Miami Grand Prix sprint: Lando Norris wins chaotic race from Oscar Piastri

Miami Grand Prix

Venue: Miami International Autodrome Dates: 2-4 May Race start: 21:00 BST on Sunday

Coverage: Live commentary of qualifying online; race on BBC Radio 5 Live from 20:00 BST and live text updates on BBC Sport website and app

Lando Norris beat McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri to win a chaotic wet-dry Miami Grand Prix sprint race with help from the safety car.

Piastri led from lap one after passing pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes at the first corner of the race but the safety car cost the Australian the race win.

The championship leader pitted one lap before Norris as the track dried out but the safety car was sent out while Norris was pitting for his slick tyres.

That slows the cars on track and gave Norris enough time to rejoin in the lead.

The safety car was caused by a crash between Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin and Liam Lawson’s Racing Bull at Turn Two but that was not the only drama in the race.

Max Verstappen finished fourth on the road behind Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who benefited from an early pit stop for dry-weather slick tyres, but was penalised 10 seconds for an unsafe release from his pit stop, which caused him to collide with Antonelli.

Verstappen, whose front wing was damaged in the collision, was demoted to 17th and last by the penalty.

The incident was a major blow to Antonelli’s hopes of a good result. It prevented him making his pit stop and he had to rejoin the track and do another lap before pitting again. Antonelli ended up finishing seventh after penalties for Alex Albon, Lawson and Oliver Bearman.

The race started on a wet track, after a 28-minute delay because of the poor conditions.

Piastri made a better launch than Antonelli, and was alongside the Mercedes on the approach to the first corner, the position already won.

Antonelli claimed Piastri had pushed him off, but in fact ran wide off track on his own as Piastri assumed the lead ahead of Norris, Verstappen, and the rejoining Mercedes.

Piastri pulled out a four-second lead in the the first few laps but as the track dried Norris began to come back at him and the McLarens were running nose to tail when Piastri pitted for slick tyres on lap 13 of 18.

He was gaining on Norris and set to resume the lead until the accident between Alonso and Lawson, which will be investigated by stewards after the race.

Briton Norris resumed with a two-second lead and, as the race finished under the safety car, the win was secured.

It was almost carbon-copy of Norris’ maiden win in the grand prix here last year, when a safety car vaulted him into the lead ahead of Verstappen.

“My luck in Miami seems pretty good at the minute,” Norris said, “but the pace was already pretty good. You never know when to pit, go early or late and wait for safety car. It has worked two years in a row. I would probably prefer it happened tomorrow (in the grand prix) rather than today but I’m happy.”

The win narrows the gap between him and Piastri in the drivers’ championship by a single point to nine.

Piastri said: “I feel like I did pretty everything right, so a bit disappointed to come out in second but that’s how it goes sometimes. Racing is a tough business. Had to get my elbows out at the first corner, happy with what I did.”

Hamilton had struggled for pace on the wet tyres but he pitted for his slicks on lap 11, making the decision himself, and it vaulted him up the order from sixth in the opening laps to third at the end, passing the damaged Red Bull of Verstappen on track.

“I’m so happy with that,” he said. “It’s been a tough year so far but I never thought it would rain in Miami, it’s the first time we’ve all been on track in the wet here and what a race it provided us.

“I made that call in the end. Because I was going nowhere.”

The madcap events of the pit-stop period, safety car and Verstappen’s penalty helped Williams’ Albon, seventh in the early laps, vault to fourth in the results, ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes.

Albon was later penalised five seconds for speeding under the safety car, dropping him out of the points.

Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin took sixth ahead of Lawson, who was later dropped out of the points by a penalty for causing the collision with Alonso.

Haas’ Bearman drove an excellent race to finish eighth from 19th on the grid but was another to be given a five-second penalty, his for an unsafe release in the pits.

The penalties for Albon, Lawson and Bearman moved Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, Antonelli and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly into the points.

The drama began before the start when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc hit the wall in the wet conditions on the way to the grid, damaging the car and forcing him out of the race.

At the official race start time, the cars completed two laps behind the safety car to judge the conditions, before it was decided that visibility was too poor to continue.

The near half-hour break allowed the track to dry sufficiently for it to become raceable.

It was the first time in this race’s four-year history that rain had affected the running.