disqualified from Qualifying<\/a> for a technical infringement before also being penalised for changes made to his car under parc ferme conditions \u2013 meaning that he would start the race from the pit lane.<\/p>\nAs the cars lined up to take the start and the tyre blankets were removed, it was revealed that the entire field would start on the medium compound bar Hadjar on hards. The expected strategy for most would be a one-stop in dry conditions \u2013 but with the risk of rain during the race standing at 40 per cent, question marks remained over whether the intermediate or full wet tyres might potentially come into play later on.<\/p>\n
After the formation lap had been completed and the five lights went out, Antonelli found himself with Verstappen and a fast-launching Leclerc on each side of his Mercedes. While the Italian locked up into the first corner, Verstappen \u2013 who also suffered a lock-up \u2013 made contact with Leclerc and spun around 360 degrees, narrowly avoiding any further incidents as the pack steamed around him.<\/p>\n
This all put Leclerc into the lead ahead of Antonelli and the McLarens of Norris and Piastri, while further back Hamilton collided with Colapinto at Turn 11, resulting in some pieces of bodywork flying off. The incident was noted by the stewards.<\/p>\n
By Lap 3, Russell had picked off Piastri for fourth place, while Verstappen was trying to climb his way back through the order, having worked his way up to eighth. Meanwhile Antonelli was making moves one lap later, surging ahead of Leclerc into Turn 17 to take the lead.<\/p>\n
However, on the next tour Leclerc found his way back in front of the Silver Arrows machine \u2013 while team mate Hamilton was losing time due to seemingly picking up damage in that incident with Colapinto, on which the stewards had since decided that no further action was necessary.<\/p>\n
Just as Norris picked off Antonelli for second place, Hadjar found himself out of the race after hitting the wall at Turn 14, the Frenchman seen slamming the steering wheel in frustration \u2013 and just moments later in a separate incident, Gasly had also gone into the barriers, his Alpine having flipped over following contact with the Racing Bulls of Lawson.<\/p>\n
The Safety Car was deployed as the two stricken cars were cleared, while Lawson \u2013 whose collision with Gasly would be investigated after the race \u2013 headed into the pits to retire his car. Hulkenberg had also brought his Audi into the garage, meaning that four drivers were now out of the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere Verstappen had opted to pit during the Safety Car phase for the hard tyres, dropping him down to P16 \u2013 while some of the drivers were being warned that some rain was potentially on the way in around 20 minutes\u2019 time.<\/p>\n
It was confirmed on Lap 11 that the Safety Car phase was ending, with all eyes on Leclerc at the front of the pack. The Monegasque executed a good restart as the action resumed, while Piastri made his way past Russell into P4 \u2013 with the Australian left annoyed by the Mercedes driver\u2019s actions during their battle, reporting: \u201cThat was super dangerous by Russell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shortly afterwards it was all happening at the front as Norris snatched the lead from Leclerc, leaving the Ferrari driver to have to defend against Antonelli. The Italian managed to take the position, only for Leclerc to steal it back \u2013 but Antonelli subsequently retook it, albeit with Leclerc remaining close on his tail.<\/p>\n
Russell radioed in to report that he was on the \u201cwrong strat mode\u201d, while further back Verstappen had made his way up to P11. In not such good news for the Dutchman, he had also been noted by the stewards for crossing the line at the pit exit.<\/p>\n
It seemed to be a busy afternoon for the stewards, who also noted Ocon, Albon and Alonso for yellow flag infringements. Up ahead, Piastri was scrapping with Leclerc over P3, while Norris was continuing to extend his lead over Antonelli as he stretched the gap to 2.5s by Lap 18.<\/p>\n
The drivers were warned again of a shower coming in a few laps\u2019 time, while the stewards confirmed that Verstappen\u2019s pit lane exit incident would be investigated after the race. It was also announced that an incident between the Red Bull driver and Albon had been noted.<\/p>\n
Russell dived into the pits on Lap 21 for a set of hard tyres, bringing him back out into P12 \u2013 and shortly afterwards Ferrari seemingly responded as Leclerc then pitted. It was a slow stop for the Monegasque of 3.7s, resulting in him returning to the track behind Russell.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did we stop? When is the rain?\u201d Leclerc asked his team, while Piastri was informed that an approaching shower might particularly affect Turns 7 and 8 and \u201ccould get heavy\u201d. Meanwhile Norris continued to lead from Antonelli as Lap 25 ticked down.<\/p>\n
Leclerc remained vocal on the radio as he tried to work his way up from P9, stating: \u201cNext time you make a big decision, speak with me first.\u201d Meanwhile drivers including Antonelli and Colapinto were reporting rain on the track, though this looked to be very light.<\/p>\n
