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Lando Norris lucked in to win a rain-hit and crash-strewn Miami Grand Prix sprint race in a McLaren one-two on Saturday that trimmed teammate Oscar Piastri's Formula One lead to nine points.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, winner of the season's first sprint in China, had a smile on his face again after finishing third with the safety car leading the closing laps before peeling off at the end. "My luck in Miami seems pretty good at the minute, really happy," grinned Norris, who won last year's main grand prix for his first F1 victory.
The Briton got lucky with the safety car just at the right moment as he pitted for slick tyres, with Piastri having already stopped, and came back out still in the lead he had inherited. "I probably would've preferred if this had happened tomorrow, rather than today, but I'll take it. Good job by the team," he said. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was handed a 10-second penalty for an unsafe release that led to a pitlane collision with Mercedes' pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli as the Italian was coming in and the champion pulling out.
That dropped four-time champion Verstappen to last of those who took the chequered flag. Antonelli finished 10th - the 18-year-old left with nothing more than the record for youngest ever F1 polesitter in any format after only 14 laps of actual racing from an original 19. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc crashed on his way from the pits to the starting grid, with heavy spray making conditions treacherous, and did not start.
The safety car led the field around before the start procedure was suspended, with drivers struggling to see, and all 19 cars returned to the pit lane before an eventual standing start on a drying track. Piastri seized the lead into turn one, with Antonelli forced wide and dropping to fourth as Norris and Verstappen also went past. "He pushed me off," shouted the Italian over the team radio, but the move stuck. Verstappen was investigated for a possible false start, with no further action, and then the track began to dry making a change of tyres increasingly look a rewarding but potentially risky move.
