Oscar Piastri tightened his grip on the 2025 World Championship in emphatic style at the Miami Grand Prix, claiming his fourth win of the season with a lights-to-flag masterclass that left the rest of the grid scrambling in his wake. McLaren teammate Lando Norris completed a resounding 1-2 finish for the papaya squad, underscoring their dominance on the streets of Florida.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen may have started from pole, but once the lights went out, his afternoon unravelled with surprising speed. A skirmish with Norris saw the Briton run wide, opening the door for both Piastri and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli to slip through. From there, the Australian bided his time before dispatching the rookie Mercedes driver and setting off in pursuit of the lead.
Verstappen, meanwhile, faded under mounting pressure, with Piastri eventually making a decisive move to snatch the front-running position. Norris, recovering from his earlier excursion, wasn’t far behind, sailing past the struggling Red Bull and securing McLaren’s iron grip on the top two steps of the podium.
From there, it was cruise control for the Woking-based outfit. By the chequered flag, Piastri had stretched a 4.6-second lead over Norris, with both McLarens seemingly operating in a different category of performance. The gap to third? A sobering 37 seconds, as George Russell salvaged what he could for Mercedes with the final podium slot.
Verstappen’s rough afternoon continued with a P4 finish, extending Miami’s peculiar curse where no polesitter has ever won. Williams’ Alex Albon was a standout in fifth, fending off a spirited charge from Kimi Antonelli, who crossed the line sixth in the second Mercedes.
Ferrari endured another tactically tangled race, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finishing seventh and eighth after a late-race game of musical chairs involving team orders. Hamilton briefly moved ahead on strategy before the Scuderia reversed the call, handing the place back to Leclerc in a move that will no doubt ignite further intra-team scrutiny.
Carlos Sainz, now at Williams, clashed with Hamilton in the dying laps but ultimately held on to ninth—pending a stewards’ review for potential yellow flag infringements. Yuki Tsunoda took the final point in tenth for Red Bull after a quiet but efficient drive.
Rookie Isack Hadjar narrowly missed the points in 11th, ahead of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, whose post-race fate also hangs in the balance due to another yellow flag incident.
Further down the order, Nico Hülkenberg brought home Kick Sauber’s lead car in 14th, while Aston Martin endured a forgettable outing with Alonso and Stroll trundling home in 15th and 16th respectively.
The race wasn’t without casualties—Jack Doohan was the first to bow out on Lap 1 after clashing with Liam Lawson. Lawson himself later retired, while mechanical issues ended the day for both Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Haas’ Ollie Bearman, triggering a pair of Virtual Safety Cars.
McLaren’s Miami masterclass sends a clear message: the papaya cars mean business. And as Piastri continues to build a commanding lead in the championship, the rest of the field may soon find themselves racing for second.
