Miami, FL
Winners and losers from F1’s eventful Miami Grand Prix
F1’s decision to bring the Miami start time forward by three hours ultimately made no difference, as the expected thunderstorms hit the track in the early hours of Sunday morning but then swerved Miami Garden in the afternoon.
As it was, Miami didn’t need the weather gods to serve up an absorbing display. And while it is too early to judge the recent round of energy management tweaks, on the surface Miami provided an entertaining mix of management tactics and driver-centred wheel-to-wheel skills.
Winner: Kimi Antonelli
With every passing week, young Kimi Antonelli is convincing more and more sceptics about whether he is really ready to take the title fight all the way in what is only his sophomore F1 season as a teenager.
There is no doubt that Antonelli is still a raw diamond rather than a polished product. But he has paired his obvious talent and speed with more maturity this year and has not flinched when the pressure is on, as evidenced by the various wheel-to-wheel battles for the lead in Miami.
Antonelli has spent the April break working on some of those chinks in his armour, like his start difficulties, though a lot of the burden is on Mercedes to simplify its procedures too, with Toto Wolff calling the team’s struggles across both cars “unacceptable” as the competition closes in on Mercedes.
But having won his last three grands prix from pole, it’s hard to argue with Antonelli being every bit the title contender that team-mate George Russell is.
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images
It’s too early to be talking about Red Bull’s second seat curse, not after Hadjar’s impressive start to his Red Bull tenure in Melbourne, but on a weekend Max Verstappen was firing on all cylinders Hadjar has found it much harder to keep up with the mercurial Dutchman.
Hadjar was of course desperately unlucky for his car’s floor to just be outside legal parameters in qualifying, relegating him to the back of the grid. But he was a second off Verstappen in sprint qualifying and eight tenths on Saturday, looking much more like a 2019-2025 spec second Red Bull driver that the team is hoping to have solved. His clumsy crash in the early stages of the race was entirely avoidable, too.
Has the improved Red Bull simply allowed Verstappen to push much harder and bring out the best in him, leaving Hadjar in the dust? Or does Hadjar need more time to get on top of the heavily revised RB22? Red Bull will be hoping it is the latter, with team boss Laurent Mekies playing down any concerns.
“I don’t think we are worried,” he said. “In terms of driving and in terms of rhythm, he still hasn’t got into the right rhythm. I think he would have been strong in the race, and it was strong for the little he could have shown.”
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Zak Brown, McLaren
A 1-2 in the sprint and a 2-3 in the grand prix? McLaren would have bitten your hand off for a double podium berth after unsuccessfully chasing Mercedes over the first three rounds of the 2026 campaign.
But a first tranche of upgrades to the MCL40, at its historically happy hunting ground around the Hard Rock Stadium, has dramatically changed the outlook of the 2026 season. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were legitimate contenders this weekend, even if they were helped by Mercedes getting its deployment strategy wrong over the sprint event, rowing it back to a more normal set-up for qualifying and the race.
The end result is that on pure speed McLaren reckons Mercedes still has the slight edge, and the Silver Arrows are introducing their first batch of upgrades in Canada. But McLaren isn’t done upgrading either, with sources suggesting its own Montreal package amounts to around 40 percent of its total car overhaul across both rounds. Watch this space.
There was little enjoyment to be derived from Sunday’s race for Lewis Hamilton, as he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when Verstappen spun ahead of him at the start and then suffered aero damage after a glancing blow from Franco Colapinto.
Hamilton estimated the time loss at half a second and it dropped him into no man’s land for the remainder of the afternoon while his team-mate Charles Leclerc was having all the fun ahead of him, mixing it up with Russell and Piastri.
Leclerc also suffered a disappointing end to his afternoon courtesy of his last-lap spin, which cost him a certain podium, and he did exceedingly well not to suffer a huge accident that would have cost him a lot more than that. But with a car that refused to turn right any longer, Leclerc decided to redraw some of Miami’s chicanes, which cost him a deserved 20-second penalty.
