been told he would catch Verstappen by the end of the race – which was interesting, as Leclerc and Piastri were between those two.

 

Third place was still up for grabs with both Leclerc and Piastri fastly catching Verstappen.

 

The 43^rd tour – “Four wheel sliding everywhere, it is just awful.” Russell explained. He was 3.9 seconds behind Piastri, who was 3.7 seconds behind Leclerc.

 

Verstappen’s tyres were suffering, but he was holding on to third still at this stage.

 

Lap 44 – Norris had fallen out of that one second window, he was 1.5 seconds off the lead as Leclerc began to reel in Verstappen in the battle for the final podium place.

 

The 45^th lap – Norris had just asked his team to keep an eye on Antonelli’s track limits – the Italian was pinged for that yesterday in the Sprint, but the Mercedes driver had not been noted for that yet at this stage of proceedings.

 

Lap 46 – Norris was 2.2 seconds behind Antonelli. Behind them, Leclerc was within a second of Verstappen.

 

Antonelli had just been told he was hit with a second strike for track limits, with some of the Race Control messages coming through delayed.

 

Lap 47 – The battle for third intensified – Leclerc closed down on Verstappen, and he was past into turn one. Verstappen fought back.

 

Even on those old tyres, Verstappen was having none of that. This was by far his best drive of the year so far, super aggressive and old-school from the Dutchman.

 

But he used too much battery power, Leclerc was back past the Red Bull and gone.

 

The 48^th tour – Piastri was one second behind Verstappen. So, the Dutchman’s day might be able to unravel even more so than it did when he turned his car all the way around on the opening lap.

 

Alonso received a black and white flag, and he was on softs after having finally pitted.

 

Lap 49 – Piastri made the move on Verstappen, and the Dutchman was not coming back from that. One and done for the Melbournite, and he was up to fourth place.

 

So, the battle for the podium was now on between Leclerc and Piastri, and the gap between the pairing was at 2.1 seconds.

 

The 50^th lap – The Italian teenager, just 19-years-old, was on course towards a third consecutive victory in F1.

 

He led Norris by 1.8 seconds, and those two were way ahead of the battle for third. Further back, Piastri had not managed to take any time out of Leclerc.

 

Russell was 4.9 seconds behind Verstappen in the fight for fifth place.

 

Lap 52 – Colapinto remained on course for four points in eighth, well ahead of the Williams duo in Sainz and Albon. Bearman in 11^th had dropped way back, so the points look set here barring late reliability issues or a lapse in concentration.

 

Fair play to Williams, who had sorted their reliability and whilst their car was overweight, their upgrades are doing the business.

 

The 53^rd tour – Some of the teams were reporting a few light drops before the flag, but the heavy stuff is due later on – around the time the race was due to start.

 

Light drops were more than manageable on fully warm slick tyres, even heavily worn ones like the set on Verstappen’s RB22 racer.

 

Lap 54 – Antonelli was now 2.3 seconds in-front of Norris, and surely the McLaren driver had lost his chance of a race win. Mercedes’ decision to pit Antonelli early and undercut the McLaren seemed to have done the job.

 

The 55^th lap – In the battle for fifth place, Russell had finally caught Verstappen.

 

The Mercedes driver made a move, but he got alongside only for Verstappen to shut the door on the Briton.

 

Verstappen radioed to say he thinking Russell hit his tyre, and the Mercedes was carrying front wing damage.

 

The penultimate lap – Piastri was just 0.4 seconds behind Leclerc, who looked to have run out of grip. Russell was having another go, after a switcheroo into the final corner did not pay off. But up-front, Antonelli eked out another couple of tenths on Norris.

 

Piastri made the move on Leclerc to snatch the final podium place, and the latter suffered a massive spin wrecking his tyres and whacking the wall with his front left tyre with his SF-26 racer limping. Russell got Verstappen and was now chasing a very slow Leclerc.

 

Norris had been told he has a wing problem and to cool it off.

 

Antonelli crossed the line to take victory at the Miami GP by 3.2 seconds over Norris as Piastri completed the top three.

 

Russell came home fourth as Verstappen passed Leclerc just before the line to take fifth place off the limping Ferrari.

 

Hamilton settled for seventh place and in-front of Colapinto who finished eighth as the two Williams of Sainz and Albon rounded out the final points places.

 

Verstappen is currently under investigation by the race stewards for failing to follow race director’s instructions by crossing the pit-exit line.

 

Russell was also under investigation by the stewards for moving under braking into turn 17.

 

Leclerc too is currently under investigation for leaving the track and gaining an advantage ‘multiple times’, driving in an unsafe manner and the collision involving the Monegasque driver and Russell.

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2026 Miami GP – The Top Three

 

 

2026 Miami GP Winner – Andrea Kimi Antonelli, #12, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, F1 W17 – (25 Points):

“The start was not as bad as yesterday, a little bit better. I locked up, I was a bit lucky with what happened in Turn 2, but I did a bit of a mistake with the energy management trying to overtake Charles and lost out to Lando. But the pace was good. The team did a great strategy, a massive undercut and we managed to bring it home. I’m going to enjoy this one and then get back to work.”

 

2^nd Place – Lando Norris, #4, Mastercard McLaren Formula 1 Team, Mercedes, MCL40 – +3.264s – (18 Points):

“I mean, a mixed bag really. We got undercut, no excuses, we should have boxed first. Kimi did a good job; he and Mercedes did a good race. I have to be happy, as a team we have to be happy but I am gutted to miss out on a win. Not the pace to get back past him in the end, so we take it on the chin. It was tough, you have to be tactical with how you use the battery. I feel I did a good job, and the team did a good job all weekend.”

 

3^rd Place – Oscar Piastri, #81, Mastercard McLaren Formula 1 Team, Mercedes, MCL40 – +27.092s – (15 Points):

“It has not been the most straightforward of weekends. The pace seemed more encouraging today. I had to make some overtakes, the end of the race was a late charge. I think this weekend we showed that if we get track position, we can hang on to things. We were close in Japan, but we have definitely taken a step forward, and hopefully in Canada we can take another step forward.”

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Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2026 Race Results Classification (57 Laps)

 

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time / Retired	Pts.
1	12	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	57	1:33:19.273	25
2	1	Lando Norris	McLaren	57	+3.264s	18
3	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	57	+27.092s	15
4	63	George Russell	Mercedes	57	+43.051s	12
5	3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	57	+43.949s	10
6	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	57	+44.245s	8
7	44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	57	+53.753s	6
8	43	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	57	+61.871s	4
9	55	Carlos Sainz	Williams	57	+82.072s	2
10	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	57	+90.972s	1
11	87	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	56	+1 lap	0
12	5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	56	+1 lap	0
13	31	Esteban Ocon	Haas F1 Team	56	+1 lap	0
14	41	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	56	+1 lap	0
15	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	56	+1 lap	0
16	11	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	56	+1 lap	0
17	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	56	+1 lap	0
18	77	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	55	+2 laps	0
NC	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	7	DNF	0
NC	30	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	6	DNF	0
NC	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	4	DNF	0
NC	6	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull Racing	4	DNF	0

* Provisional results.

FORMULA 1 CRYPTO.COM MIAMI GRAND PRIX 2026 – RACE RESULT

Click here for the full 2026 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructor’s Championship Standings

 

Round five of the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for the Formula 1 Lenovo Canadian Grand Prix 2026 from Friday May 22-Sunday May 24.