Oscar Piastri finishes outside the points at Miami Grand Prix as Lando Norris claims maiden win
A run of bad luck cost Oscar Piastri at the Miami Grand Prix, with the Australian coming out worse in a running battle with a Ferrari before being reprimanded for taking on Daniel Ricciardo.
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Australian young gun Oscar Piastri was served a blunt warning by his own team as the McLaren driver’s aggressive racing threatened to put in jeopardy teammate Lando Norris and his quest for a stunning breakthrough F1 victory.
Piastri was running 16th with just five laps remaining in the Miami Grand Prix as he engaged in side-by-side racing with fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo.
But with leader Norris five seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and on target for his first ever race win, the last thing McLaren needed was a late safety car bringing the field back together again.
McLaren bosses made it clear to Piastri he was to drive sensibly as Norris closed in on one of the most memorable F1 victories in recent times.
“Oscar, reminder Lando is leading the race here, we do not want a safety car here,” McLaren engineers told Piastri over team radio.
Piastri had earlier been on target for his own podium, running second over the opening half of the race before pit stop strategies saw him drop to fourth.
A battle with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz ended with Piastri suffering front wing damage, which meant the Australian had to pit and fall out of top 10 contention and finish in 14th.
The incident was being investigated by stewards after the race.
Piastri and Sainz had been in a running battle for fourth place, with the Ferrari racer adamant the Australian had pushed him wide in lap 35. The Spaniard was adamant Piastri should have been told to give him the position, but stewards cleared the McLaren driver.
But the day belonged to Norris.
He dropped as low as seventh from the start but moved through the field and was in the race lead as the only top driver yet to complete the mandatory pit stop so benefitted most from the mid race collision between Logan Sargeant and Kevin Magnussen to emerge from his pit stop well ahead of Verstappen.
What happened on the restart though was perhaps unforeseen, with Norris bolting clear of the raging Red Bull in a show of superior speed not seen in F1 in the past few years.
It was McLaren’s first race victory since Daniel Ricciardo won at Monza in 2021 and the first win for Norris in his career after he finished runner up to Ricciardo in that same race.
“I love you all, I love you all, thank you so much. We did it. We did it,” an emotional Norris said on the team radio after he won.
In the post race interview Norris couldn’t contain his elation.
“It’s about time ha. F***,” he said.
“It has been a long time coming and I’m so happy I finally delivered for them.
“I’m finally on top so I’m over the moon.
“Today we managed to put it together. We had the perfect strategy.
“I’m just proud. A lot of people doubted me. I made a lot of mistakes along the way… but I stuck with McLaren and we did it.”
The fact Norris raced off into the horizon away from Verstappen will not only prove a popular win for F1, but give hope the rest of the year will be more competitive than the recent Red Bull dominance.
“This is not a wet race … he has beaten both Ferraris and both Red Bulls fair and square, that will be most satisfying,” Sky expert Martin Brundle said.
Disastrous qualifying brings Ricciardo back down to earth
A day on from his most encouraging Formula 1 performance in a long time, Daniel Ricciardo failed to make the first cut at qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix.
Ricciardo will start Sunday’s (Monday 6am AEST) race dead last after coming 18th in Q1, with a three-spot penalty accrued at the Chinese Grand Prix dropping him to 20th on the grid.
The Australian missed out on Q2 by less than two tenths of a second after being sent wide on his flying run. Max Verstappen went on to take out pole, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Oscar Piastri will start sixth, one sport behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
Earlier, Ricciardo took out fourth in the sprint race, picking up five important points as he fights to keep his F1 career alive.
Reigning world champion and championship leader Verstappen, who has won four out of five Grand Prix races this season, secured his seventh straight pole position with another dominant drive.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, whose fastest lap was 0.141 seconds behind Verstappen, will start second with his teammate Carlos Sainz in third place and Verstappen’s Red Bull partner Sergio Perez fourth.
Three-time world champion Verstappen has won both the previous Miami Grand Prix races but never from pole and he said he still found qualifying tricky.
“Every single year that we come here, I find it extremely difficult to be very consistent with the car feeling, the tyre feeling over one lap,” he said.
