The margins were fine but ultimately it was a champion’s composure that won the day for Kimi Antonelli at the Miami Grand Prix. The teenager cannot legally buy a drink in the US yet but by the end of what was a gripping run to the flag the Italian had most assuredly earned a stiffener.

Still 19 years old and in only his second season in Formula One, Antonelli’s calmness to see off immense pressure from McLaren’s Lando Norris, who hounded him to the finish, was his best performance in a run that has seen him take three consecutive pole positions and three consecutive wins in these opening four rounds.

“Kimi, that was really impressive, really impressive,” said his Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, who is not given to unnecessary hyperbole, and it was. Wolff had fast-tracked him into a Mercedes seat last season and the kid has returned the compliment by delivering on his promise. He knows, too, there is more to come.

“This is just the beginning. The road is still long,” Antonelli said. “We are working super hard and the team is doing an incredible job. They did a great strategy, we did a massive undercut and then we managed to bring it home, even though it was not easy.”

Norris gave his all and the race turned on a pit stop but it was Antonelli who had the edge once more and with it now a 20-point lead in the world championship over his Mercedes teammate, George Russell, who could finish only fourth. Norris’s McLaren teammate, Oscar ­Piastri, was third, with Max Verstappen delivering a very strong comeback for Red Bull to take fifth after a spin on the opening lap.

The day, however, firmly belonged to Antonelli and much as his wins in China and Japan were impressive, this victory on the circuit that winds its way round the Hard Rock Stadium was of another calibre. While he will not countenance its discussion, it did have all the hallmarks of a champion.

In the opening three rounds Mercedes had enjoyed a dominant car and while Antonelli had to work for those wins, at Suzuka and Shanghai, he enjoyed a pace advantage that ultimately proved unassailable. At the Miami International Autodrome he certainly did not.

McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull had all brought a swathe of upgrades to Florida and, in the case of McLaren and Red Bull, they had come good, very good. Verstappen’s charge through the field was indicative of how much improved a car he had beneath him and how much more he was enjoying driving it, while Norris was very much able to match and indeed better the pace of the Mercedes. This was a straight-up fight and Norris, the defending champion with his dander up, is no mean opponent.

The win, then, was very much earned and this was further confirmation, were it needed, that the Mercedes remains at the head of the field, at least in Antonelli’s hands, while Russell, the pre-season favourite, now sorely needs to reassert his authority on a title fight in which Antonelli has bossed the last three rounds.

Mercedes, in turn, will be buoyed that they sealed a win while having their major development to the car still to come at the next round in Canada after having ensured they remain undefeated in grands prix this season.

It is Antonelli who is proving to be the schwerpunkt of their challenge and here, even when under the most pressure he has faced all season, with the resurgent world champion chasing him down, the 19-year-old kept his cool to close out.

His race in Miami and previous rounds this season have demonstrated that given the opportunity to compete at the sharp end with a strong car, Antonelli has stepped up with extraordinary control. He endured an up and down season as he learned the ropes last year, pushing too hard and being caught out on occasion but while he still clearly enjoys finding the edge, has shown great control too.

Indeed this was not a cakewalk under the lowering skies in Miami where storm warnings had brought the race start time forward by three hours and ensured it was run without a drop hitting the track.

After Antonelli had lost the lead off the line to Charles Leclerc, Norris had subsequently taken a place from the Italian on track and appeared to have the advantage. Their only pit stops turned it however, Mercedes going for an undercut that paid off as the Italian just passed Norris as he emerged from the pit lane a lap later, after a stop which the team principal, Andrea Stella, admitted had been a couple of 10ths too slow.

Norris was left to rue his team not having jumped first but it set up a tense showdown all the way to the flag. The pair circulated for almost 30 laps nose to tail with hardly more than two seconds between them and at times barely two or three 10ths.

Norris, darting hither and thither, looking to unbalance the Italian and find a way past. Antonelli was having none of it, even as he feared a gearbox problem and that his rear tyres were losing grip.

Jaw set firmly, he was inch-perfect across the distance to the flag in the hardest circumstances he has been pushed all season. He rose to them with a performance that belies his tender years, as F1’s fight at the front turned pleasingly feisty.