By Alan Baldwin
MIAMI, May 3 (Reuters) – Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli won the Miami Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday and stretched his Formula One championship lead to 20 points with an impressive third victory in a row.
The youngest driver ever to lead the standings, at 19 years old, Antonelli made more history as the first to take his first three career F1 wins in successive races and all from pole position.
He was also the first in five editions of the race to win in Miami from the front row.
“This is just the beginning, the road is still long,” he said after beating McLaren’s world champion Lando Norris by 3.2 seconds at the Hard Rock Stadium.
“We are working super hard and the team is doing an incredible job.”
‘HOW DID WE NOT WIN THIS?’
Norris, winner of the Saturday sprint, had a three-second lead at one point but lost out after the pitstops when Antonelli came in first for a change of tyres and then got ahead of the Briton who pitted one lap later.
“How did we not win this? We should have won guys,” Norris, who set the fastest lap of the race, said over the team radio after the chequered flag.
“We just got undercut — no excuses other than that. We got undercut, we should have boxed (pitted) first,” he explained later.
“Hats off to Merc and Kimi, they drove a good race. I’m gutted to miss out on a win here in Miami, I think it was possible today. But not the pace to get past him in the end, so we take it on the chin.”
Australian Oscar Piastri, last year’s winner, completed the podium for McLaren after a lively finish to the race with Antonelli’s teammate and closest rival George Russell taking fourth.
“For a long part of that race, it definitely wasn’t looking like a podium, so to end up in third is a really good result,” said Piastri.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished fifth after starting on the front row and spinning full circle on the opening lap without collecting anyone or being hit by other cars and dropping to 10th.
He retained the position after stewards handed him a post-race five-second penalty for crossing the white line at the pitlane exit.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was sixth on the road, passed by Russell and Verstappen in the final corners after leading at the start and then hitting the wall at the end, but was demoted to eighth.
Stewards handed him a 20-second penalty for repeatedly cutting corners in his damaged car.
“I made a mistake that cost me several positions. That’s on me and I will make sure I don’t repeat it again,” said the Monegasque.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton finished seventh but moved up to sixth while Argentine Franco Colapinto was promoted to seventh for Alpine.
Williams celebrated a double points finish with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon ninth and 10th.
Antonelli now has 100 points to Russell’s 80 and Leclerc’s 59, with Norris on 51.
HADJAR AND GASLY CRASHED
Antonelli made a poor start, something he has consistently done, with Leclerc barrelling past from third.
The safety car was deployed on lap six after Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar skidded into the wall and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was sent cartwheeling off after contact with the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson.
Norris then passed Antonelli at the restart and soon after was ahead of Leclerc for the lead.
When Antonelli went second, it became a battle between the two decided ultimately by the timing of the pitstops.
The race was the first since the new engine rules were tweaked, after three rounds, but there was still plenty of the now-familiar ‘yo-yo’ style of racing with drivers overtaking and being immediately passed again.
The start was brought forward by three hours after forecasts predicted lightning and thunderstorms and was completed without any weather interruption.
(Reporting by Alan BaldwinEditing by Peter Graff and Toby Davis)
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