Norris on top in a chaotic wet Sprint
For a second consecutive year running, it was Safety Car that helped Lando Norris win in Miami as a late crash which brought out the Safety Car saw Lando Norris pick up a lucky Sprint win at the Miami Grand Prix 2025 under wet conditions. Norris finished ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri who led for the majority of the Sprint after catching Sprint pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli off guard on the opening lap itself. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who was flying in the final stint once the track dried up, finished a brilliant third.
Formula One’s youngest-ever pole-sitter across the formats, Kimi Antonelli got the Sprint underway in Miami after a lengthy delay due to the wet conditions. The Sprint started behind the Safety Car and with a standing start getting things going and Oscar Piastri used his stunning start to take the lead of the race with his teammate Lando Norris behind him as Antonelli went wide in a tussle with Piastri in the opening corner and dropped to P4 with Verstappen making up a place in the opening corner as well.
At the completion of the fifth lap, it was Piastri having built up a two second gap to teammate Norris at the front of the grid, with Verstappen a further second behind while Antonelli was getting pressed up by his teammate, George Russell. Lewis Hamilton, the lone Ferrari in the Sprint, after Charles Leclerc crashed out in the formation lap, radioed to his team early on mentioning turning issues with his car as the seven time world champion was holding on at P6. Carlos Sainz dropped a couple of positions on lap 8 as the Williams driver had a moment going wide off track and fell to P13. As the Sprint hit its halfway mark, the front of the grid remained the same with Piastri in a league of his own on a track that was drying up with the most action coming just behind the top three as the two Mercedeses were pushing each other with Antonelli managing to keep Russell at bay. The second Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda was the first to have come in for a pit stop, as the Japanese driver switched to the Medium compound on lap 11 and Hamilton followed suit immediately on the next stop with a host of drivers getting rid of their Inters and moving to the Mediums and Softs on a dry track.
Norris meanwhile was catching up on his teammate while Verstappen and Antonelli came into the stop on lap 13 and the Red Bull was released into the Mercedes which saw Verstappen’s front wing get damaged. There was action all over as Carlos Sainz hit the wall which saw him lose his left rear tyre. Piastri switched to the Mediums on lap 14 while Norris continued on, which saw the British driver take the lead of the race and even though Piastri came out in second place, he was 20 seconds behind Norris. A bit behind the top two, it was Hamilton flying on his Soft tyres and on lap 15, the Safety Car came out as Fernando Alonso went into the wall at turn 14 after being clipped by the VCARB of Liam Lawson from behind, ending the double world champion’s Sprint.
The Safety Car came out just at the right time for Norris, who luckily was able to keep his lead. The Sprint ended under the Safety Car which netted Norris a fortunate win with McLaren picking up important points with a 1-2 finish. Hamilton finished third ahead of Alex Albon, George Russell, Lance Stroll, Liam Lawson and Ollie Bearman, who ended in the points with Verstappen’s unsafe release during his pitstop handing him a 10 second penalty, which dropped the reigning world champion to P13. Lawson, though, is under investigation for his clash with Alonso, which will be investigated after the Sprint and should Lawson get a penalty and fall out of the points, Yuki Tsunoda will finish as the final points scorer in the Sprint.
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