MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — McLaren Racing’s Oscar Piastri claimed his series-best and career-high fourth victory of the season in the Formula One CRYPTO.com Miami Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Australian surged forward from a fourth-place start to the lead by Lap 15 of the 57-lap race and held off his teammate, 2024 Miami race winner Lando Norris, by 4.630 seconds. George Russell was a distant third.
“I remember two years ago in Miami we were genuinely the slowest team, I think we got lapped twice,” Piastri said. “To now have won the grand prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result.”
Piastri made his race-winning move around pole-winner and two-time Miami winner Max Verstappen at the Miami International Autodrome. After exchanging positions three times in three laps, Norris finally got around Verstappen too and raced off to chase his teammate, ultimately claiming second.
Mercedes AMG driver Russell passed Verstappen during a pit stop exchange on Lap 27 and held off the four-time and reigning F1 champion in the remaining laps to complete the podium.
“At the end of the race when you have to keep Max behind you, it’s never easy,” Russell conceded.
Piastri’s victory, the sixth of his career, marks the first time in 28 years that a McLaren Racing driver has won three consecutive races — two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen last doing so for the team back in 1997-98.
Most importantly, Piastri extended his championship lead to 16 points over Norris heading into the next race, May 16-18 at the Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna in Italy.
“To come away with a win Sunday is an impressive result,” Piastri said, noting his runner-up in Saturday’s sprint race. “Once I knew we had a good pace and advantage, the car’s pace was incredible today.”
McLaren becomes the first team to finish 1-2 in a sprint and grand prix doubleheader weekend, and American team principal Zak Brown celebrated the work of his two 24-year-old drivers with a selfie on pit road after they climbed out of their cars.
Overcast skies and a perennial threat of rain in a normally sunny month of May in South Florida never dampened the competition or the mood from the fans.
The race was spirited from green to checkered flag — at times including fierce racing among teammates. Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton exchanged positions throughout the closing laps, ultimately finishing seventh and eighth. The Williams Racing team with drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz scored 17 points Sunday after the team earned only a total of 14 points in the entire 2024 season. Albon finished a season-best fifth and Sainz was ninth.
–Holly Cain, Field Level Media
