Antonelli makes history in chaotic Miami: three poles, three wins

Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) won the 2026 Miami Grand Prix on Sunday — his third consecutive race victory and, more significantly, the third time he has converted his first three career pole positions into race wins. No driver in Formula 1 history had done that before. 1 Lando Norris (McLaren) crossed the line 3.264 seconds behind in second; Oscar Piastri (McLaren) was third, a further 23 seconds back. 2

The race itself was moved three hours earlier — from the planned 16:00 to 13:00 local time — after the FIA, Formula 1, and the Miami promoter agreed that the afternoon forecast of heavy rainstorms posed too much risk. As it turned out, the storms never arrived; only light drizzle fell in the final five laps. 3

Saturday gave a clear preview of the pecking order. Norris took Sprint pole with a 1:27.869 — fractionally ahead of Antonelli's 1:28.091 — and then converted it into a McLaren one-two, finishing ahead of Piastri by 3.766 seconds. 4 Leclerc was third. Antonelli finished sixth after a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits — an early sign that stewarding was going to be a theme all weekend. It was also the first non-Mercedes win of any kind in 2026.

For Grand Prix qualifying, Antonelli reclaimed the top spot with a 1:27.798, producing his third straight pole. 5 Verstappen lined up second (1:27.964), Leclerc third, and Norris fourth — McLaren's slower qualifying pace relative to their Sprint form the key subplot heading into Sunday. The bigger story came from the stewards' room: Isack Hadjar (Red Bull Racing), who had set the ninth-fastest time, was disqualified after the floor of his RB22 was found to protrude 2mm outside the permitted reference volume. 6 Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies accepted the ruling: "We made a mistake and we respect the decision of the Stewards. No performance advantage was intended nor gained from this error." 6 Changes made to the car under parc fermé conditions then forced Hadjar to start from the pit lane.

The Miami International Autodrome — a 5.412 km, 19-corner temporary circuit built around Hard Rock Stadium — tends to produce compressed, contact-heavy starts. 7 The 2026 edition delivered on that history immediately.

Leclerc made the best of it, slipping through at Turn 1 while Antonelli locked up trying to avoid him, and Verstappen locked his own fronts and then lost the rear completely at Turn 2 — a full 360-degree spin that dropped him to around tenth. Antonelli's reaction post-race was telling: "I didn't expect Charles to brake that early, so to avoid him I locked up. I was a bit lucky with what happened in Turn 2." 1

Before lap four was out, two more cars were gone. Isack Hadjar hit the wall at Turn 14 after clipping the apex kerb, breaking his front suspension — already his second disaster of the weekend after the qualifying DSQ. Moments later at Turn 17, Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) suffered a sudden gearbox failure that neutralised his braking, sending his car into the left rear of Pierre Gasly's Alpine at enough force to flip it into the barriers. Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane confirmed: "Liam's gearbox failed and broke fifth gear as he was braking for Turn 17." 8 Gasly walked away. "It was definitely a scary feeling being flipped over in a Formula One car," he said. 8 The Safety Car came out. Four drivers had already retired — Hadjar, Gasly, Lawson, and Nico Hulkenberg (Audi), who had pitted for a replacement front wing after Lap 1 contact and then suffered a further technical problem during the safety car period.

Verstappen used the Safety Car to pit and switch to hard-compound tyres on Lap 6, dropping to P16 but buying himself 51 laps on a fresh set — a high-variance gamble that would define the shape of his race. The rest of the front-runners resumed on their original medium tyres.

After the restart on Lap 11, Leclerc led briefly before Norris got by on Lap 13 and began extending his advantage. Antonelli ran second, working through the pack. By Lap 18 Norris had built 2.5 seconds over his Mercedes rival.

That is where the strategy became the race. On Lap 21 Russell (Mercedes) pitted for hards, pulling a small undercut on Leclerc who was called in simultaneously by Ferrari — a reactive stop that went badly wrong when the stop itself took 3.7 seconds, nearly double the other front-runners' pit times. 9 Leclerc emerged behind Russell in ninth, furious. The decisive exchange came on Laps 26-27. With Norris leading by roughly two seconds, Mercedes rolled Antonelli in on Lap 26. 9 Antonelli's out lap was fast enough that, when Norris pitted a lap later, the Italian emerged marginally ahead at Turn 4. Norris described what happened without mincing words: "We just got undercut. There's no excuses other than that. We got undercut, we should have boxed first." 10

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella acknowledged the gap plainly: "When Kimi pitted, his out lap was just mega. We couldn't match it with our performance in the in lap, we lost possibly a little bit of time in the execution." 10

Antonelli ran at the front from Lap 29. He reported a brief gearbox problem — missed downshifts over about three laps, then a blocked upshift from seventh to eighth — but it resolved without affecting his pace. 11 By lap 40 his lead over Norris had settled around a second. Verstappen, running long on his 51-lap hard-tyre stint, began losing ground from Lap 46 as fresher rubber from the rest of the field started to show. Piastri eventually cleared him for the final podium place on Lap 49.