Winner: Franco Colapinto
Colapinto has come in for quite a bit of flak since replacing Jack Doohan at Alpine exactly 12 months ago, not in the least from his own boss Flavio Briatore. But armed with Alpine’s latest aero upgrades and a slightly lighter chassis, Colapinto appears to cut a more confident figure aboard the A526 and that has translated into getting the better of experienced team-mate Pierre Gasly over Miami’s two qualifying sessions, something which hasn’t happened too often.
Colapinto delayed his only pitstop until past the halfway point, propelling up as high as fourth at one point, and Leclerc’s post-race penalty eventually netted him a best-ever points finish in seventh.
Fresh from his Buenos Aires demo run that was attended by an estimated 600,000 Argentinians, it has been a pretty good fortnight for Lionel Messi’s favourite F1 driver. Messi’s children were all sporting Mercedes gear, so perhaps they are harder to convince.
Franco Colapinto, Alpine
Photo by: Kym Illman / Getty Images
Audi has made a commendable start as a works team from a performance point of view, even if the German manufacturer’s first F1 power unit needs a bit more juice. But its endless list of reliability issues is seriously hurting any chance of keeping up in the midfield, with Nico Hulkenberg completing a grand total of seven laps across both Miami races and Gabriel Bortoleto’s weekend derailed in qualifying.
Audi has always said it is playing the long game, so we won’t judge it too harshly after four race weekends, but the team needs to be able to nail down cleaner weekends if it wants to make progress on the performance side of things and build up some semblance of momentum.
“It was a proper character building weekend,” Hulkenberg said afterwards. “We’ve had some promising signs and the pace in the car is not bad, but obviously we need to be able to finish sessions and get the cars out there. Yeah, just a lot of headwind this weekend, kind of need to regroup, reset now, take it on the chin.
Alexander Albon, Williams
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
Williams had been one of the more disappointing stories of the 2026 season thus far, but rebounded with a first pass of upgrades by taking a double points finish with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon. Finishing a pitstop behind Colapinto’s Alpine is not a result that merits a victory parade around Grove’s high street, but it’s a first step as the team fights to both add aero performance and sheds weight off its cars, something which will take time and which can’t be done at once in a cost cap world.
Sainz summed it up best afterwards: “It’s not where we want to be, even if it feels for everyone a bit of a relief. Getting two cars in the points on merit is definitely a good step, but we need to keep pushing because it’s still not where we expected to be at the end of last year.”
Photos from Miami GP – Sunday
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
Miami GP – Sunday, in photos
With Miami-Dade Superintendent Jose Dotres’ contract ending in February 2027, school board members are now looking to have his replacement by August.
Dotres has served as the superintendent for the third-largest school district since 2022. The school board started the search for his replacement in April.
More than 20 people applied for the position, but now only six have secured spots as semifinalists.
Here’s a closer look at who Miami-Dade’s superintendent might be:
Jose Bueno
With roughly 33 years of experience within Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Bueno currently serves as Dotres’ Chief of Staff.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Bueno’s tasks include coordinating and implementing major projects “that have significant district-wide impact on the goals of the district and involve coordination of other divisions and offices.”
He started as a teacher within the country back in 1993 and is a Florida International University and Nova Southeastern University graduate.
Ernie Lozano
Lozano is currently Broward County’s Public Schools Chief Human Resources Officer.
His passion is creating a safe and secure environment for both students and staff.
“He has been recognized for his contributions to the District’s safety and security initiatives, receiving accolades for his exceptional leadership and commitment to student and staff well-being,” according to a bio on the site for the National Student Safety and Security Conference & Workshop.
Before his career in human resources, Lozano served within education as a teacher, assistant principal and more.
Sylvia Mitchell
Hope builder, executive leadership coach and seasoned superintendent are all descriptions Mitchell has on her LinkedIn.
Living in Houston, Texas, Mitchell is familiar with the Sunshine State since she was a principal at Charter Schools USA in Fort Lauderdale back in 2012.
