Hello, MiniFans! We’re all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, touching down in Miami to witness Antonelli’s first ever pole position, even if it won’t be recorded that way in the history books due to it “only” being a sprint qualifying. Adding to the pressure was the sudden onset of unexpected rain half an hour before the sprint was to start, which didn’t settle nerves down.
Even before the race kicked off, the rain did what it’s best known for: Leclerc suffered from aquaplanning due to having left the pits in inters and hit the wall, causing enough damage to his suspension so that it couldn’t be fixed in time. The formation lap left a very interesting sight on track, with only Sainz choosing full wets despite the massive spray being lifted by the cars. This, alongside messages from drivers complaining about a lack of visibility and the amount of water on the track, forced race direction’s hand in the direction of postponing the start, even after doing an unannounced extra lap behind the safety car.
The race finally got underway half an hour after the original time, with drivers very carefully making their way to the grid with less spray than before, even if there was still quite a bit of water on the surface of the track. Even so, the safety car took another extra laps with the cars, as instructed by race direction for drivers to fully check conditions, and taking off a total of two laps from an already short race distance of 18 laps.
Antonelli’s extra care ended up taking him off the track, as Piastri looked for the space and did not back down, proving the experience he’s gained since his own debut. Norris and Verstappen took advantage of Antonelli going off as well, following Piastri and he started to open up a gap. Behind them, Lawson did what he never could with the Red Bull, climbing up five positions, among a sea of cars trying to score the last of the points handed out in the sprint.
Once the first couple of laps were out of the way, as well as an investigation on Verstappen for being out of position at the start that came out to nothing, as he was in fact touching the white lines, the usual trains were forming. The main exception to this was the battle between Sainz and Ocon for twelfth, who kept overtaking each other with neither truly coming out on top in terms of pace or staying in the racing line long enough not to get past.
A common complaint from the drivers was regarding visors, coincidentally all of them from the Red Bull family (at least the broadcasted ones), letting water in and making it seem like they were broken, or at least damaged. Despite this, no one left the foot off the accelerator. One of the best examples was Albon, who was putting pressure on a Hamilton that was struggling to turn the car.
Halfway through the race, two things happened: DRS was enabled and Tsunoda pitted for slicks. Strategy teams set their eyes on the Red Bull, and Ferrari decided to follow suit, a decision taken by Sainz and Stroll as well. While they started setting good times and more teams decided to go in, McLaren had to start making decisions, as Norris had made it up to Piastri, who even cut a chicane. The mayhem came when Verstappen run over his own front left endplate, which seemengly appeared out of nowhere, in the pitlane. It turned out to be from a collision with Antonelli, as the Red Bull driver had been let out before the Mercedes could turn into his pit stop, forcing the rookie not to pit, which meant an extra visit to the pitlane in the following lap, and earning himself a 10-second penalty for an unsafe release. Meanwhile, Sainz crashed hard enough to puncture his tyres but not enough not to make it back to pits to retire the car.
McLaren’s first stop was from Piastri, which left Norris as the last car with intermediates on track as he told the team over the radio about the amount of debris on track in one of the chicanes, but the complaints didn’t last long, as he was called in during the following lap. However, the chaos wasn’t yet over. Lawson hit Alonso as he tried to unsafely rejoin the track from the outside, making the Spaniard spin and crash into the wall, ending his race and forcing a safety car that would lead the cars to the finish line.
F1 is no stranger to rookies pulling off incredible feats, specially since they’ve had pretty much open access to simulators and cars from past seasons, but is also quite familiar with them not fulfilling the strict expectations placed upon their shoulders. The first corner turned out disastrous for Antonelli, but his race wouldn’t end there. Later on, an unsafe release by Verstappen would compromise his result even further, as he was forced to do an otherwise unnecesary second stop that fully took him out of the fight, leaving the way clear for McLaren to claim another win, this time from Norris, and a very unexpected podium for Hamilton.
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