McLaren destroys F1 rivals in Miami GP as Piastri wins again

McLaren utterly dominated Formula 1's 2025 Miami Grand Prix, with both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris working their way past poleman Max Verstappen.

Heavy threatened - and was even expected - but never materialised, so the two drivers' early battles with Verstappen proved decisive in Piastri romping away to a third successive grand prix win.

Piastri now leads Norris by 16 points in the standings, with Verstappen another 16 back, and George Russell a further six back.

Another Verstappen/Norris flashpoint

Verstappen looked marginally slower than Norris launching off the front row, so darted to his right to cover the McLaren off - doing so successfully but seemingly compromising his Turn 1 entry in the process.

His lock-up opened the door for Norris to draw alongside him, but going in the other direction at Turn 2 Verstappen closed the door sharply, with Norris forced to take to the run-off and dropping from second to sixth.

Verstappen then withstood an attack from the next driver up, Kimi Antonelli, but it wouldn't be the Mercedes he'd need to worry about.

A brief virtual safety car interruption - triggered by a Turn 1 collision between Jack Doohan and Liam Lawson, Doohan getting crowded out onto the inside kerb in the melee and sustaining a race-ending puncture in the contact - was followed by the two McLarens unleashing their superb pace.

While Norris - having complained of being forced off by Verstappen, who the stewards felt had done nothing untoward - worked his way from sixth to third, Piastri quickly moved up to second as the VSC lifted, then swiftly reeled in and began to hound Verstappen.

On lap 11, with rain forecast to hit the track in mere minutes, he drew alongside Verstappen into Turn 1 but had no cards to play on the outside line - but Verstappen's desperate defence into the same corner three laps later ended with the Dutchman overcooking the entry and rejoining behind Piastri.

By then Norris was already right behind them, and he tried his own Turn 1 move on Verstappen the lap after, but was again ushered out wide by the Red Bull.

Over the next few laps Norris just could not find a way past, and once he finally did - at Turn 12 - he did not keep his car on the track while lunging down the inside, so gave the place back. The following lap, lap 18, the Turn 12 move did come off - except now Norris found himself staring at a gap of nearly nine seconds to his team-mate.

It would close up to four seconds at the flag, but Piastri's win never looked under real threat.

VSC alters the podium

McLaren's performance in clean air meant the battles for first and second were effectively over after that first stint - but a battle for third looked on still, and the timing of another race interruption changed it in a big way.

Mercedes' attempt to undercut Verstappen was dashed by a slow pitstop for Antonelli on lap 25, but Red Bull still responded by bringing in Verstappen on the following lap - while Antonelli's team-mate Russell had stayed out.

Unlike the McLarens, or Verstappen, or Antonelli, Russell had started the race on the hard rather than the medium so was well-positioned to extend his stint in search of a race interruption - and got his wish in the form of Ollie Bearman's Haas parking up with what looked like a boilerplate power unit failure.

The resulting virtual safety car interruption allowed 'cheaper' pitstops for the leading McLarens - who pitted from first and second and rejoined in first and second - as well as Russell and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

And though the VSC period ended while Russell was still in the pits - and though his pitstop, 4.5s, was distinctly poor like Antonelli's - he still rejoined ahead of Verstappen on a softer tyre.

He would finish half a minute behind the McLarens, but withstood any hint of an attack from Verstappen to bring home a podium finish.

Antonelli's slow pitstop ended up nearly costing him position to Williams driver Alex Albon, and he then did lose out to Albon in green-flag racing, with Albon scoring a fifth place for Williams.

Ferrari team order angst

As much of the weekend prior had suggested, Ferrari did not have the pace to influence the race out front - but wound up with a nervy situation on its hands anyway in its battle with Antonelli and the Williams cars.

Leclerc's pitstop was part-covered by the Bearman VSC but Hamilton's had been covered fully, allowing him to minimise the time loss in swapping from hards to mediums and bringing him out close behind his team-mate while on a softer tyre.

Once both cleared Carlos Sainz - Leclerc forcing him wide at Turn 1 and Hamilton taking advantage - they spent several laps running in tandem as Hamilton grew increasingly exasperated on team radio. He'd indicated he was faster and was befuddled when told by Ferrari originally that it simply wanted him to say in Leclerc's DRS.

Hamilton eventually brought up the fact he ceded to Leclerc in the Chinese Grand Prix, and as he was told a swap was being ordered, he replied sarcastically: "Have a tea break while you're at it!"

But Hamilton hardly broke away once ordered ahead, and wasn't closing on Antonelli quickly enough for Ferrari's liking. The team soon asked to swap back - though once that didn't come off at the first attempt Leclerc told the team to hold off and focus on reeling in Antonelli.

But Hamilton waved him by on the next lap anyway, before asking the team - when informed of the gap to Sainz - whether it wanted him to let the Spaniard through as well.

He nearly did, too, just seeing off Sainz - who, alongside 13th-place finisher Pierre Gasly is under investigation for a potential yellow flag infringement - after contact at Turn 13 on the final lap, which had come from a Sainz lunge. That contact is also under investigation.

Yuki Tsunoda was 10th for Red Bull, picking up a five-second penalty for speeding in the pits that nearly gifted Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar the place instead, with Hadjar finishing 5.2s back.

Hadjar's team-mate Lawson was among the retirements, calling it a day in the pits as his race never recovered from the initial Doohan contact.

Joining Lawson, Doohan and Bearman among the DNFs was Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto, whose Sauber expired to bring out a very short third VSC period.