The Miami Grand Prix produced a thrilling, chaotic wet-dry sprint which saw Lando Norris crowned the winner.

Oscar Piastri made it a McLaren one-two as Lewis Hamilton completed the top three in a sprint full of dramatic twists and turns, with Verstappen escaping one potential penalty scenario over a false start, before picking up a 10-second penalty for colliding with Kimi Antonelli in the pits.

Lando Norris takes P1 in wild Miami GP sprint

A “sprint of survival” lay ahead as Piastri termed it, after the rain poured down in the lead-up to the Miami sprint.

The rain had stopped falling by the start of the formation lap – which got underway on time – but took place behind the Safety Car with a lot of standing water on track, which had already taken Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc out of the sprint after he aquaplaned and clattered the wall at Turn 10 on his way to the grid.

Leclerc’s day worsened after the FIA stewards called him to their office post-sprint for potentially driving his car in an unsafe manner, having initially carried on in the heavily-damaged Ferrari, depositing debris as he did.

Carlos Sainz in the Williams was the only driver to start the sprint on full wets, with the radar suggesting more rain was coming. But life on the inters was tough going, as Verstappen demonstrated by locking up and going into the run-off. Thankfully for the reigning World Champion, since it was still a formation lap, he was able to move back up the pack to P4.

The full wets meanwhile was the compound which Lewis Hamilton wanted, and he let Ferrari know about it: “I can’t believe you guys put me on inters.”

With a nervy Antonelli coming over the radio to confirm that he “can’t see anything behind the Safety Car”, it was onto another formation lap, before the starting procedure was suspended. Red flag.

Verstappen was quick to ask for a headrest change with the sprint neutralised, telling his Red Bull team that he was “way too far back”.

A delay of around 20 minutes followed before the Safety Car led the drivers back out, with the rain threatened on the radar yet to show up. Instead, the sun was coming out and starting the process of drying the track.

And it was a very quick process, with the amount of spray already vastly reduced as the cars began circling again.

The laps were now counting towards a revised total of 18, and Lap 3 was to be a standing start to get this sprint properly underway.

Piastri got the better start compared to Antonelli, and showing the teenager the outside, through Piastri came into the lead, as Antonelli ran wide and dropped from P1 to P4, complaining that Piastri had “pushed me off”. The stewards had a quick look, but decided to take no further action.

Piastri, Norris and Verstappen was the top three.

Ocon and Sainz were putting on an exciting battle, Sainz making the move at Turn 17 before Ocon came back through in the following sequence down to Turn 1, a ding-dong battle which rumbled on for several laps.

Hamilton was struggling, telling Ferrari he couldn’t “turn the car”.

Lawson meanwhile was complaining of a broken visor which meant “I can’t see”, Verstappen suffering a similar issue, but bigger trouble was potentially brewing for Verstappen, after he was noted for being potentially out of position in his grid box.

Onboard footage suggested Verstappen had stopped too far forward in his grid box, an incident very similar to the one which saw Norris receive a five-second penalty in Bahrain – Verstappen having pointed out his title rival’s error at the time – but the stewards quickly decided no further action was needed.

Onto Lap 10 of 18 and the front three was looking stable, Piastri over two seconds clear of Norris, with Verstappen four seconds back. It was a much closer battle between the Mercedes duo with George Russell now right on Antonelli’s rear wing and nudging his team towards a swap as he had “more pace”.

But, the track was continuing to dry at pace, and on Lap 11, Yuki Tsunoda running towards the back took the gamble with a set of medium tyres. Hamilton followed a lap later, with softs his compound of choice. Sainz and Lance Stroll were giving the dry tyre gamble a go too.

Norris meanwhile appeared to be perfectly happy on the inters, having got within a second of Piastri, but in the pits, it was chaos, as Verstappen and Antonelli collided among mass pit stops with the slick tyres producing pace. The contact stopped Antonelli from boxing.

It was all going off. Piastri took to the run-off, Verstappen had a damaged front wing after being released into Antonelli’s path – an incident placed under investigation – and Sainz had hit the wall and carried on with a left-rear puncture after clipping the Turn 14 inside wall.

Lap 14 and Piastri decided enough was enough as he came in for mediums, freeing Norris into the lead, as he reported debris at the Turn 14/15 chicane, where Piastri had gone over the run-off.

But, just like in Miami last year, the Safety Car soon delivered again for Norris. Lawson spun Fernando Alonso into the wall at Turn 11, wrecking the Aston Martin and bringing the Safety Car back out, allowing Norris to pit for softs and come back out in the lead.

Verstappen was not having such a turn of good fortune, as the FIA confirmed a 10-second penalty. Antonelli was disappointed to be informed that Piastri had not received such treatment for the start.

With the Safety Car out until the end, Norris took the win from Piastri, while Hamilton heaped praise on his Ferrari crew after their quick work ensured him a spot in the Miami sprint top three.

Full Miami Grand Prix sprint classification to follow…