It was Antonelli\u2019s turn to pit on Lap 27, the championship leader emerging in fifth on hard tyres behind Verstappen and Hamilton, the Dutchman having just taken a position from his former title rival. Norris then pitted one tour later to return to the track in third \u2013 bringing him out just behind Antonelli.<\/p>\n
When Piastri subsequently pitted from the lead \u2013 reemerging in seventh ahead of Hamilton \u2013 Verstappen was now in P1 ahead of Antonelli and Norris, only for Antonelli to make a move on Lap 29 before Norris then followed through moments later.<\/p>\n
There was some tough news for Cadillac on the team\u2019s debut home race when Bottas was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Meanwhile Leclerc was tussling with Russell for P5, the Ferrari ultimately finding a way through.<\/p>\n
Antonelli reported a possible issue with his gearbox on Lap 34, with Norris making ground on the Italian whose lead now stood at 1.4s. Meanwhile another Mercedes vs McLaren scrap was playing out between Russell and Piastri, the latter snatching P5 into the first corner.<\/p>\n
After some back and forth that saw the Briton retake the place, Piastri again put himself ahead, while Norris had closed the gap to Antonelli down to under a second, the latter reporting struggles with his rear tyres.<\/p>\n
By Lap 40, Antonelli was now 0.9s ahead of Norris, with Verstappen some 12 seconds down the road in third while Leclerc held a lonely fourth. Piastri and Russell remained in fifth and sixth respectively, ahead of Hamilton, Colapinto, Sainz and Albon.<\/p>\n
With his early stop meaning that his tyres were now over 35 laps old, Verstappen remained at risk of being caught by the likes of Leclerc, Piastri and Russell during the remainder of the race. But Russell also seemed to be facing some challenges on his 22-lap-old tyres, reporting that he was \u201csliding everywhere\u201d.<\/p>\n
Leclerc had cut the gap to Verstappen down to less than a second by Lap 46, while Antonelli was informed that he had received a second strike for track limits. One tour later, Leclerc grabbed P3 from Verstappen into Turn 1 \u2013 and although the World Champion initially retook the position, he could not defend against Leclerc a second time.<\/p>\n
This had allowed for Piastri to home in on Verstappen, the Australian eventually sweeping through on Lap 49. Meanwhile Antonelli was holding steady at the front, two seconds ahead of Norris as the final laps ticked down \u2013 but could he hold on until the chequered flag?<\/p>\n
Reports came in of some light drops of rain as the race entered into its last five tours, with any heavy showers fortunately not on the forecast until after the Grand Prix had ended. The action was not over, though, as Russell was the next to close in on Verstappen in the fight for P5.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he hit my tyre,\u201d Verstappen radioed in, with Russell appearing to be carrying damage to his front wing. Elsewhere Piastri was now only half a second back from Leclerc, the McLaren piling the pressure on in a battle for the final spot on the rostrum.<\/p>\n
Piastri had soon picked off Leclerc for third, while there was further drama when the Monegasque spun and tapped the wall. The Ferrari was able to continue on, but soon had Russell and Verstappen \u2013 the former having overtaken despite his damage \u2013 on his tail.<\/p>\n
With Norris being told to cool off due to a wing problem, Antonelli had stretched his lead out further and crossed the line with a margin of 3.264s to seal a third consecutive win, bringing his championship lead up to 20 points.<\/p>\n
The McLarens of Norris and Piastri had sealed their places on the podium, but the fight for fourth was not over, with Russell snatching the position from a struggling Leclerc while Verstappen also overtook the Ferrari at the line for fifth.<\/p>\n
However, these drivers would all face visits to the stewards after the race: Russell for separate collisions with Leclerc and Verstappen; Verstappen for that Russell incident as well as earlier crossing the line at the pit exit; and Leclerc for his Russell collision as well as leaving the track multiple times and gaining an advantage, and driving in an unsafe condition.<\/p>\n
Behind them, Hamilton, Colapinto, Sainz and Albon rounded out the points-scoring positions, ahead of Bearman, Bortoleto, Ocon, Lindblad, Alonso, Perez, Stroll and Bottas, with Hadjar, Gasly, Lawson and Hulkenberg the day\u2019s four retirements.<\/p>\n
Key quote<\/p>\n
“The start was not as bad as yesterday \u2013 it was a little bit better,” said Antonelli. “I didn\u2019t expect Charles to brake that early, so to avoid him I locked up. I was a bit lucky with what happened in Turn 2. I did a little mistake with the energy management, trying to overtake Charles, then I lost a place to Lando. But then the pace was strong, I was able to stay close, and then the team did a great strategy. We did a massive undercut, and we managed to bring it home, even though it was not easy.”<\/p>\n
What’s next<\/p>\n
F1 will move on to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix on the weekend of May 22-24. Head to the RACE HUB<\/a> to find out how you can follow the action from the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimi Antonelli has taken victory in an action-packed Miami Grand Prix, the Italian resisting pressure from Lando Norris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-647620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}