McLaren’s Oscar Piastri made it three wins on the bounce with victory in the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix amid the backdrop of the Hard Rock Stadium.
A Lap 1 confrontation between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris paved the way for the Australian to take victory, with his McLaren team-mate fighting back to claim second.
George Russell lucked out with a nicely timed Virtual Safety Car to leapfrog into podium contention, but such was McLaren’s advantage, he was half a minute behind.
Hours before lights out, torrential rain aborted the second F1 Academy race, but conditions had dried out considerably in time for the GP.
But, and a very big but, the threat of rain loomed very large as many anticipated a race of mixed conditions.
Verstappen lined up from pole, alongside 2024 GP and 2025 Miami Sprint victor Norris.
Behind them, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Piastri were set to reignite their Turn1 battle that characterised the start of the Sprint.
George Russell, starting fifth, was an outlier in the top-10, opting for Hard tyres as opposed to Mediums.
His choice was copied by Lewis Hamilton, starting in 12th, plus Liam Lawson (15th), Nico Hulkenberg (16th), Fernando Alonso (17th), Oliver Bearman (19th) and Pierre Gasly (pit-lane).
Drama at the start
Lights out and 57 laps began and Verstappen locked up at Turn 1, giving Norris room to challenge into Turn 2 but the McLaren driver made a mess of his challenge, losing out, escaping to the run off and dropping four places.
“He forced me off,” Norris said of Verstappen.
Did Norris have a point?
Replays were unclear, elbows out from Verstappen, perhaps and not enough room given, or a slip from the Dutchman in low grip that caused him to impede Norris’ advances?
That left Antonelli in second with Piastri, Russell and the Williams of Alex Albon behind.
Verstappen stretched away from the chaos on the opening tour of the Miami International Autodrome as a scrappy Antonelli fought to keep Piastri at bay behind, but a lock-up into Turn 1 on Lap 2 made the Italian’s job all the harder.
That was until the race was neutralised via a Virtual Safety Car, triggered by the Alpine of Jack Doohan, who was pinched at Turn 1 at the start of the GP.
Liam Lawson was punted into a spin as a result, and was thoroughly disgruntled.
A puncture brought the Australian’s Alpine to a halt, and the VSC was needed to clear his car.
Racing speeds resumed on Lap 3 and the McLarens made some moves.
Piastri took second from Antonelli at Turn 11, and Norris poached fifth from Albon at the same corner, as Verstappen streaked into a one-second lead.
Piastri poached a fastest lap on the following tour as he sought to chase Verstappen, who was fighting to keep the Aussie out of DRS range, which he managed to do by Lap 5, the same instance which saw Albon fall back another place, this time courtesy of his Williams team-mate Carlos Sainz.
“Possible rain in 20 minutes. It will be heavy if it hits.”
That was the call made to Fernando Alonso on Lap 6, just as race control noted the first-lap incident between Verstappen and Norris.
The review was swift, and the result: ‘no further investigation.’
Norris, the bit between his teeth, made a fine move on Russell to take fourth on Lap 7 in the fast sweeping curves of Sector 1, the second Mercedes of Antonelli his next target.
Russell was struggling on the Hards, falling into DRS range of the Williams pair as Norris surged forward to catch the other Mercedes.
Meanwhile, the two leaders flirted in and out of DRS range.
Piastri was warned on Lap 9 that Lap 14 would see heavy rain skirt through the circuit, as Norris pinched Antonelli’s third-place spot at Turn 11.
Further back, Alonso spun at the very same turn.
The McLarens battle Verstappen
Piastri, gearing up for a challenge, hooked himself on the rear wing of Verstappen’s Red Bull through the complex second sector on Lap 10.
He maintained his challenge down through to the start/finish straight and attempted an outside move at Turn 1, but the Dutchman defended well.
DRS down to Turn 11 on lap 11 helped Piastri challenge again, but Verstappen, once again, held firm.
“Stay on the inside Max, make him work for it,” said Gianpiero Lambiase over team radio.
Norris, meanwhile, was closing in, 2.4s back by Lap 12 and setting the timing screens purple.
“It’s super slippery to drive,” was Verstappen’s call to his Race Engineer as he towed Piastri onto Lap 13, Norris now 2.2s back.
Piastri finally got the move done at Turn 1 at the start of Lap 14, diving hard on the outside, Verstappen running deep, letting the McLaren through and into the lead.
That error brought Norris right back into play and on the Dutchman’s tail, ready to make amends for Lap 1.
Norris tried the move on Lap 15, but couldn’t manage the pass as his team-mate had done so a lap earlier.
Verstappen, for the time being, held onto second as Piastri opened up a three-second lead.
Lap 17 saw Norris get ahead, both cars running deep at Turn 11, the papaya machine emerging in second.
The dubious nature of the move meant he had to hand the position back into the Turn 17 hairpin.
This fight enabled Piastri to streak into an eight-second lead, and Norris needed to make a cleaner move at Turn 11 on Lap 18.
Even more vital was that the McLaren driver held off any rebuttal from his Red Bull rival.
Norris’ lengthy battle was costly, he now had a nine-second deficit to his team-mate, who controlled from the front.
