Kimi Antonelli secured his third consecutive victory at the Miami GP but revealed that he had to deal with a last-minute problem with the gearbox of his Mercedes in the final laps of Sunday’s (3) race. The 19-year-old driver had started from pole position, lost the lead early on, but managed to recover throughout the race.
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The race at the Miami International Autodrome was marked by strong pressure from the current world champion Lando Norris, who stayed close to Antonelli for almost the entire contest. Even under constant pressure, the Italian maintained control and extended his championship lead over George Russell to 20 points.
Still, the Italian reported a scare at the end of the race due to a gearbox failure, which affected the shifts between seventh and eighth gear for a few laps. About the problem, he said: “No, it didn’t really affect it. I mean, at that moment I had two or three laps where I couldn’t do some downshifts, and then I had some laps where the car wouldn’t go from seventh to eighth gear.
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“So, it was a bit stressful, but fortunately it was only for a few laps and then it went back to normal. Obviously, that increased the stress because I was being pressured and knew I couldn’t make mistakes, and that certainly didn’t help. But it lasted very little, so I was happy with that.”
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