Kimi Antonelli won the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, holding off McLaren's Lando Norris over the final stretch of a chaotic, hard-fought race to claim his third consecutive victory and extend his Formula 1 championship lead to 20 points.
The 19-year-old Italian has now won three of the first four races of the season, becoming the first driver to win from each of his first three pole positions. His Mercedes teammate George Russell, the pre-season favorite, finished fourth behind McLaren's Oscar Piastri, leaving Antonelli as the clear pacesetter through the early campaign.
The race itself was pushed forward three hours after forecasts predicted heavy rain for the original start time. That rain never fully arrived. A few spots fell mid-race, but the grand prix ran its entire distance in dry conditions, denying teams and drivers the wild card they had been calculating for.
Antonelli's start was, once again, a problem. He has lost positions off the line in all four grands prix and both sprint events this season. Sunday was no different. Charles Leclerc's Ferrari surged from the outside and Max Verstappen attacked from the inside at the first corner. Verstappen ran too deep, fought for position, and was squeezed by Leclerc at Turn Two, spinning a full 360 degrees with the entire field bearing down on him. He recovered but dropped to 10th, effectively ending any realistic run at the win on a weekend when Red Bull had looked genuinely competitive again.
That left Leclerc leading from Antonelli and Norris, and a chaotic opening phase followed. Varying battery charge levels produced the kind of back-and-forth lead changes that have defined this season, with Antonelli taking the lead on lap four only for Leclerc to retake it a lap later. A safety car on lap six, triggered by two separate accidents, briefly reset the race. Isack Hadjar crashed his Red Bull alone at the final chicane. At the same final corner, Liam Lawson's Racing Bulls tipped Pierre Gasly's Alpine into a somersault.
After the restart, Norris moved to second and quickly passed Leclerc to take the lead. Antonelli got by Leclerc shortly after, and the race narrowed into a straight duel between the Mercedes and the McLaren. Norris led with confidence. Both drivers held off on tire and strategy decisions, each waiting for rain that the forecasts kept threatening. When it became clear the rain would not come, Antonelli made his move. He pushed past Norris and held the position to the flag, with Norris unable to find a way back.
"This is just the beginning," Antonelli said after the race. "The road is still long. We are working super hard and the team is doing an incredible job."
McLaren did arrive in Miami with a package of upgrades, and Norris's pace throughout the weekend suggested those updates had genuine effect. His second-place finish was the team's best result of the season so far, and Piastri's third keeps the constructor fight alive. But it is Antonelli, not Russell, who has seized control of the drivers' title through four rounds.
