McLaren's Piastri claims dominant win in Miami

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Oscar Piastri extended his championship lead to 16 points with a victory ahead of teammate Lando Norris at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday.

No other driver, including reigning champion Max Verstappen who started from pole position, had the pace to match the two McLarens, with Piastri securing his fourth victory of the season by 4.6 seconds ahead of Norris.

Norris, who started from second position, attempted to pass Verstappen for the lead in the opening corner of the race, but found himself hung out to dry on the outside of Turn 2 and dropped to fifth as Piastri moved up to third position from fourth on the grid.

Piastri passed Andrea Kimi Antonelli for second place on Lap 4 while Norris recovered to third place by Lap 9.

Over the next nine laps, Verstappen provided a defensive masterclass, holding off Piastri until Lap 14 and Norris until Lap 18.

The superior pace of the McLarens was clear to see, but Verstappen positioned his Red Bull in all the right places to delay the inevitable.

Once the two McLarens were in clear air at the front of the pack, their one-two never looked in doubt, with Piastri managing the closing gap to his teammate.

Norris attempted to close in and chipped away at his teammate's lead over the second half of the race, but ultimately was unable to muster a genuine challenge.

The result means Piastri has extended his championship lead for the second race since taking the lead of the standings at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Piastri said in a post-race interview he knew to avoid Verstappen at Turn 1.

"I won the race that I really wanted to after a tricky day on Saturday.

"To come away with a win is an impressive result. I was aware enough to avoid Max in Turn 1 and I knew I had a pace advantage. I was struggling on the hard tyres but I had built a gap, there is still stuff to work on. We are constantly learning.

"Two years ago at Miami we were the slowest team. I think we were lapped twice. Now to have won the Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result."

Similarly, Norris said Verstappen "put up a good fight as always: "I paid the price, but it's the way it is. What can I say? If I don't go for it, people complain. If I go for it, people complain, so you can't win.

"But it is the way it is with Max, it's crash or don't pass. Unless you get it really right and you put him in the perfect position, then you can just about get there. I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today, but I'm still happy with second," he said.

George Russell secured third place for Mercedes after benefitting from a pit stop under a Virtual Safety Car, which was deployed to remove the broken-down Haas of Oliver Bearman from the side of the race track.

Russell said he was pleased with a podium result.

"Really happy to come away with P3," he said afterwards. "I've been struggling this weekend personally and always on the backfoot."

Verstappen, who had pitted under normal racing conditions, had to settle for fourth place despite his heroics in the opening laps, meaning he is now 32 points adrift of Piastri after losing 20 points to the McLaren driver over the course of the entire Miami Grand Prix sprint race weekend.

Alex Albon matched his best result of the season with a fifth-place finish ahead of Antonelli, who also lost out on track position in the pit stops.

A disappointing weekend for Ferrari concluded with a tense battle between its drivers over seventh and eighth.

Running differing tyre strategies, Hamilton cruised up behind Leclerc on Lap 36 as his medium tyres offered better performance than Leclerc's hards.

Ferrari initially told Hamilton to remain one-second behind Leclerc to benefit from DRS while maintaining postion, but the driver of car 44 replied saying: "This is not good teamwork, that's all I'm going to say."

Hamilton added in a separate message: "In China I got out the way [for Leclerc]. Have a tea break while you're at it, come on."

On hearing that, Ferrari agreed to tell Leclerc to let Hamilton past, which he did on Lap 39.

Less than 15 laps later, Hamilton's tyres had started to go off and Leclerc was now on the radio asking to repass Hamilton so that he could chase Antonelli for sixth.

Again, the order took several laps to be enacted, with Leclerc finishing 3.1 seconds off the Mercedes at the finish.

Carlos Sainz secured ninth for Williams after attempting to pass Hamilton on the final lap, with Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda in tenth place.