The beginning of the Formula 2 sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix was postponed by several minutes as the cars were already heading towards the grid. This marked the first occasion that Formula 1's support series had competed in North America, with the calendar being reorganised after the cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Grands Prix.
Delayed Start
Events were somewhat sluggish to commence, with Saturday's sprint being pushed back by approximately 10 minutes. It remained unclear why the start was delayed, but the announcement arrived when the cars were travelling towards the starting grid. Throughout the Sky Sports coverage, it appeared that the formation lap would begin at 10:10 a.m. local time, rather than the planned 10:00 a.m.
Race Action
The race finally commenced without incident, with Nikola Tsolov claiming the chequered flag ahead of Laurens Van Hoepen and Alex Dunne in an exciting three-way contest. At the beginning of the sprint, feature race pole-sitter Kush Maini struggled to launch in his ART and was rolled back to start from the pit lane. Oliver Goethe started the sprint from third but suffered a dreadful getaway, dropping out of the points to 10th on the first lap.
After things had stabilised, a four-way fight for the lead emerged with Alpine academy driver Alex Dunne positioned in fifth behind Nico Varrone and Joshua Durksen. Tsolov and Van Hoepen subsequently broke away from the remainder of the field and exchanged positions on multiple occasions, mindful of the substantial DRS benefit on the straights.
Their battle went right down to the wire, with the duo swapping the lead on the final lap before Tsolov surged ahead on the last straight to cross the line and seal victory.
F1 Sprint Preview
Fans will be hoping for a similarly thrilling spectacle in the F1 sprint, which gets under way later on Saturday. Lando Norris will line up on pole position, with McLaren having taken a significant step forward thanks to their upgrades since the previous race in Japan. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli grabbed second spot in sprint qualifying on Friday, with Oscar Piastri finishing third to further strengthen his title credentials. Charles Leclerc will start from fourth on the grid after demonstrating impressive pace in practice, while Max Verstappen narrowly edged out George Russell to fifth.
