McLaren recover from early race bobbles to deliver masterclass in Miami, as Piastri takes dominant victory, Norris P2 ahead of Mercedes’ Russell; pole-sitting Verstappen settles for P4; tensions boil over at Ferrari en route to mediocre results

Six rounds into the 2025 Formula 1 season, the trend lines are becoming clear — that McLaren are the dominant team — and that was thoroughly reinforced during Sunday’s Miami grand Prix. In F1’s first of three visits to the United States, McLaren stomped their authority on the race despite a shambolic start by their top-placed car, Lando Norris, with Oscar Piastri pouncing on his teammate’s pace to position himself for the eventual victory. With Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen starting from pole after another excellent effort during Saturday Qualifying and Norris lining up alongside him in P2 on the grid, Norris went for the hyper-aggressive option when the lights went out and the cars steamed down into Turn 1 of the temporary Miami International Autodrome. While Verstappen has made a habit of going toe-to-toe with the McLaren duo this year, in one instance earning a race-deciding penalty in Saudi Arabia for cutting a chicane to maintain the lead against Piastri on the opening lap, here it was Norris who forced the issue and faced the consequences as a result. The young Briton attempted to stuff his McLaren up the inside after Verstappen locked up briefly into T1, putting himself on the outside line heading into Turn 2. While the bold move briefly gave Norris the lead, Verstappen was able to squeeze Norris off the track there, where the McLaren driver lost multiple positions as the lead pack scurried by him, quickly relegating him to sixth.

A frenetic first few corners in Miami 😱

The Red Bull of Max Verstappen just keeps hold of his lead on the opening lap ⬇️#F1 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/e2GKtq9KM5

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 4, 2025

Despite Norris’s protestations, Verstappen’s racing was judged to be clean and no sanctions were issued. That kerfuffle redounded to teammate Piastri’s benefit and the young Aussie and currrent Championship points leader, who had only qualified P4, was quickly promoted to third place on the track. After a brief Virtual Safety Car caused by the unlucky Jack Doohan’s puncture and subsequent on-track DNF, Piastri quickly made a Lap 4 overtaking maneuver on Mercedes’ promising young pilot, Kimi Antonelli, to seize P2 behind Verstappen. Norris meanwhile used his MCL39’s superior pace to quickly dispatch the Williams of Alexander Albon, the second Mercedes of George Russell and then Antonelli, working himself back up into a podium position after his disappointing opening lap. In front of all that, Piastri was relentlessly hunting down Verstappen’s Red Bull, and despite the Dutch Master’s best defensive efforts, Piastri made the decisive pass on him for the lead of the race on Lap 14 when Verstappen went too deep into Turn 1 and allowed the McLaren to slide on by. While Verstappen was able to hold off Norris for a few more laps, the second McLaren finally made a move that stuck for second place on Lap 18 even after a major, multi-lap battle saw Norris actually give the position back earlier in the lap for forcing the Red Bull off.

Parallel passing for the McLaren pairing 😮‍💨💨

These moves from Piastri and Norris were crucial overtakes on the way to their 1-2 finish 🙌#F1 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/MjFWQBesIR

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 5, 2025

All to say that the Miami GP was a very exciting affair throughout its 57-lap duration, despite the fact that Piastri checked out to an insurmountable lead and pulled teammate Norris along with him, showing that McLaren, having now won five of the first six rounds, are clearly the benchmark for this season and the odds-on favorite to win a second consecutive Constructors’ title. The rest of the field, however, scratched and clawed their way to the finish line in a sign of growing parity between teams not outfitted in Papaya orange. Russell was able to deny the last step on the podium from Verstappen and secure P3 after taking advantage of another VSC period on Lap 29 to make a cheap pit stop and thereby getting the track position drop on the Dutchman. While Red Bull protested that Russell had failed to lift sufficiently during the yellow flags prior, the stewards rejected that contention post-race, and Russell kept his third podium finish of what has so far been a very good season for him. A resigned Verstappen remained in P4 at the conclusion despite the pole start, while Williams’ Albon bested Antonelli, P5 to P6, an excellent result for both Albon and the rapidly improving Williams team. It was still an fine weekend for young Kimi, the Italian driver having taken pole for the Sprint race and qualified P3 for the Grand Prix, if not quite getting the same results in the races themselves.

