(Motorsport-Total.com) – In the sprint to the Miami Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli received a penalty for track limits. The 19-year-old had finished in fourth place but was given a five-second time penalty for his offense. As a result, the Mercedes driver appears only in sixth place in the standings.
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This means that both teammate George Russell and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen are ahead of the Italian in the results. Even before this time penalty, Antonelli had not had a particularly good Saturday. After all, the championship leader had qualified for the front row the day before but was unable to hold that position at the start.
The attempt to defend himself against Charles Leclerc in a wheel-to-wheel duel led to an extremely critical radio message from the Monegasque: “Kimi is so terribly bad in duels,” was the Ferrari driver’s verdict. “He pulled across under braking, unbelievable. We will still collide with each other.”
Mercedes Duel in Miami
At least both were able to avoid this worst-case scenario in the sprint. Instead, Antonelli later engaged in a spectacular duel with his teammate Russell. On the track, Russell ultimately could not prevail against the youngster, but hard fighting was also involved here.
In lap 17, Russell briefly passed his teammate, only to be overtaken again by Antonelli in the following lap.
Up front, Lando Norris secured his first sprint win of the 2026 season. Piastri completed the double success for McLaren, while Leclerc can be happy with third place. Behind Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top eight in the sprint.
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Championship Lead Remains
The result of the sprint race does not change the Italian’s championship lead. After all, Antonelli remains in first place with 75 points, closely followed by Russell with 68 points.
Nevertheless, Jenson Button emphasized on Sky Sports F1 that Antonelli threw away a few points in the championship fight: “I don’t want to say this track limit penalty was a careless mistake, but that’s exactly what it was. It would have been an easy fourth place for him, and he lost three points to his biggest title rival.”
Timo Glock expressed a similar view to Sky: “Yes, that was really millimeter work. Of course, hard to see from that position, [for him] as a driver. But he has to have that in mind if he knows he’s already on the limit.”
“He has already incurred two or three track limits. I have to say, he had nothing more to gain or lose in that position. He just has to play it safe and calculate that extra half meter. That must not happen to him. Of course, it’s annoying that he then drops two positions further back.”
Due to announced weather caprices, it remains questionable when and if we will see a full-length race on Sunday. After qualifying, the FIA will discuss whether to postpone the race start time.
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