Lights Out, Chaos On: Miami GP Recap
Photo from Formula 1.
After a five week break, F1 returned to Miami, and it was certainly an eventful weekend. Between a flipped car, a last-lap spin that cost Leclerc several positions, and a wave of post-race penalties still trickling in hours after the chequered flag, this was not a quiet return to racing.
Sprint Race
The Sprint win went to Lando Norris, who converted pole into a clean lights-to-flag win ahead of Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. It was McLaren's first win of 2026 and the first non-Mercedes win of the season. Many took this as a meaningful sign that this championship isn't a Mercedes done deal yet. Antonelli had a slow Sprint: another rough start dropped him to fourth, and a track limits violation eventually cost him a five-second penalty that pushed him back to sixth. Not a great Saturday, but he made up for it.
Grand Prix Results
The race got off to an eventful start. Leclerc got a great launch at Turn 1 and shot into the lead on the outside. Verstappen spun a full 360 degrees at Turn 2 and dropped from second to tenth before the field had settled. Then the Safety Car came out on lap six. Hadjar clipped a kerb and broke his suspension. Almost at the same moment, Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson suffered a gearbox failure and lost control, clipping Gasly’s Alpine, which was flipped completely upside down before hitting the barrier. Gasly walked away fine, but four cars were done before the race was a quarter finished.
The restart on lap 11 shuffled things, with Piastri quietly picking his way up from seventh to fourth. The lead cycled between Leclerc, Norris, and Antonelli as pit stops played out under the threat of rain that never quite arrived. By lap 41, Antonelli and Norris had pulled clear, with the rest of the field 14+ seconds back. Norris put real pressure on in the closing laps but couldn't find a way through. Antonelli won by 3.2 seconds — his third consecutive victory, and the first driver ever to convert his first three pole positions into wins.
The final two laps still brought chaos for the rest of the grid. Piastri caught Leclerc on worn tires and got past him with one lap to go. Leclerc, defending hard, spun, clipped the barriers, and limped home — dropping from third to sixth in about half a lap as Russell and Verstappen both went around him. Then the post-race penalties started. Leclerc got a 20-second time penalty for repeatedly leaving the track while damaged, which dropped him from sixth to eighth. Verstappen got five seconds for a pit exit breach. This means our point scorers ended up like this: Antonelli took first, Norris second, and Piastri third, giving McLaren a double podium. Russell came home fourth, Verstappen fifth, and Hamilton sixth. Colapinto's solid afternoon earned him seventh, while Leclerc — after his 20-second penalty— fell all the way to eighth. Sainz and Albon rounded out the top ten, giving Williams both cars in the points.
Looking Ahead
Antonelli leads the championship by 20 points over Russell, and the gap is growing. But McLaren showed in Miami that they can fight for wins, and Ferrari had enough early pace to stay relevant. Verstappen's fifth was his best result of the season, and Red Bull clearly brought some new updates. The order is going to keep shifting. Next up: Canada, from May 22–24. Four down, 18 to go.
