Kimi Antonelli has underlined his title credentials by taking his third consecutive race win of 2026 at the Miami Grand Prix, coming out on top of a duel with reigning Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris.
Antonelli held off Norris after a dry race at the Miami International Autodrome, with Oscar Piastri completing the podium for McLaren after a late-race fade by Charles Leclerc which was capped by a spin on the final lap, allowing George Russell into fourth and Max Verstappen to take sixth ahead of the Monegasque.
The race started three hours earlier than planned as organisers tried to find a window to get the 57-lap contest in amid the constant threat of rain and thunderstorms, with the skies opening up on Sunday morning and more downpours expected during the afternoon.
But despite the looming prospect of rain, the race started in dry conditions, with the majority of the field setting off on medium tyres. At a chaotic start, polesitter Antonelli suffered another poor getaway, allowing Red Bull’s Verstappen and Ferrari’s Leclerc to immediately draw alongside as they hurtled towards Turn 1.
Antonelli locked up and went off, while Leclerc took a cautious line into the corner that netted him the lead. Behind him Verstappen spun off on the exit, with the Dutchman rapidly pointing his Red Bull in the right direction again. In doing so, Verstappen was lucky not to be collected by the chasing pack, but he did drop down to 10th battling the Williams drivers.
That allowed McLaren duo Norris and Piastri through to claim third and fourth, ahead of Russell and Hamilton, with the latter surviving contact with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto.
On lap 4 Antonelli passed Leclerc for the lead, with Leclerc returning the favour on the following lap while Norris also followed the Ferrari driver through into second.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
The race was neutralised after just five laps due to two separate incidents. In a spectacular-looking accident, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was flipped into a low-speed barrel roll after being clipped by Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson at the Turn 17 hairpin, the Frenchman ending up halfway up the barrier but escaping unhurt. Lawson also retired with terminal damage.
Meanwhile, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar crashed at the chicane while working his way up the order, the Frenchman having been demoted to a pitlane start due to a technical breach. Making an unforced error, Hadjar tagged the inside wall at Turn 14 which sheared off the front-left suspension and sent his unguided RB22 into the barriers at low speed.
After the lap 12 restart Norris snatched the lead away from Leclerc ahead of Antonelli, followed by a duelling Piastri and Russell. Verstappen had been the only frontrunner to pit for hards under the safety car, which initially dropped him down to 16th. But as the expected rain didn’t materialise and the frontrunners also picked up hard tyres around the halfway point, Verstappen emerged into a net, if short-lived lead.
On much fresher tyres, Antonelli and Norris were both swiftly able to repass the Dutchman as he lost touch with the leaders, while Leclerc was fourth as Piastri passed Russell for fifth. Hamilton lost out after a slower pitstop, which demoted him to seventh and last of the frontrunners, while the Briton also appeared to nurse a damaged Ferrari after his early contact with Colapinto.
With no rain forthcoming, the race turned into a straight-forward one-stopper, and a duel between Antonelli and Norris as Verstappen struggled to keep up. On balance, Norris and Antonelli look closely matched for large spells of the second stint, but Norris struggled to find a way past in Antonelli’s dirty air, trying to bide his time instead as rear tyre management came into play.
But Antonelli managed to survive downshift issues and hang on to take his third consecutive win from pole, expanding his world championship lead on Russel to 20 points.
Rafael Nadal waves the checkered flag for Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Photo by: Rebecca Blackwell / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
On worn Pirelli rubber Verstappen fell into the clutches of the chasing group of Leclerc, Piastri and Russell in the final 10 laps of the race. True to form Verstappen didn’t go down without a fight, clinging on to third around the outside of Leclerc, but he was powerless to hold off the Ferrari for much longer, and both Piastri and Russell also worked their way past.
Leclerc looked destined to take the final podium spot, but spun on the final lap, tapping the wall but miraculously avoiding harder contact. Piastri sailed through to take third 27 seconds behind Antonelli, while Russell muscled his way to fourth ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc.
Hamilton finished a lonely seventh, with Colapinto eighth after a strong weekend performance, the Argentine running as high as fourth after delaying his first stop until lap 32.
In the background Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon defeated the Haas drivers to take an encouraging double points finish in ninth and 10th for the underperforming Williams outfit, being the last two cars finishing on the lead lap.
F1 heads to Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve next for the Canadian Grand Prix on 22-24 May.
F1 Miami GP results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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