By Alan Baldwin
MIAMI, May 2 (Reuters) - Formula One world champion Lando Norris won the Miami Grand Prix sprint race in a McLaren one-two with Oscar Piastri on Saturday as Mercedes suffered their first defeat of the season.
Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari, after starting fourth.
Mercedes pair Kimi Antonelli and George Russell crossed the line fourth and fifth respectively but the Italian was then demoted to sixth after being given a five-second penalty for repeated track limits violations,
with Russell moving up to fourth.
The drop meant the 19-year-old winner of the previous two grands prix in China and Japan saw his championship lead over Russell cut to seven points.
It also meant Red Bull's four-times world champion Max Verstappen moved up to fifth, with Lewis Hamilton seventh for Ferrari.
Alpine's Pierre Gasly secured the final point in the 100-km race run in hot and humid conditions.
Norris took the chequered flag 3.7 seconds clear of Australian Piastri after starting from pole position and pulling away to lead untroubled.
"Nice to be back on the top step. A good day for us," he said.
"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."
The main grand prix is on Sunday, when rain and possible lightning storms are threatened, with qualifying later on Saturday.
The win was a repeat of Norris's 2025 sprint success at the Hard Rock Stadium, where the Briton took his first career F1 win in 2024, and on Saturday he was presented with the winner's plaque by Reid Wiseman, commander of the recent Artemis II Lunar flyby mission.
Racing Bulls' rookie Arvid Lindblad did not start due to a technical issue while Nico Hulkenberg was ruled out when his Audi caught fire on the way to the grid.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Clare Fallon)