“It’s not the single most enjoyable lap of my career just because of how slippery it is. You are not very confident on the lap but we are on pole and of course that is the most important thing.” Leclerc said it had been hard to manage the tyres, with overheating a problem, but said his performance in the sprint race gave him encouragement.
“That’s where we lost a little bit of time, however the race is long tomorrow, we showed good pace this morning (in the sprint race) and I hope we can put Max under a bit more pressure,” he said.
Sainz underscored just how tricky it had been for drivers to deliver their fastest lap on the course around Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.
“It’s really tricky around here with a new soft. Every lap is a bit of adventure,” he said.
“With the wind you don’t know what will happen. Keeping all that in mind, the laps were not too bad.
“You always finish the lap and think you could have gone so much faster, but it’s almost impossible to put a perfect clean lap around here.” Lando Norris will start in P5 alongside Oscar Piastri (sixth), just ahead of the Mercedes pair George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Ricciardo shines in sprint race
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen cruised to victory in the sprint race on Saturday finishing a full 3.3 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
The reigning three-times world champion and current championship leader, who is looking for a third straight Miami Grand Prix victory on Sunday, led from pole and was never challenged after a chaotic opening lap.
Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez was third as the world champions gave themselves a points boost ahead of qualifying later on Saturday.
Verstappen has won four of the five Grand Prix races so far this season and looks well set for a fourth straight world championship.
Dutchman Verstappen held off Leclerc’s strong start to secure his place at the front but there was plenty of action and incident in the middle of the pack.
Haas’s Kevin Magnussen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton jousted hard but in the end the Dane picked up three penalties, adding 25 seconds to his time, after frequently leaving the track and gaining advantage.
Hamilton also received a penalty, leaving him outside the points positions in 16th after speeding in the pit lane.
The safety car was brought out after the first lap which saw a start line incident involving Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Lando Norris.
But away from those skirmishes, it was business as usual for Verstappen, who adds another eight points to his season tally with the victory.
“I think my engine wasn’t good in the start and so then I had to speed it a bit, luckily everything worked out in turn one,” said Verstappen.
“Then we had the safety car just to calm things down a bit after that. Steadily we could increase the gap a little bit, but it wasn’t entirely perfect so we still have a bit of work to do,” he added.
“We can still fine tune the car a little bit, so hopefully we can improve for later on in qualifying and especially for tomorrow in the race”.
Ricciardo, of RB, finished fourth in the sprint after holding of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
“Every big result always feels like it is a needed one. It’s a happy feeling, a powerful feeling....nice to keep a few people quiet,” said Ricciardo.
Magnusson accepted his penalties were “well deserved” and Hamilton said he had enjoyed the duel.
“I think that is pretty honest of him and I think that is pretty cool,” he said. “We had a good race. It was a little bit on the edge in some places, but that’s what I love. I love racing hard and, for me, I wasn’t really frustrated or anything,” added the British driver.
Leclerc has had some disappointments of late in qualifying and felt he had gone some way to answering his critics.
“I’m happy because there is so much talk now and you are as good as your last race in this sport and you have two races in a row when you are bad in qualifying - and I haven’t done a great job - people start to talk,” said the Ferrari driver.
“But now we have to work on the consistency and try to stay at that level.”
Ricciardo in the hunt for a podium
Daniel Ricciardo is back, baby.
The Aussie F1 star has cast aside a dreadful start to the 2024 season to rocket back into podium contention with a stunning sprint qualifying performance at the Miami Grand Prix.
The RB driver qualified fourth fastest for the sprint race on Saturday in Miami, just 0.403 seconds behind world champion pole sitter Max Verstappen.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc split the two Red Bull cars taking second position, with Sergio Perez only two tenths ahead of Ricciardo in third.
Crucially for Ricciardo, as he battles for his future, RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda was well behind and failed to reach the top 10.
“What a performance Daniel Ricciardo. Finally showing us what he is capable of,” Sky Sports expert Martin Brundle said.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri qualified sixth fastest raising hopes both Australian drivers can be in the points for the sprint race.
Teammate Lando Norris had showed the most pace through the qualifying session but struggled in the one-lap shootout to place ninth.
Topping the time sheets came as a shock to Verstappen.
“No, what happened to the others, that was terrible,” Verstappen told his team on the radio immediately after being informed he was P1.
“I mean, I will take it.”
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