Race Report: Piastri wins Miami GP

Oscar Piastri took his fourth win of the season at the 2025 Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix leading McLaren teammate Lando Norris and George Russell of Mercedes. McLaren were comprehensively dominant finishing 35s ahead of third place Russell after both Lando and Oscar had their own battles with pole-sitter Max Verstappen.

Win

A big win for Oscar Piastri who claimed his fourth win of the season and a good lead int he driver’s championship battle. McLaren were also winners as the circuit flattered their cars revealing just how much pace they are capable of and consolidating their constructor’s championship lead.

A win for George Russell who was on the back foot all weekend but his split strategy, starting on the Hard compound, worked a treat when he was aided by a Virtual Safety Car session giving him an undercut on Max Verstappen that he was able to hold on to for a podium finish.

Another win for Mercedes as Kimi Antonelli came home in 6th and sure, he lost a few spots from his qualifying position but this weekend was a key moment in his budding career with terrific qualifying results for both the Sprint and the Race. It’s clear the young phenom is worth all the praise.

A big win for Williams and both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz for a double-points finish. Alex had a good race to P5 and Carlos ended in P9. The finish pulls them up to fifth in the constructor’s championship ahead of Haas.

Fail

A fail might be a bit harsh but it wasn’t a great weekend for Red Bull who had pole position but it was clear Max Verstappen wasn’t convinced he had the race pace to retain that spot. As it turned out, Red Bull was quite a ways off the pace of McLaren in Miami. Yuki Tsunoda finished in P10 but also garnered a 5s penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

A fail for Lando Norris might be a bit too harsh, Lando just had another Max moment at turn one and struggled a bit to get by Max later in the race. He set the fastest lap but falls farther behind Oscar in the championship. The criticism is that he had the pace and should have ceded the position and just passed Max later but at that point, I don’t think McLaren or Lando knew just how much more pace they actually had so that’s a hindsight criticism.

A fail for Ferrari who were well off the pace all weekend long. The frustration for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc was evident on the radio during the race but to be fair, it has little to do with either driver and more to do with the team in general.

A fail for Haas F1’s Ollie Bearman with a PU failure, Jack Doohan and Liam Lawson with their clash at the start ending both their races and Gabriel Bortoleto’s Sauber who stopped on track.

Also a tough day in the office for Aston Martin and Haas with the former finishing at the back of the pack.

WTH

Carlos Sainz tried an aggressive move on Lewis Hamilton in the last lap and to be fair, Carlos said Lewis squeezed him and he was right, Lewis did take a much shallower line into the turn leaving no room. The two made it out of the corner but not after banging tires and cars with Lewis ahead. Some crafty driving by Lewis.

The race had 275K attendees over the weekend and it’s interesting they haven’t found more ways to create seating to get more bottoms in seats. Must be a difficult layout and facility to get more seats in when you consider that COTA has near 400K.

Pirelli Report:

As predicted prior to the event, on the grid the drivers were split into two groups, 13 of them opting for the Medium tyre for the first stint, thus adhering to the theoretically quicker strategy and the rest who went with the Hard, banking on being able to delay the pit stop window, in the hope of making the most of a safety car period in which to pit, or to deal with the possibility of rain, the threat of which was there throughout the race.

Two drivers shared the longest stint of 36 laps on a set of Hards, Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber and Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin. As for the Medium, 29 laps was the longest stint, accomplished by both McLaren drivers and the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc who drove his first stint on the C4 and Lewis Hamilton who used it for his second stint.

Miami GP Results: