Lando Norris benefited from a timely safety car to take victory in the rain-splattered sprint race in Miami.

The British driver was in the pits for new tyres when Fernando Alonso pranged his Aston Martin. With racing suspended, he emerged with an impregnable lead across the closing four laps – all disappointingly served behind the safety car.

Norris’s McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri was thus denied the win that had looked likely to be his when he took the first corner ahead of Mercedes’ surprise pole-sitter, 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli.

Lewis Hamilton finished third for Ferrari after shrewdly pitting early to move from intermediate tyres to dries. ‘I am so happy,’ he said. ‘It’s been a tough year.’

Max Verstappen was handed a 10-second penalty for an unsafe release that caused him to clip Antonelli in the pits. This plunged the world champion to 17th place. Antonelli was condemned to finish 10th.