Kimi Antonelli tightened his grip on the Drivers’ Championship early in the season yesterday, taking out the Miami Grand Prix in a tight race.

A dramatic start saw Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen passing Antonelli – who started in pole position – on the first corner before the Red Bull spun out and remarkably kept it on the track.

McLaren were the beneficiaries of the drama, passing through to take second and third on the first lap.

Lap six saw four cars exit the race after Isack Hadjar clipped the wall and Pierre Gasly flipped his car hitting Liam Lawson’s Racing Bull after he locked up.

Verstappen remained competitive keeping the 19-year-old behind him in second until lap 27, struggling to keep up for the remainder of the race with Red Bull gambling a one-stop strategy for hard compound tires during the safety car.

Antonelli fought off the papayas to claim his third straight win, sitting clear of his teammate by 20 points on the Drivers’ Championship standings and extending Mercedes’ Constructors’ lead to 70 points.

“I think Kimi Antonelli is the real deal clearly as he’s shown in the last three races, and he’s going to be a star for a long time,” said motorsport expert Tim Hodges.

“He is the youngest ever championship leader, he’s the guy who looks most likely right now and George Russell would be hating every second of this.”

It’s the first GP since Suzuka at the end of March after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were cancelled due to conflict in the Middle East.

The break gave teams a chance to tweak the cars based off lessons learned in the first three races, and McLaren have climbed their way back competing with the Mercedes frontrunners.

Questions continue to loom regarding F1’s existing presence in the Middle East for the remainder of the year, with Qatar and Abu Dhabi in November and December still scheduled to go ahead.

“Is it a wise choice for the sport to be doing this? Is it going to be open and are you really willing to finish your season with your showpiece event in Abu Dhabi at the end of the season?”

“You can cancel races four and five of the season and still move on. You can’t cancel the grand final of the sport.”

The Adelaide Grand Prix ran until 1995, and with the V8 Supercars season ending penultimately to the Formula 1 season, Hodges said bringing it back could be a potential solution 30 years on from its last F1 appearance.

“I hope the Premier, who loves this sport and is happy to spend money, has called Formula 1 and said ‘hey, we’ve got this street race set up, we could keep it up for another two weeks if you wanted to come and have your final race here’.” 

“They need a contingency somewhere if they’re not going to Abu Dhabi at the end of the season.”

Piastri sits sixth on the Drivers’ Championship standings, finishing third yesterday and making that a podium in both races he has started in this year.

It was a rough weekend for the Aussie, finishing second in the sprint race before dropping down to seventh in qualifying – the podium finish showing he has a lot more left to give in 2026.

“A good thing for Oscar and probably Lando Norris is that those McLarens were a hell of a lot better. Across the weekend they’ve clearly added a lot of new bits to those cars, made them much more competitive and they were much more competitive.”

“I know there is still a gap to Mercedes and to Kimi Antonelli right now but I think they’re the next best and they will be winning races before too long in this season.”

Teams head to Canada later this month for the Canadian GP on Sunday May 24.

IMAGE: Formula One Website