Lewis Hamilton flips off F1 rival while driving at Miami GP

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton flips off F1 rival while driving at Miami GP

Lewis Hamilton finished sixth in his Ferrari

Originally written by Sam Cook. This version is a translation.

Tuesday 5 May 2026 21:00

Lewis Hamilton’s frustrations at the Miami Grand Prix spilled over on track after the seven-time world champion aimed an angry gesture at one of his rivals.

It had already been a difficult weekend for Hamilton at the Miami International Autodrome, with the Ferrari driver unable to match Charles Leclerc across either qualifying session.

Ferrari had arrived in Florida with 11 upgrades and genuine hopes of fighting at the front, especially after podium finishes in the previous three grands prix. Instead, their Miami performance fell short of expectations, leaving both team and driver searching for answers.

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But that was not to be, Hamilton suffered early damage to his car and crossed the line in seventh, while Leclerc badly damaged his SF-26 on the final lap of the race, and finished sixth.

A later penalty for Leclerc demoted him behind Hamilton and Franco Colapinto and into eighth, meaning 41-year-old Hamilton was actually classified in sixth.

Hamilton was said to be losing around 15-20 points of downforce following the incident, which caused damage to his winglets and floor.

Hamilton's form struggling once more?

While Hamilton could not do too much about his result in the grand prix due to the damage caused by the Colapinto clash, it was a poor qualifying performance that put him down in sixth and challenging with the Alpine in the first place.

Hamilton also struggled in sprint qualifying on Friday too, while he fell away from the pace of the frontrunners in the sprint race on Saturday.

This disappointing weekend for the 41-year-old was much more reminiscent of his form for much of the 2025 season, struggling to match the pace of team-mate Leclerc, particularly in qualifying, but he did outscore the Monegasque driver in the main race.

Hamilton has performed much better in 2026 so far, and has claimed a grand prix podium already, something that he didn't do throughout the whole of 2025.

Now it's time for him to push on and try and claim a first grand prix victory in Ferrari red, but he will need to be regularly outperforming Leclerc to have any hope of that.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Miami Grand Prix Franco Colapinto