Race Report: Four in-a-row as F1 Returns in Miami

• Kimi Antonelli took victory in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix with George Russell battling hard to P4.

• After a four-week hiatus, F1 returned to action in Florida with the race start time shifting forward by three hours due to the threat of thunderstorms.

• Whilst there were the occasional drops of rain, the Grand Prix ran in dry conditions with Kimi starting on pole position and George P5.

• Kimi lost position on the opening lap to the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and, as the pair battled in the early stages, the Italian was also challenged by the McLaren of Lando Norris.

• The Safety Car was deployed due to accidents for Hadjar and Gasly, with Kimi in P3 and George P4, having gained position on the McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

• Unfortunately, George lost that position on the restart but a successful undercut on lap 20 saw him move ahead of Leclerc who had dropped back, leaving Kimi and Norris fighting it out at the front.

• A similar undercut opportunity presented itself to Kimi meanwhile and he took it to pass Norris for the lead. From there, he worked hard to keep the McLaren at bay and managed it successfully.

• George battled hard too and passed the early stopping Verstappen in the closing stages before taking P4 from Charles Leclerc on the final lap.

• The team now holds a 70-point lead over Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship with Kimi continuing to lead the Drivers’ standings.

George Russell

That was a tough afternoon for us out there. The early laps felt OK and I thought that we were in the fight, but my pace wasn’t strong on the Hard compound. We did make some changes near the end of the final stint which helped but this place has never been my favourite, and it showed. We gained a couple of positions at the end at least so the result was potentially better than it could have been. Kimi did a great job and showed that the car could challenge for victory. Congratulations to him; it’s more great points for the team.

I am looking forward to going to Canada for the next race. It’s a circuit I like and have gone well at in the past. From Montreal onwards, we have seven races in a short period of time up until the summer break. Those will be really important for us so I’m looking forward to getting back in the groove.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

Congratulations to Kimi on his third win of the season and the whole team on our fourth to start this campaign. After a tough Friday, everyone has rallied together to bounce back, and it is testament to those efforts that we come away from Miami with another P1 trophy. It was certainly a hard-fought win; strategically, the team made the right decisions and with some swift work in the pit lane, that helped Kimi get ahead of Norris and George ahead of Leclerc. Kimi showed good pace to keep the McLaren at bay and take a well-deserved win.

For George, whilst he has said that he underperformed this weekend, we will work hard in the coming days to understand why we weren’t able to get his car into a better window for him. We know that George has much more pace than he was able to show here in Miami and he will come back stronger in Canada.

Coming into this weekend, we knew that our competitors would close the gap to us, but it has been eye-opening to see just how much performance they were able to bring. We now have two weeks before we head to Canada, and we will be redoubling our efforts to head there with a chance of making it five wins in-a-row to start 2026.