Oscar Piastri triumphed in the Miami Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris after both McLaren drivers won thrilling separate fights with Max Verstappen.
There was controversy immediately when Verstappen, who finished fourth, locked up at Turn 1, and then Norris was edged off the track as he ran alongside the Red Bull into Turn 2, after which Piastri surged up to second as his teammate fell down the order.
As Norris fought back, Piastri tracked Verstappen through the early laps and then attacked. Norris took much longer to pass Verstappen when they went wheel-to-wheel — the battle was savage even as Verstappen’s tires wore and his Red Bull’s handling caused him frustration.
By the time Norris was finally back in second, Piastri was nearly 10 seconds clear. Although the chasing McLaren cut that gap over the rest of the race, Piastri won by 4.6 seconds in a race the McLarens dominated, finishing 37.6s ahead of nearest challenger Mercedes.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished in seventh and eighth, but only after a major team orders bust-up where Hamilton fiercely criticized his team’s slow decision-making over an initial position swap and then again when they insisted Leclerc move back ahead.
Being behind a virtual safety activation mid-race enabled Mercedes’ George Russell to gain several places when he stopped for the mid-race tire swaps that the McLarens and Verstappen had already completed, and finished third. Alex Albon scored a brilliant fifth for Williams ahead of Miami’s sprint qualifying star Kimi Antonelli in the other Mercedes.
The Athletic’s experts, Luke Smith and Madeline Coleman, were in Miami to analyze the key talking points from the race.
Piastri capitalizes on Norris’ setbacks
Norris may have claimed Thursday that he’s no great believer in momentum, but after a third consecutive victory, it’s impossible to say Piastri is not the man in control of this title race.
The Australian got unlucky with the timing of the Virtual Safety Car on Saturday, costing him the sprint race win to Norris, and qualified only fourth for the main race. Norris seemed to have the pace and spark that was missing in both Bahrain and Jeddah, giving him a chance to claw back at Piastri’s points lead.
But the tide turned back in Piastri’s favor soon after the lights went out. Norris dropped back two places after backing out of a move on Verstappen at Turn 2, much to his annoyance, while Piastri went in the opposite direction. He was able to make lighter work of passing Verstappen for the lead than Norris, creating a significant gap in the time it took Norris to get ahead of the Red Bull.
That was the race clincher for Piastri. The McLaren double-stack pit stop denied any chance of strategic variety, and while Norris was quicker through the second half, Piastri always had enough in hand.
This was a weekend that Norris could have swept had a couple of things gone his way. Instead, Piastri has come away with an even greater championship lead and, importantly, more momentum to boot.
Luke Smith
Ferrari’s team radio and strategy calls raise questions
One of the more surprising moments came over the team radio between Hamilton and Ferrari. Around Lap 38, the Prancing Horse told the seven-time world champion that he needed to stay behind but within DRS range of teammate Leclerc, to which Hamilton responded, “This is not good teamwork, that’s all I’m going to say.”
The point was to try to make sure Carlos Sainz didn’t pass the Ferrari duo, as the Williams driver had shown competitive pace, and what Ferrari proposed was the same as what Williams teammates Albon and Sainz did in Jeddah en route to securing eighth and ninth-place finishes.
But the tension grew over the radio. Hamilton reminded his team that he swapped in China, and race engineer Riccardo Adami responded, “Understood, we swapped the cars.” Hamilton quipped back, “Have a tea break while you’re at it!”
While the drivers did swap, Leclerc urged over the team radio for Hamilton to go quicker because the Monegasque driver was stuck in dirty air. Sainz was around 1.7 seconds off at that point, while Antonelli was around four seconds ahead of the Ferraris.
The initial suggestion for the Ferrari drivers to hold suggests seventh and eighth were the best that the team felt it could finish and that ended up being true. When told Sainz was 1.4 seconds behind him, Hamilton replied, “You want to let him past as well?” The two did collide on the final lap, and it is under investigation.
Madeline Coleman
Williams strengthens its hold on ‘best of the rest’
A year on after Ferrari made the decision to sign Hamilton, leaving Sainz to find a new seat for this season, the Spaniard not only finished ahead of Hamilton here but Williams secured a double points finish, a critical haul for the “best of the rest” battle and one significantly bigger than Ferrari’s.
The Williams duo were running ahead of the Ferrari drivers around halfway through the race, before Hamilton and Leclerc executed consecutive overtakes after a tight battle with Sainz.
What makes Albon’s fifth-place finish and Sainz’s ninth-place finish impressive is that Williams has halted its development for 2025. It’s only a matter of time before the team begins dropping off, making these early gains even more critical.
Its only point-less weekend so far came in Bahrain. Will Williams be caught? It boils down to when other teams have or will stop developing their 2025 cars and focus solely on the 2026 vehicle. But you can’t ignore how Albon finished ahead of a Mercedes and both Ferrari drivers.
Madeline Coleman
New dad Verstappen has lost none of his pace
Verstappen’s impressive run to pole Saturday was the perfect answer to the ludicrous suggestions that becoming a father might cost him a tenth or two. But Sunday showed again there is no sign of the Red Bull driver watering down his hard, elbows-out approach to racing.
The first flashpoint came off the start when, after locking up at Turn 1, Verstappen was out of shape into Turn 2, forcing Norris to back out while on the outside to avoid a crash. Norris was upset on the radio, but the stewards took no action. The incident is likely to revive the debate over the racing guidelines and what is and is not allowed in battle.
Verstappen then was staunch in defending the inside against Piastri, eventually running a bit deep and complaining about his brakes on the radio. The same tactics against Norris lasted long enough to cost the Briton any chance of staying on Piastri’s coattails, and even forced Norris to get aggressive at one stage with a lunge that sent him narrowly off the track, forcing him to give the place back.
The Red Bull clearly isn’t suiting Verstappen enough right now to sustain a fight against the McLarens over a full race distance, meaning he needs to fight hard. Going wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen, and trying to interpret the racing rules to plot moves against the Dutchman, is an added, interesting dynamic for the McLarens in particular to consider through this year’s title fight.
Verstappen ultimately crossed the line fourth after quickly losing touch with the McLarens and then falling further back thanks to the VSC, which also allowed Mercedes driver Russell to jump into P3.
Luke Smith
Provisional race results (Top 10)
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren
- Lando Norris, McLaren
- George Russell, Mercedes
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- Alex Albon, Williams
- Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
- Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
- Carlos Sainz, Williams
- Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull
Driver championship standings (Top 10)
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren — 131 points
- Lando Norris, McLaren — 115 points
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull — 99 points
- George Russell, Mercedes — 93 points
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari — 53 points
- Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes — 48 points
- Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari — 41 points
- Alex Albon, Williams — 30 points
- Esteban Ocon, Haas — 14 points
- Lance Stroll, Aston Martin — 14 points
(Top photo: Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