Charles Leclerc had started the day with the third-fastest qualifying time and made the best start of anyone on the front rows. By Turn 2, his Ferrari was leading. 1

What followed was a sequence of compounding disasters.

Ferrari pitted Leclerc on Lap 21 to cover Russell — earlier than the leaders and, it turned out, far earlier than ideal. The slow stop sent him out in ninth. On team radio Leclerc was pointed: "Why did we stop? When is the rain?" and later, more directly: "Next time you make a big decision, speak with me first." 1 He fought back through the field — by Lap 46 he had reclaimed P3 past Verstappen — before losing the rear at Turn 2-3 on the final lap, clipping the barrier and sustaining damage that made right-hand corners effectively undriveable.

With a damaged suspension preventing clean cornering, Leclerc cut the chicanes at Turns 5-6, 8, 11, and 14-15 to reach the chequered flag. The stewards converted what would normally have been a drive-through penalty into a 20-second post-race addition, dropping him from sixth (on the road) to eighth. 12 The stewards' note was unambiguous: "The fact that he had a mechanical issue of some sort did not amount to a justifiable reason." 13 Leclerc, for his part, accepted the crash blame but not without frustration — "I couldn't really turn to the right anymore" — and his view that the damage was real put him and the stewards in direct disagreement over the facts.

The severity of the penalty — a drive-through equivalent versus the five-second post-race addition Hamilton received for a comparable track-limits situation at the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix — drew a sharp community reaction (covered below). The disparity is explained by escalation: Leclerc's multiple violations in a single lap triggered a higher tier on the penalty ladder rather than a standard five-second addition. 14

Two other post-race rulings were less dramatic. Verstappen received a five-second penalty for his front-left tyre crossing the solid white pit-exit line during his Lap 6 Safety Car stop — the gap to sixth was large enough that his P5 stood. 12 Lawson was cleared of blame for the Gasly collision after the stewards confirmed the gearbox failure caused the lock-up.

Antonelli's third win extends a lead that looked manageable two races ago into something considerably more substantial.

In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes sits at 180 points — effectively double Ferrari's 110 — with McLaren on 94, Red Bull Racing on 30, and Alpine on 23. 16

Williams also scored their first double-points finish of 2026. Carlos Sainz (Williams) came ninth, Alex Albon tenth — bringing their season total from 2 to 5 points. Sainz acknowledged the milestone without overselling it: "Getting two cars in the points and on merit is definitely a good step, but we need to keep pushing on." 17

Antonelli opened the post-race press conference by dedicating the win to fellow Bolognese racer Alex Zanardi (Italian Paralympic champion and former F1 driver), who had died the same weekend: "This race, this win, is for Alex. He was a good family friend... he was such a good inspiration as a person for what he's been through in his life." 11

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was measured rather than triumphant. He said the team knew heading in that competitors had brought significant upgrades, and that the weekend had confirmed his view: "We have seen this weekend that the season will be a true development race. We need to work hard as a team to continue to progress, not stand still, and bring performance to the track." 8 Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin called the performance gains from rivals "eye-opening." 8

That rivals were pushing hard was clear. Red Bull qualified within two tenths of pole — their closest to the front since before their 2025 slump. Mekies traced the arc: "We left Japan 1.2 seconds away from pole, China 1.0 seconds away from pole... to see us this weekend qualifying less than two tenths away from pole on Saturday is a big indication of the size of the progress." 18 Verstappen finished fifth on the road, voted Driver of the Day by fans with 26.3% of the vote, ahead of Antonelli's 18.3%. 19 The "Tokyo Drift GP" label that spread on r/formula1 captured the community's affection for the recovery drive — even as some noted the 360-degree spin at Turn 2 was self-inflicted.

Among The Race's analysts, Scott Mitchell-Malm described this as "Mercedes' least convincing win of 2026 thanks to McLaren's challenge" but also said he genuinely liked that "we have some old-fashioned stuff to care about after that race." Jack Benyon cautioned against reading too much into the intra-Mercedes gap: "This is likely Russell's worst track and one of Antonelli's best. Canada will be a big marker for judging things properly." 20

The r/formula1 post announcing Antonelli's win accumulated around 14,000 upvotes — unusually high engagement that reflected the community's sense of witnessing something historically unusual. The debate over Leclerc's 20-second penalty ran separately and attracted significant friction, with the majority of r/formula1 commenters viewing the punishment as disproportionate given that his car was physically damaged. The competing read — that the stewards applied the penalty escalation rules correctly given the number of violations in a single lap — had less traction in the fan forums but holds up under the rulebook.

Andrea Stella said McLaren has further upgrades planned for Canada, Monaco, and Spain. Mercedes' own first major package is also due at Montreal. Round 5 of the 2026 season — the Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal — takes place May 22-24.

Full final results 2

Fastest lap: Lando Norris — Lap 35 — 1:31.869 — avg 212.075 km/h 21