Miami Grand Prix latest: Oscar Piastri finishes second in sprint race, fourth in qualifying
Dudded by a safety car in the sprint race, Oscar Piastri will have it all to do in the main event after opening the door for his title rivals in a tight qualifying session.
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Australia’s Oscar Piastri has qualified fourth fastest - his worst result this season - for Monday morning’s Miami Grand Prix just hours after a luckless second place in a wild sprint race in south Florida.
While Piastri couldn’t cut a break, four-time world champion Max Verstappen took pole position - his third of the season - after smashing the track record at the high-speed street circuit.
Piastri’s McLaren team mate Lando Norris qualified second after winning the sprint race earlier in the day courtesy of a badly timed safety car while Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli was third so will start on the second row of the grid, alongside Piastri.
The Australian’s fourth-place was his worst qualifying result in six races this season, but he still leads the drivers’ championship by nine points and is hopeful of a better result in the race.
“Just got out of the rhythm a little bit. My best lap of qualifying was in Q2, so peaked a bit early, some might say,” a frustrated Piastri said.
“Just couldn’t get in the rhythm in Q3. The car was great and really deserved more today, unfortunately. Both laps in Q3 were quite scruffy and that’s the price you pay.
“I think it’s going to be tight at the front. We’re seeing how close qualifying has just been and it’s gonna be tough tomorrow to make progress.
“The weather’s not that straightforward around here either, so I think we can make progress but it is going to be difficult to do so.”
Miami has not been particularly kind to Piastri. In the 24 races last season, Miami was the only one where he didn’t finish in the top 10 but he’s not panicking.
“I’m still trying to get as many points as I can. It’s far too early to start thinking about the championship,” he said.
“I’ll be trying to make up as many places I can, but just to get a good result tomorrow over anything else.”
While the first four races in 2025 were won by the driver starting from pole, Piastri did manage to win from second on the grid in Saudi Arabia last month and Miami has not been kind to the fastest qualifiers since it was added to the world championship schedule in 2022.
In the three previous races at Miami, none of the drivers on pole have gone on to win the race.
In 2022, Charles Leclerc was on pole but Verstappen took the win.
Sergio Perez got pole position in 2023, but Verstappen won again.
In 2024, Verstappen did claim pole, but Norris went on to log the victory after getting another lucky break with a safety car.
Just days after he and his partner Kelly Piquet celebrated the birth of their daughter Lily, Verstappen delivered another masterful display to claim the 43rd pole position of his incredible career but said staying in front and winning the race would be difficult.
“It’s been a great qualifying. We’ve improved the car a tiny amount too, basically rotated it a bit better. I’m very happy to be on pole,” the Dutchman said.
“Race pace? I don’t know, we’ll have to wait and see for the weather. But the best starting position, that’s always positive. The race is a whole different story but we’ll try to maximise everything we can.”
Like Piastri, Norris, who is currently second in the championship race, was cursing himself for not getting the most out of his McLaren during qualifying.
“I’m happy with the progress I’ve been making with the car and myself. Max did a Max lap once again and I can’t fault him,” Norris said.
“It’s all should-of, could-of stuff and I didn’t deliver. The pace is there and the car is feeling good, I’ve been feeling better than I have done over the last few weekends.”
CRUEL BUSINESS ROBS PIASTRI
Starting from second on the grid in, the Australian was heading towards a comfortable victory after he overtook rookie pole sitter Kimi Antonelli on the first corner only to get passed by his McLaren teammate Lando Norris when the safety car was deployed in the closing laps.
“I feel like I did pretty much everything right so obviously a bit disappointed to come away with second but that’s how it goes sometimes,” Piastri said.
“Unfortunately, racing is a pretty cruel business.”
As the leading McLaren, Piastri went into the pits first to swap his intermediate tyres for medium compounds as the rain that had saturated the track and delayed the scheduled start finally stopped.
Norris followed Piastri into the pits on the next lap but the Englishman got a massive lucky break when Fernando Alonso crashed his Aston Martin into the wall, forcing the introduction of a safety car.
With all the cars who were still on the circuit ordered to slow down, Norris was able to rejoin the race just ahead of Piastri and retain the lead as the 19-lap sprint finished under a yellow flag.
The result brought back memories of last year when Norris claimed his first Grand Prix victory in Miami after the benefit of a safety car gifted him the lead but the Englishman wasn’t complaining.
“My luck in Miami seems pretty good at the minute, really happy,” Norris said.
“The pace was still very good but it’s just difficult these races, you never know when to box; do you box early, it paid off for Lewis (Hamilton), he had a good strategy, or do you stay out later and maybe get the safety car. It’s worked two years in a row.”
By finishing second, Piastri still claimed seven points to retain his lead in the drivers’ championship standings with 106 points.
Norris collected the maximum eight points to cut the overall gap to Piastri from 10 to nine.
Hamilton from the chaotic finish to claim third for Ferrari while Max Verstappen crossed the line fourth but was relegated to 17th after receiving a 10-second penalty for an unsafe release in the pit lane, which caused him to make contact with the unlucky Antonelli, damaging his Mercedes.
Red Bull accepted responsibility for the incident.
“We all don’t want that to happen but it happened so this is something we need to investigate,” Verstappen said.
“I’m just happy that no one got injured. With these cars, if you hit someone, it’s not great. It’s super clear what happened there so there is not much more for me to add.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the team was to blame for the incident, not Verstappen.
“It was human error and we’ll learn from it,” he said.
Verstappen remained third in the championship but has now fallen 19 points behind Piastri ahead of qualifying for Monday morning’s full Miami Grand Prix.
Already a two-time winner in sprints after winning at Qatar in 2023 and 2024, Piastri was unlucky not to log a third after a wild race that was delayed by heavy rain that saw Charles Leclerc crash his Ferrari during the formation lap.
Piastri swept past Antonelli at the opening corner when the Italian teenager made a slow getaway and ran wide to drop to fourth spot but when the track dried out, the timing of the pit stops changed the order.
A star on the rise, the 18-year-old Antonelli claimed his first pole position in F1 but finished out of the points in 10th place.
“It was a great opportunity but bit annoyed about lap one with how it went,” Antonelli said.
“I mean, it seems like it’s like this, that you can basically do whatever you want – so it’s good to know for the future.
“Definitely it’s a shame but luckily we have a qualifying to bounce back.”
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