Swapping positions 🔄

Ferrari were left wanting more in Miami 👇#F1 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/93m7cmKr38

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 5, 2025

Ferrari had both a disheartening and contentious day in the saddle in Miami, with Charles Leclerc only able to elevate himself to P7 after a P8 start and Lewis Hamilton working very hard to get up to a P8 finish after a poor qualifying saw the seven-time champ start from a lowly P12 on the grid. Despite the desultory results, there was a lot of spicy team friction during the race, as Hamilton lambasted the pit wall’s perceived indecision in deciding when and where to swap the Prancing Horses after another VSC period on Laps 28-29 to take advantage of Hamilton’s then-fresher Medium Pirelli tires versus Leclerc’s Hards. While the decision was eventually made to swap the positions, and after Hamilton scathingly suggested the engineers should just have a tea break for a think, the life in Hamilton’s tires had been wasted and the opportunities for further gains agains the P6 Antonelli evaporated. The disgruntled Scuderia duo were eventually obliged to swap back and the rest of us viewers were left to wish to be a fly on the wall during the post-race Ferrari debrief.

The second Williams of Carlos Sainz gave it his all, including a feisty late race showdown with Hamilton, en route to a solid P9 finish. And Yuki Tsunoda scored for Red Bull for the second race in a row by taking P10 despite a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pits on his one and only Lap 27 stop.

Top 10 finishers of the Miami GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight with a trip to the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, better known as Imola, for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in the bucolic heart of Italy. Can McLaren retain their sheer dominance at a very different circuit from Miami, or will Red Bull and Verstappen retake the initiative after a few weeks of fine tuning? And can Ferrari get on the same page and achieve a better result in the year’s first visit to their home country? Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

Piastri romps to victory in Shanghai, Norris manages brake issues to deliver McLaren 1-2; Russell solid for Mercedes in P3; Verstappen maximizes results in P4; both Ferraris shockingly DQ’d after post-race technical infractions

McLaren cemented their status as the early season favorites to win a second consecutive Formula 1 Constructors’ Title with a dominant performance at Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix. The impressive young Aussie, Oscar Piastri, converted his pole position start at the Shanghai International Circuit into a drama-free victory, while teammate Lando Norris did face some stress-inducing deteriorating brake issues late in the race but was still able to nurse his MCL39 to a second place finish. While nobody else really had anything for the dominant Papaya duo over the course of 55 sometimes static laps, Mercedes’ George Russell was best of the rest and managed to get himself on the podium in P3 ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The current World Champ maximized what has so far been the disappointing pace of the RB21, making a strong move to get that final position to overtake the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc on Lap 53.

Verstappen 🆚 Leclerc

Max gets by with a mega move but Charles fought back hard 🍿#F1 #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/2Z0AU9loNf

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 23, 2025

While that relegated Leclerc to P5 at the finish and new Scuderia teammate Lewis Hamilton trailed him in P6 after an unsuccessful two-stop strategy gambit, it got much worse for the Ferrari duo after post-race inspection. Both Prancing Horses were unceremoniously disqualified for rules infractions, Leclerc for being underweight even accounting for a damaged front wing that he ran essentially the entire race with, and Hamilton for a too-thin skid plank. While other teams have gone on to win the Constrcutors’ title when both their cars failed to finish in a race — see Mercedes in 2016 when Rosberg & Hamilton took each other out in Spain — it was still a bitter blow to Ferrari’s hopes of toppling McLaren and perhaps even trying to stay in front of Mercedes and Red Bull, as all the joy from Saturday’s Sprint victory for Hamilton ebbed away in the harsh reality of a zero-points Grand Prix Sunday.

Why Hamilton, Leclerc and Gasly were all disqualified from the Chinese Grand Prix… ❌

Read our full explanation on our website, covering all the key details and the fine margins involved 👇#F1 #ChineseGPhttps://t.co/RrJ7XpLxEs

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 24, 2025

Obviously, Maranello’s stunning misfortune in China redounded to the benefit of those who originally finished behind them on the day. Haas F1 was the biggest beneficiary, with a motivated Esteban Ocon being promoted up to P5 and rookie Oliver Bearman, who drove a superb race with a passel of mid-pack passes along the way, elevated to P8. It was a fairly epic and much needed result on what was already looking like a very good day a week after scoring zero in the rains of Melbourne. The second Merc of Kimi Antonelli, who struggled in traffic all race long,  was lifted to a rather less mediocre P6, while the excellent efforts of Williams Alexander Albon, who ran an extra long first stint, was rewarded with P7. Albon’s new teammate Carlos Sainz took the last point in P10 despite a mysterious race-long lack of pace, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who also made the most of a very long opening stint, finished P9 after starting a lowly P14.

Top 10 finishers of the Chinese GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in a fortnight’s time — an early spring arrival of the Japanese Grand Prix from the legendary Suzuka Circuit. The teams get a much needed week off after two races on the trot to start 2025 and the other ostensible contenders will be keen to make some progress during that brief interim and get on terms with what is looking like a supreme McLaren hot rod and two pilots who can win on any given Sunday. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!