Meanwhile, Hard tyres went on Gabriel Bortoleto’s Sauber at the back of the field, the Hinwil-based outfit gambling that rain wouldn’t arrive.
It was a course of action that Lance Stroll mimicked on Lap 21.
In the middle of the pack, Hamilton was fighting to take the final points-paying position off of Esteban Ocon, and it took one hell of a Lap 22 scrap to do so, wheel to wheel through the middle sector before taking 10th into Turn 17.
Ocon responded by pitting a lap later, with Isack Hadjar, another midfield runner, having pitted during the Haas/Ferrari scrap.
Back at the front, the McLaren duo were evenly matched, meaning the gap remained at 8.5s between Piastri and Norris on Lap 25.
But the papaya pair had checked out from the rest of the field, as Verstappen languished eight seconds further behind in a lonely third.
Anotnelli, Sainz and Tsunoda were the first trio in the top-10 to stop, on Lap 26, the former attempting to undercut Verstappen.
Verstappen and Albon responded a lap later, the former conceding his fight was with Mercedes rather than McLaren.
Red Bull covered off Antonelli easily, who struggled to keep Albon at bay as the Anglo-Thai driver emerged, a slow Mercedes stop almost proving costly.
Tsunoda shed his Mediums for Hards on Lap 28, returning to the action behind Oliver Bearman to take 13th.
Virtual Safety Car beneficial for Russell
Bearman’s car slowed dramatically with a technical fault and Lap 29 called the VSC into action for the second time as the stricken Haas caused a problem for race control, stopping at Turn 8.
This timed well for Hamilton, who could take a shorter-than-usual stop and McLaren then called its drivers in to pit on Lap 30 to double-box.
Piastri and Norris smoothly shed their Mediums for Hards and returned to action just in time for the VSC to end.
The VSC ended just as Russell pit to shed his Hards for Mediums and that gave him a cheap pit-stop move over Verstappen to leapfrog himself into fifth.
Charles Leclerc stopped shortly after Russell, emerging on Hards in seventh.
The top nine had all stopped at this point, Lap 31, but the order was shuffling as the Williams duo was on a charge.
Albon expertly made his way past Antonelli at Turn 1 to take fifth, as Sainz dispatched Leclerc to take seventh at the same corner.
That meant the order on Lap 32 was Piastri, Norris, Russell, Verstappen, Albon, Antonelli, Sainz, Leclerc and Hamilton across the top nine, with 10th-placed Hulkenberg yet to stop.
Hamilton, at this point, was catching his team-mate, who wasn’t giving up on reclaiming the lost position from his former Ferrari colleague Sainz.
But then the VSC neutralised the race for the third time as Bortoleto’s car came to a halt down the back straight on Lap 33.
Ferrari squabbles to the end
The VSC ended on Lap 34 and Sainz had two Ferraris bearing down on him down the back straight.
Sadly, his dogged defence of Leclerc meant he lost out to both at Turn 1 as Lap 35 commenced.
The tyre discrepancy between the two Ferraris meant Hamilton, on Mediums, was being held up by Leclerc, and the Briton debated with his Race Engineer about being granted the position.
After several laps of deliberation and Hamilton’s dismay over team radio, Ferrari made the call on Lap 39 to swap the two Ferraris, releasing the No.44 machine to chase after sixth-placed Antonelli, who was 5.2s up the road.
“Have a tea break while you’re at it,” Hamilton fumed after he was finally let go.
During that saga, Lawson was forced to retire, his sidepod damage from Lap 1 becoming too much pain to bear.
The Ferrari saga wasn’t up, however, as Hamilton couldn’t gap Leclerc sufficiently and the Monegasque driver made the call over the radio that he needed his team-mate to speed up.
As the laps ticked towards the race’s denouement, two narratives emerged.
First, a battle for third, with Verstappen bearing down on Russell to the tune of 1.6s by Lap 44.
The McLaren boys in front were running in formation, separated by six seconds.
But perhaps Norris wanted to change that, and a second narrative thread was born with him cutting the deficit to 4.7s by Lap 47.
Was it too little, too late?
With 10 laps to go it had gone down to four seconds, making it a tall order for Norris to rein Piastri in.
Piastri and Russell held their respective margins to those behind, four and one and a half seconds respectively, level through the next few laps with the challenges of Norris and Verstappen cooling slightly.
Norris brought the gap down to 3.8s wth five laps remaining as it looked as if Piastri had just enough to manage the lead to the chequered flag.
Meanwhile, Ferrari fussed about swapping their cars back around, Hamilton’s pursuit of Antonelli having failed.
Turn 11, saw Leclerc handed seventh back by Hamilton with four and half laps to recover three seconds to Antonelli.
Piastri completes Miami GP victory
However, everyone held station as Piastri crossed the line to lead a McLaren one-two and take his third win on the bounce to extend his Championship lead by a further seven points over team-mate Norris, who crossed the line in second.
Russell took a lonely third in the end with Verstappen missing out on a podium.
Albon took a triumphant fifth for Williams ahead of Antonelli, as the squabbling Ferraris came home in seventh and eighth.
Sainz and Tsunoda rounded out the top-10.
READ MORE – Oscar Piastri rues bad luck amid ‘cruel’ F1 Miami GP Sprint loss
