Antonelli wins chaotic Miami Grand Prix, makes F1 history

Kimi Antonelli turned Miami into the clearest sign yet that Formula 1’s balance of power may be shifting. Starting from pole at the Miami International Autodrome, the Mercedes driver held off relentless pressure from Lando Norris to win the Miami Grand Prix and extend his run to three consecutive victories, a sequence that now stretches across the early season and puts his title bid on a different scale.

The result mattered because of how unstable the weekend had been. Antonelli’s race began with a first-corner fight that brought him into direct conflict with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, with both the Mercedes and Red Bull cars locking up into Turn 1. Miami’s 5.41km street circuit, laid out around Hard Rock Stadium with 19 corners and three long straights, punished every small error, and Antonelli had to manage that pressure after already surviving a weekend that had repeatedly tested his starts.

That pressure only sharpened the meaning of the win. Antonelli had taken pole with a lap of 1m 27.798s, beating Verstappen by 0.166 seconds, and the result completed a third straight pole after earlier fastest efforts in China and Japan. Mercedes said he arrived in Miami leading the Drivers’ Championship on 72 points, nine ahead of George Russell, and the team also said the pole made him the youngest polesitter of any kind in 75 years of Formula 1 racing. For a driver still building his record, Miami became a statement that his speed is no longer a one-off burst.

The wider weekend underlined how quickly the front of the championship can still change. Norris had won the Sprint from pole ahead of Oscar Piastri and Leclerc, while Mercedes reported that Antonelli again suffered a bad start in that shorter race because of a glitch in the system. McLaren’s return to qualifying was described as a messy reset after Sprint success, and Norris and Piastri could not fully repeat their Saturday pace in the Grand Prix. Red Bull also left Miami encouraged by Verstappen’s front-row pace, but Antonelli absorbed all of it and still finished the job.

Miami has only been on the Formula 1 calendar since 2022, when it became the second United States race after Austin and the 11th different American venue to host a world championship round. In 2026, it became the place where Antonelli’s season moved from promising to potentially defining, with the Italian not just winning a race but announcing himself as the driver setting the early championship rhythm.