Kimi Antonelli wins the Miami Grand Prix for his third straight F1 victory

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Kimi Antonelli made past arsenic the archetypal operator to triumph his archetypal 3 Formula 1 races from the rod erstwhile the 19-year-old Mercedes operator won the Miami Grand Prix connected Sunday.

It was the 3rd consecutive triumph for Antonelli, the existent points person who is proving aboriginal this play to beryllium a morganatic title contender.

“It is conscionable the beginning, the roadworthy is inactive long, but we’re moving ace hard,” Antonelli said. “The squad is doing an unthinkable occupation and without them I wouldn’t beryllium here. I’m going to bask this 1 and past get backmost to work.”

The Italian and teammate George Russell person won the archetypal 4 races of this play for Mercedes and each 4 poles to date. They were blocked from the podium successful Saturday’s sprint race, which was a 1-2 decorativeness for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri of McLaren successful the lone happening the Mercedes drivers person not won this season.

“Kimi, that was very, precise impressive. You cognize I similar to complain, but determination was thing to kick astir today,” Mercedes brag Toto Wolff told his young driver. “Very good.”

Antonelli holds a 20-point pb implicit Russell successful the title standings.

Antonelli started from the pole but had a slick commencement connected a damp aboveground astatine the Miami International Autodrome. Threats of dense rainfall led F1 to determination up the commencement of the contention by 3 hours, and determination was an aboriginal greeting thunderstorm with lightning strikes straight implicit the Hard Rock Stadium, but it cleared by the clip the lawsuit began.

Still, the archetypal 25 laps were attacked by the drivers arsenic if the rainfall could instrumentality astatine immoderate moment, and that led to aboriginal chaos, adjacent for Antonelli.

Charles Leclerc of Ferrari had a spectacular commencement from 3rd and surged to the pb erstwhile Antonelli went wide disconnected people trying to defend. A split-second later, Max Verstappen spun trying to clasp disconnected Leclerc erstwhile the 2 cars made contact.

The interaction caused Verstappen, who started a season-best second, to plummet to ninth aft the spin.

Antonelli recovered and reclaimed the pb connected the 5th lap, and the leaders concisely swapped positions arsenic Leclerc moved backmost to the beforehand earlier reigning satellite champion Norris took implicit connected Lap 14.

Verstappen worked his mode done the tract and concisely took the pb arsenic others pitted, but Antonelli bushed Norris disconnected pit lane and reclaimed the pb for bully erstwhile everything cycled out.

Norris finished second, 3.2 seconds down Antonelli.

“A mixed bag, really. We conscionable got undercut (in the pits). There’s nary excuses different than that,” Norris said. “We should person boxxed first. Kimi did a bully job. Hats disconnected to Merc and Kimi. They drove a bully race.”

Leclerc was poised to decorativeness 3rd until Oscar Piastri of McLaren passed him connected the last lap. Leclerc spun and settled for sixth.

Russell was 4th and Verstappen finished a season-best 5th for Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari was seventh.

Cadillac, successful its archetypal contention successful the United States, had an unimpressive play connected the way adjacent arsenic it splashed its mode done Miami with appearances and events. Sergio Perez finished 16th and Valtteri Bottas was 18th — the past car to decorativeness successful the 22-driver field.

Messy start

Isack Hadjar had been disqualified aft qualifying and started last, but his contention lasted 5 laps earlier helium drove his Red Bull into the wall. Hadjar was openly aggravated astatine the effect arsenic helium pounded his helmet earlier climbing from his car and angrily stomping away.

Seconds later, Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson made interaction that caused Gasly’s car to bash a afloat rollover. The Frenchman’s car ended stuck with its rear tires atop a obstruction and helium climbed from the half-suspended BMW connected his own.

Up next

The Canadian Grand Prix is adjacent for F1 astatine Circuit Gilles Villeneuve successful Montreal connected May 24. That day was traditionally held by the Monaco Grand Prix but a tweak to the docket shifted it to Canada, and F1 volition nary longer beryllium the opener for what had traditionally been the astir prolific time successful motorsports.

The F1 contention typically opened the greeting up of the Indianapolis 500 and past NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600. Because the contention is successful Canada and not Monaco, it has a precocious day commencement clip and volition travel the Indy 500 and extremity during the NASCAR race.

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