Kimi Antonelli was hit with a time penalty after the end of the Miami Grand Prix sprint, which changed the final result. The young Italian, who currently leads the Drivers' Championship standings, crossed the line in fourth place with Mercedes suffering pace issues throughout the contest. He was almost nine seconds adrift of McLaren rival Lando Norris, who took the chequered flag.

Almost immediately after the end of the race, Antonelli was hit with a five-second time penalty for repeatedly exceeding track limits. It saw him slip down two positions to sixth, with George Russell and Max Verstappen moving up to fourth and fifth respectively.

Antonelli began the sprint from second place but lost places at the start, dropping to fourth by the end of the opening lap.

He attempted to stay on the tail of Charles Leclerc and tried to initiate a battle with the Ferrari driver, but his lack of pace meant it was a futile endeavour.

In the high temperatures of Miami, the W17 struggled to compete with the front-runners and began to drop further behind.

Antonelli's subsequent penalty was a frustrating blow for Mercedes, who have endured a poor weekend thus far and will be desperate to unlock some speed ahead of Sunday's race.

Speaking afterwards, team principal Toto Wolff said: "We knew we were out of sync with our upgrades which are coming for Montreal.

"We were hoping we would be able to hold on in terms of pure lap time, but if you have such a bad getaway, which was not at all Kimi's fault, it was a glitch on our side, it's difficult."

Asked if the changes to the engine regulations are hurting Mercedes, Wolff replied: "No, not at all. It's going to be a development race through the year and whoever brings a few tenths earlier will have the advantage."

McLaren, on the other hand, looked far more like their usual selves in the Miami sprint after initially making a slow start to the season.

After his victory, Norris said: "Nice to be back on the top step! A good day for us. It was hot out there and sweaty. I was pushing, trying to find that balance of pushing and staying relaxed to not make mistakes.

"A good start to the weekend but now I've got to do it all over again. We will change a couple things. There are a couple things I want to be different from yesterday that we will adjust.

"Hopefully we have a bit more to come, but I'm sure the others will too. We will keep our head down and keep pushing."

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