Oscar Piastri secured a dominant victory at the Miami Grand Prix, extending his championship lead. His McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, recovered from an early incident to complete a strong one-two finish for the team.
Piastri, starting fourth, drove a flawless race. He overtook pole-sitter Max Verstappen after an exciting early duel and then pulled away decisively.
Norris`s race started poorly when he dropped from second to sixth on the first lap due to an entanglement with Verstappen. However, he fought back impressively, carving his way through the field to reclaim his starting position.
Norris closed the gap to Piastri towards the end, finishing just four seconds behind. Together, the McLarens finished over 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack, highlighting their dominant performance.
This win is Piastri`s fourth in six races this season, putting him 16 points ahead of Norris in the championship standings, after Norris had won the Sprint the previous day.
Piastri commented on the start, saying, “There was a bit of argy-bargy at Turn 1 which helped me a bit. I was aware enough to avoid Max coming through in Turn 1. From that point onwards I knew I had a good pace advantage and clearly the car was unbelievable.”
George Russell of Mercedes claimed a fortunate third place, benefiting from the timing of a Virtual Safety Car during the pit stop phase to pass Verstappen. Verstappen, visibly frustrated by his Red Bull`s performance issues, finished fourth, further hurting his bid for a fifth consecutive title, now trailing Piastri by 32 points.
Alex Albon secured Williams` best result of the season in fifth, overtaking Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes after the first VSC period.
Charles Leclerc finished seventh for Ferrari, just ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton after the latter experienced frustration with team orders during the race.
Hamilton narrowly avoided being overtaken by Carlos Sainz (Williams) on the final lap after significant contact, for which Sainz received no penalty following an investigation.
Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull secured the final point in tenth, despite a pit lane speeding penalty, finishing just tenths ahead of Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls).
Piastri Capitalizes on Norris-Verstappen Incident
Norris had shown stronger form leading into the main race, winning the Sprint and out-qualifying Piastri. His main challenge was starting next to pole-sitter Verstappen.
An early opportunity arose when Verstappen went deep into Turn 1. Norris attempted to go around the outside at Turn 2 for better traction but was forced off track when Verstappen`s car snapped towards him, causing Norris to drop to sixth.
The stewards reviewed the incident but deemed no penalty was needed, implying Verstappen held the corner and wasn`t obligated to give Norris space.
Norris reflected on the incident: “Max put up a good fight as always and I paid the price, but it`s the way it is… If I don`t go for it, people complain. If I go for it, people complain, so you can`t win… But it is the way it is with Max, it`s crash or don`t pass… I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today, but I`m still happy with second.”
Piastri, meanwhile, quickly passed Antonelli for second and then challenged Verstappen. He used Verstappen`s aggressive defense to his advantage, cutting back inside when Verstappen locked up at Turn 1 on lap 14 to take the lead.
By that point, Norris had fought his way through the field and closed in on the lead battle after passing Albon, Russell, and Antonelli. However, it took him five laps to get past Verstappen, allowing Piastri to build a significant nine-second lead.
Many drivers delayed pit stops due to potential rain. A Virtual Safety Car on lap 29 (for Oliver Bearman`s car issue) allowed Russell to jump ahead of Verstappen during the pit stop window, benefiting from pitting under VSC conditions. McLaren also pitted, maintaining their lead.
The top four positions remained unchanged from there, with the McLarens comfortably ahead, leaving Norris to potentially reflect on whether a more patient approach at the start might have allowed him to challenge for the win.
Hamilton`s Frustration with Ferrari Strategy
After a frustrating start, including being held up by Esteban Ocon, Hamilton gained places thanks to the VSC, leapfrogging Tsunoda.
Starting on hard tires and switching to faster mediums, Hamilton found himself close behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton, clearly faster, requested on the team radio that Ferrari swap the cars to allow him to attack Antonelli for sixth.
Ferrari initially instructed him to wait, then to stay within DRS range of Leclerc. Hamilton`s frustrated radio responses, including the sarcastic remark, “Have a tea break while you`re at it, come on!”, highlighted his impatience and referenced a previous race where he had facilitated a swap for Leclerc.
Ferrari eventually changed course and swapped the cars. Despite this, Hamilton couldn`t significantly close the gap to Antonelli and was later told to let Leclerc back through in the closing stages.
Having done so, Hamilton sarcastically asked if the team wanted him to “let Sainz through as well” when informed of his margin to the trailing Williams.
After the race, Hamilton downplayed the radio exchanges, calling them “sarcastic” and noting that “people say way worse things.” He explained to Sky Sports F1: “I lost a lot of time behind Charles and in that moment, for sure, I was like `come on, let`s make a decision quick, let`s not waste time.` I`m sure people didn`t like certain comments, but you`ve got to understand, it`s frustrating. People say way worse things than I said, so it was more sarcastic than anything. I`m not frustrated now. We`ll work internally, we`ll have discussions, and we`ll keep pushing.”
