Over the past weekend, Formula 1 (F1) visited the United States for the first time this year in Miami with a sprint race format. Normally, the sprint race in one of these F1 weekends is simply a footnote to the main race on Sunday.

In a regular F1 race weekend, they hold three “free practice” sessions, two on Friday and one Saturday morning. Then, Saturday afternoon is for qualifying and then Sunday is race day.

In a sprint race weekend, there is only one “free practice” session Friday morning, then drivers compete in a qualifying session for the sprint race. Saturday morning is the sprint race, one with far fewer laps than the main race and for less points. They give out eight points to the winner (25 points for a win in the feature race) down to one point for the driver in eighth place in a sprint race (points go down to tenth place in a feature race). Saturday afternoon is time for drivers to take to the track once again for qualifying for the main race which is held on Sunday as usual.

In this instance, however, the sprint race was jam-packed with excitement. The abbreviated practice sessions can sometimes lead to mixed up starting grids as teams or drivers find better set ups than others quickly and take advantage of it. Lewis Hamilton winning the sprint race in China when he hasn’t placed higher than fifth in a feature race is a great example of someone seizing the early advantage.

Miami, however, proved to be oddly messy in the first two days of racing. Lando Norris complained of odd things in his McLaren, saying pieces were everywhere and it was like his car was falling apart. When he pulled into the pits, he tossed out several tools from his cockpit, things that were left in the car by mistake. During the sprint race qualifying, three drivers (Jack Doohan, Alpine; Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull; Oliver Bearman, Haas) didn’t make it back to the start/finish line in time to do a second qualifying lap and were unable to try and improve their initial time, automatically leaving them out of further competition in that session. During the second round of sprint qualifying, Isack Hadjar, with the Racing Bulls team, made it over the line with just one second to spare.

The good news out of sprint qualifying was seeing Mercedes’ 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli claim pole position, the youngest driver ever to do so in any kind of F1 qualifying. He was pumping his fist in the air wildly when he learned of his feat and the enthusiasm continued when he pulled his car in to celebrate. Not knowing where to go, stewards had to rush after him and corral him back to the area where the top three are interviewed.

Getting all his gear off on his own also seemed foreign to him as he carried his helmet hovering just over his head, unable to disengage his radio wiring.

Rain poured down on the track on Saturday, just before the sprint race was to start. The deluge caught out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who unfortunately hydroplaned and wrecked his car on a reconnaissance lap before even getting to the grid. Down to 19 drivers for the sprint race.

Despite the rain stopping before the sprint race started, the cars were held behind the safety car for a couple of laps instead of their usual standing start. F1 cars’ aerodynamics pushing the car towards the ground also cause a suction effect that pulls moisture from the racetrack, causing huge plumes of spray behind the car. Usually cars towards the front of the pack can still see reasonably well but cars towards the back have horrible views. This time, even Antonelli who only had the pace car in front of him complained of poor visibility. They stopped the race before it even got started.

Some twenty minutes later, the Sun peeked through the clouds and the track dried out reasonably well. The cars lined up behind the safety car once again, driving around for two more exploratory laps to make sure it was safe to start the race. A decision was made by the stewards to have a traditional standing start as visibility had improved significantly.

As the lights went out, the shortened sprint race was finally under way. Piastri charged forward from second place in his McLaren, challenging Antonelli into the first corner, much as Piastri did to Verstappen in the previous race. This time, Piastri kept his position as Antonelli went wide and lost several places. Piastri kept the lead for much of the race until pit stops started.

Another difference between shortened sprint races and feature races is that there are no requirements to change tires during the sprint race. Teams came in because the intermediate wet weather tires the cars were on started degrading quickly in the drier track conditions. Drivers that changed to slick tires improved by more than three seconds per lap, forcing the front runners to pit as well.

When Verstappen went into the pits, there weren’t any issues with his pit stop as the team performed their jobs with precision. Verstappen was quickly released, right into the path of Antonelli’s Mercedes that was trying to get to his pit right in front of Verstappen’s Red Bull.

The two made contact, breaking Verstappen’s front wing. Antonelli took the shunt to his back tire and fortunately didn’t have any damage to his car. The damage to his race, however, was catastrophic as he missed his pit box and had to pit again on the next lap. Verstappen, in addition to the damage to his car, received a ten second time penalty for an unsafe release.

Out on track, Carlos Sainz hit the wall and broke his rear tire. He managed to keep his car moving and retired his car. Norris, now in the lead when his teammate Piastri pitted for new tires, came on the radio to say there was unavoidable debris all over the track. He wanted a safety car called so he could have a pit stop that would cost him less time to his rivals if they all had to slow down for the safety car.

He didn’t get it, despite his best salesman efforts. That’s when Liam Lawson went off track, then came back on, driving his car right into the side of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, spinning Alonso around and into the wall. Alonso could not keep his car moving as Sainz had. Norris had his safety car after all.

This allowed Norris to pit and stay ahead of his teammate. Alonso’s car couldn’t be removed in time for the race to get back underway and the drivers finished one right behind the other without any chance to alter their positions further.

Finishing behind the safety car meant Verstappen, who was in fourth place, was relegated all the way back to 17th and last place. More messiness ensued as Alex Albon, initially promoted to fourth place, fell to 11th after a penalty for a safety car infringement. Liam Lawson had finished in seventh place, but was demoted for causing the collision with Alonso. Bearman had finished in eighth place, but received a penalty for an unsafe release, moving him down as well.

In the end, this was great news for Antonelli who had finished outside of the points because of the pit lane incident with Verstappen, but now found himself in seventh place. Tsunoda was similarly promoted up to sixth place and Pierre Gasly was the other lucky recipient of points, getting promoted to eighth.

The sprint race, something usually barely a remembrance for fans, was action packed and something well worth watching. Would teams be able to clean up their acts for qualifying and the main race, or would the near insanity continue in Miami? Stay tuned…