Miami Grand Prix sprint results changed as FIA issue heartbreaking post-race penalty

has been hit with a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release during the sprint race, dropping him from eighth place to the back end of the field. The British driver enjoyed an exceptional race in treacherous wet conditions, climbing from 18th on the grid to finish inside the points, after a dropped Max Verstappen from fourth on the road to 17th in the provisional classification at the chequered flag.

However, Bearman's heroics will count for nothing in the end, as the teenager was hit with a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release. He was unleashed into the path of , forcing the experienced German to stamp on the brakes and take avoiding action.

The post-race penalty is good news for Yuki Tsunoda, who moves into the top eight as a result of Bearman's misfortune. The Japanese star was due to launch from the pit lane, but the aborted race start allowed him to move onto the back row of the grid.

Tsunoda's climb from last to the points was simply another development in a rollercoaster weekend for the 24-year-old. He started practice looking strong but was knocked out in the first part of sprint qualifying following an error from his Red Bull crew.

"Some intelligent car just came out from the pit, and I aborted my lap, a lot of cars [hurt] my first lap quite a lot," he explained, contextualising his SQ1 exit. "To be honest, that's it; on the last corner obviously I had a quite a lock-up, but to be honest, the lap was pretty gone from Turn One already because of the car at the exit. And I wasn't able to do a proper lap at all.

"I was [aware it was tight], I did whatever I can, but it's like, what do you want me to do? I don't know, because there's a car in front, and communication was pretty poor as well. Just in general, I didn't [get a] proper qualifying. It's pretty far back, I'll try my best and obviously, anything can happen like this track, so I keep positive and I'll do my best."

Things didn't get much better for Red Bull in the sprint, either. Verstappen's 10-second penalty, picked up following a pit-stop error, sent the Dutchman from fourth to 17th, and cost him valuable points in his Drivers' Championship title defence. The 27-year-old is now 19 behind Oscar Piastri heading into Sunday's Grand Prix.

"We all don't want that to happen, but it happened," he told Sky Sports F1. "It's something we need to investigate, but I'm just happy no one got injured. With these cars, if you hit someone, it's not great. It's super clear what happened, so there's not much more for me to add."