Sprint race at Miami Grand Prix delayed as announcement made with cars on standby | F1 | Sport

The start of the Formula Two sprint in Miami was delayed by a few minutes when the cars were already on their way to the grid. It marked the first time that F1’s support series had raced in North America, with the calendar being rescheduled following the cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Grands Prix.

Proceedings were slightly slow to get underway, with Saturday’s sprint being delayed by around 10 minutes. It wasn’t clear why the start was pushed back, but the announcement came when the cars were making their way to the starting grid. During the Sky Sports broadcast, it flashed up that the formation lap would take place at 10.10am local time, as opposed to the scheduled 10am.

The race eventually got underway without a hitch, with Nikola Tsolov taking the chequered flag ahead of Laurens Van Hoepen and Alex Dunne in a thrilling three-way battle.

At the start of the sprint, feature race pole-sitter Kush Maini failed to get going in his ART and was wheeled back to start from the pit lane.

Oliver Goethe began the sprint from third but endured a horrible start, slipping out of the points to 10th on the opening lap.

Once things had settled down, a four-way battle for the lead took shape with Alpine academy driver Alex Dunne lurking in fifth behind Nico Varrone and Joshua Durksen.

Tsolov and Van Hoepen then cleared the rest of the field and overtook each other on several occasions, wary of the massive DRS advantage on the straights.

Their fight went all the way to the end, with the pair exchanging the lead on the final lap before Tsolov moved ahead on the final straight before crossing the line to claim victory.

Fans will be hoping for a similar level of excitement in the F1 sprint, which takes place later on Saturday.

Lando Norris will start from pole, with McLaren having taken a big stride towards the front with their upgrades since the last race in Japan.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli took second place in sprint qualifying on Friday, with Oscar Piastri coming home in third to underline his title credentials.

Charles Leclerc will start from fourth on the grid after showing good pace in practice, while Max Verstappen managed to beat George Russell to fifth.