McLaren drivers served opposing luck in Miami Sprint

Lando Norris was left celebrating his good fortune while Oscar Piastri cursed his luck after a late safety car saw Norris take victory in the Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix.

Piastri took the lead at Turn 1 on the opening lap from Kimi Antonelli, with Norris following his teammate through as Antonelli lost three positions in wet conditions. The McLaren pair ran closely as the track dried but Piastri was first to pit from the lead, with Norris set to lose time by coming in a lap later when Fernando Alonso crashed to bring out the safety car, allowing the Briton to retain the lead.

“My luck in Miami seems pretty good at the minute, so I’m happy,” Norris said. “But the pace was still very good. It’s always just difficult, these races. You never know when to box. If you box early, it paid off for Lewis and he had a good strategy. Or do you stay out later and maybe get the safety car?

“It’s worked two years in a row. I probably would prefer if this happened tomorrow rather than today, but I’ll take it. I’m happy. Good job by the team. It was good fun.”

Norris only gets eight points for his victory as it’s a Sprint race, but he says he’s confident of fighting for pole position again in qualifying later on Saturday given the pace he’s shown so far this weekend.

“That’s the plan, but it’s tricky,” he said. “You know that there’s a lot of quick guys out there, and I felt good yesterday, to be honest. A couple of mistakes, but I’m ready to go again.”

Piastri, however, said on team radio that he wouldn’t be buying a lottery ticket in Miami anytime soon after also being hurt by a safety car at the same venue last year.

“I feel like I did pretty much everything right there,” Piastri said. “Obviously a bit disappointed to come away with second, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Unfortunately, racing is a pretty cruel business. Hopefully that means I got a bit of luck for this afternoon and tomorrow, but still another great start, and I had to get my elbows out on that one. Happy with what I did.

“We had a little bit of pace on the table in Sprint qualifying yesterday, and hopefully we can use that for qualifying this afternoon. It will be nice if the weather could make up its mind. I’ve been enjoying it. I think we got a quick car underneath, so we’ll try and make it even quicker and have a bit of an easier race tomorrow.”