She has also served as superintendent twice in Texas and is currently Executive Vice President, Curriculum, Design & Development for Per Scholars.
Carlos Perez
Perez is a charter school principal in West Palm Beach and the former executive director of the Education Reform Project, a nonprofit organization based in Miami Beach.
According to the nonprofit, Perez has over 25 years of experience within education, mainly in New York, but now in Florida.
Perez has also been an assistant superintendent in the past, as well as taking part as an Executive Board Member for the New York State Association of School Personnel Administrators.
Christopher Ruszkowski
Currently based in South Carolina as CEO of South Carolina’s Children’s Fund, Ruszkowski has moved all over the country, and Florida will be no exception.
According to his LinkedIn, he served as New Mexico’s Secretary of Education back in 2019. Before living in South Carolina, he was a conservator for the Texas Education Agency. A conservator oversees the state’s takeovers of large school districts and charter school networks.
Getting his master’s at Stanford, Ruszkowski was a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institute located within the university.
Rafael Villalobos
Since 2022, Villalobos has been the South Region Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Before that, he was a principal for over ten years.
The Nova Southeastern alum has been in Miami for most of his life, even graduating from South Miami Senior High School in 1990.
Miami, FL
I went to 2 famous Miami restaurants, a flashy steakhouse and a Cuban hot spot. Here’s how they compared.
Café La Trova celebrated the city’s Cuban heritage through live music, warm hospitality, and dishes that felt deeply rooted in local culture.
Papi Steak, meanwhile, embraced Miami’s flashy, see-and-be-seen reputation with theatrical presentations, celebrity appeal, and an atmosphere that often felt more like a nightclub than a standard steakhouse.
Despite Papi Steak’s over-the-top reputation, nearly every dish I tried — from the wagyu pastrami to the hamachi crudo — was thoughtfully prepared and tasted just as good as it looked. If you’re looking for an indulgent, special-occasion dinner where the spectacle is part of the fun, it’s easy to understand why the restaurant has become such a phenomenon.
Still, if I could only recommend one restaurant to a first-time visitor, I’d choose Café La Trova.
While Papi Steak offered the more decadent, once-in-a-lifetime meal, Café La Trova delivered a more authentic Miami experience, pairing outstanding food and cocktails with a genuine sense of the city’s history and culture.
Miami, FL
7 more women arrested at southwest Miami-Dade massage parlors, accused of prostitution in undercover sting
Seven more women have been arrested at massage parlors across Miami-Dade, following a wave of arrests in an undercover prostitution sting operation run by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.
All seven women appeared in bond court facing prostitution charges as well as running a massage business without a license. The arrests come a day after seven other women were arrested at massage parlors in southwest Miami-Dade. Those locations were closed after the first round of arrests.
According to arrest reports, the women would offer sexual acts to an undercover detective after a massage. They would also charge, according to the reports, prices ranging from $50 to $150.
The women’s ages ranged from 46 to 67 years old:
- Yaoying Lin, 58
- Xiufen Lin, 51
- Yan Xi, 48
- Zixuan Wang, 46
- Mei Hui Lin, 49
- Quirong Xu, 67
- Hongli Ren, 63
Judge Mindy Glazer presided over the bond court appearances. During the proceedings, she referenced charges of “committing a lascivious act and engaging in prostitution,” according to CBS News Miami’s reporting from the courthouse.
Yaoying Lin’s attorney, Paul Petruzzi, persuaded the judge to reduce her charge from a felony to a misdemeanor.
“She’s resided in Miami for many years. Married. And has never failed to appear,” Petruzzi said.
“They had my client held overnight. She was charged with a felony unfairly. To the point where a judge on her own dismissed it. It’s either real bad, bad, bad police work. Or it’s something else. A little bit more nefarious. I’m afraid the latter,” Petruzzi said.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said that they will not be providing any interviews regarding this undercover sting at this time.
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