Costly distraction
The Miami Sprint race ended decidedly badly for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who had started from second position on the grid and had the ambition to gain more valuable points in the standings over teammate George Russell. The Italian had a bad start, slipped to fourth position and after losing the duel with Charles Leclerc – which lasted throughout the first laps – seemed to have more or less calmly accepted the placement just off the podium that would still have allowed him to gain a point in the standings over Russell.
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However, on the last lap the championship leader made a serious distraction: after being warned by the marshals that the next track limits violation would result in a penalty, Antonelli did not keep his concentration high enough and committed a further violation of the track limits which triggered a 5-second penalty from the stewards. Thus, although he crossed the finish line in fourth, the Bolognese was classified as sixth, losing position not only to Russell – by just a tenth – but also to Max Verstappen.
Read more Sprint Miami: McLaren leads a tight group, Ferrari struggles without horsepower
Russell thanks
Antonelli’s mistake was ‘free’ in the sense that it happened without any pressure behind him from Russell, who was about four seconds behind. However, the Englishman was the biggest beneficiary of his teammate’s penalty, going from losing a point to gaining two. F1 history has taught us how, in a balanced championship, even these minimal details can make the difference at the end of the season.
