A lucky Lando Norris might think about buying a lottery ticket as he wins the F1 2025 Miami GP Sprint Race ahead of Oscar Piastri thanks to a well-timed safety car, as the British McLaren driver closes up on his championship rival at the Miami International Autodrome on Saturday, May 3.
The session initially began with two formation laps and a red flag after rainy conditions rendered visibility unpractical and a danger to the drivers, even catching Charles Leclerc out prior on the lap-to-the-grid as the Ferrari star crashed out.
After a brief delay, and two more formation laps, racing finally got underway with a standing start as Kimi Antonelli led the field away for the first time in the 18-year-old’s budding and highly-anticipated career.
And he will have some lessons to learn after a bad start saw Piastri pull alongside into Turn 1. Perhaps rookie naivety, the 18-year-old tried to fight it out into the first corner and was ran wide by the McLaren, something he swiftly complained about on the radio.
The Aussie had seemed under control but then the F1 2025 Miami GP Sprint Race entered chaos from Lap 11 onwards as the track began to dry rapidly and Yuki Tsunoda in the Red Bull gambled on slicks.
Other drivers caught onto the idea and followed suit, but it wasn’t quite as perfect as some would’ve hoped as Verstappen was crashed into the path of Antonelli during a pit stop. The Red Bull ace got damage and a 10-second time penalty that he was less than happy about.
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Then the momentum swung toward Norris on Lap 14 after he closed up on Piastri, who was called into the pits at the last moment, allowing the Brit to inherit the lead; which became pot gold when Fernando Alonso crashed heavily into the wall after being clipped by Liam Lawson.
The contact damaged Alonso‘s right-rear and ended his race, bringing out the safety car and allowed Norris, completed his stop just before it was deployed, to rejoin ahead of his title rival.
Running never got back underway because of the time needed to repair the track and that was that as Norris took his first Sprint Race triumph of the year at the F1 2025 Miami GP, as he wins ahead of Piastri and Hamilton in lucky fashion for the 25-year-old.
Rain causes chaos at F1 2025 Miami GP Sprint Race
The downpour at the Miami International Autodrome began around an hour before lights out was expected for the F1 2025 Miami GP Sprint Race, and immediate through pre-race plans into jeopardy.
What appears to be an error from Ferrari’s strategic team to send Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc out on the lap-to-the-grid bit the Italians back hard when their Monegasque star aquaplaned and went skidding off into the barriers.
He tried to make it back to the pits, possibly unaware of the damage he had with his suspensions broken and his front-wing in tatters and debris off onto the circuit. The team will have to head to the stewards to justify driving the car in an unsafe manner.
Around the exact same time, Oliver Bearman in the Haas had an off-track excursion, highlighting how treacherous the conditions were in Florida in the build-up to the 19-lap race.
Both Piastri and Antonelli complained of visibility, despite the latter being the first car behind the safety car and thus with the best possible view of the circuit from the 20 drivers.
To highlight the difficulty further, Max Verstappen, Formula 1’s rain-master who famously went from 17th to win the 2024 Brazilian GP, even locked up and narrowly evaded crashing out. The FIA, rightly, red-flagged the formation lap.
