Antonelli steps up his level in dramatic fashion

For Russell, this cannot be an easy moment in his career. A Mercedes protege himself, he has waited eight years for this moment - the best car, with Mercedes. Last year, he was comfortably the better driver of the two; only rarely did Antonelli get the better of him. So he earned his status as pre-season championship favourite. The Briton, 28, lived up to that when he won the first race of the season in Australia from pole position, but since then things have gone against him. A technical problem almost certainly robbed him of pole in China and handed it to Antonelli, who converted it into a maiden win. A safety car intervened to hand the victory in Japan to Antonelli, when without it most likely either McLaren's Oscar Piastri or Russell would have won. But there was no doubt about the Miami win. Antonelli put it on pole. Russell was fifth on the grid, behind upgraded cars from the Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari teams. Antonelli made a sixth bad start in a row and lost ground. But he stayed calm, fought back, and grabbed the win from McLaren's Lando Norris over the pit stop period. Norris initially thought that was all about McLaren making a mistake by letting Mercedes pit first, not wanting to go too early with rain threatening. But McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said the team still had the margin to stay ahead of Antonelli when they did stop three laps after him, but that a series of events conspired against them. …