Race Notes - Piastri wins Miami GP

By Mark Karp

Oscar Piastri won the Miami Grand Prix in his McLaren-Mercedes taking a McLaren 1-2, winning by 4.630 seconds over his team mate Lando Norris.

George Russell in the Mercedes GP took third place, 37.644s behind the winner.

Piastri win is his fourth of the season, and his sixth of his career. Piastri is the first McLaren driver to win three-in-a-row since Mika Hakkinen in 1998.

Piastri now extends his lead in the Drivers’ Championship over Norris to 16 points.

Max Verstappen (39.956s) in the Red Bull-Honda was fourth, followed by Alex Albon (48.067s) in the Williams-Mercedes was fifth, Kimi Antonelli (55.502s) in the second Mercedes was sixth, Charles Leclerc (57.036s) in the Ferrari was seventh, his team mate Lewis Hamilton (1m00.186s) was eighth, Carlos Sainz (1m00.577s) in the second Williams was ninth, and Yuki Tsunoda (1m14.434s) in the second Red Bull was tenth.

Before the start there was an earlier shower, and it is 27 degrees but will dark clouds in the distance. Drivers take to the recognizance laps some drivers reporting damp spots. Gasly will start from the pit lane.

Verstappen starts on pole with Norris on the front row, Antonelli and Piastri on row 2, Russell and Sainz on row 3, Albon and Leclerc on row 4, and Ocon and Tsunoda rounding out the top 10. Hamilton starting from 12th,.

Many drivers starting on medium trees, Russell starting on hard tyres.

At 4p local time the drivers took to the track on the formation lap and came around to the grid, the lights went off and the race began with Verstappen takes the lead with Norris close behind into the first corner and goes wide and falls back to sixth.

Verstappen in the lead with Antonelli and Piastri in third

Piastri is pressuring to get by Antonelli.

Doohan and Lawson touch in the first corner. Doohan has a puncture. The virtual safety car is out.

On lap 3 the virtual safety car is done.

Verstappen leads, Piastri passes Antonelli for second, Norris passes Albon for fifth. Hamilton passes Hadjar for 11th.

On lap 5 Sainz passes Albon for sixth.

Verstappen leads Piastri, Antonelli, Russell, Norris, Sainz, Albon, Leclerc, Tsunoda, Ocon in tenth and Hamilton in 11th.

On lap 7 Norris passes Russell at turn 4 to take fourth.

Norris passes Antonelli for third.

On lap 9 Alonso spins.

At lap 10 Verstappen leads Piastri by 0.1 seconds, followed by Norris (3.7s), Antonelli (6.5s), Russell (8.3s), Sainz (9.4s), Albon (9.5s), Leclerc (11.4s), Tsunoda (12.5s), Ocon (14.9s), and Hamilton (16.4s) in 11th place.

They are expecting rain around lap 14.

Piastri is continuing to pressure Verstappen for the lead.

On lap 14 Piastri passes Verstappen for the lead into the first corner.

Norris is now closing on Verstappen, the Red Bull sliding around and complaining about his brakes.

On lap 16 Piastri sets fast lap at 31687.

On lap 17 Norris passes Verstappen for second place, but it looks like Norris went wide and later in the lap lets Verstappen back ahead.

On lap 18 Norris makes the pass again and takes second place.

Albon passes Sainz for sixth.

There are some signs that it might be about to rain.

At lap 20 Piastri leads Norris by 9.2 seconds, followed by Verstappen (12.5s), Antonelli (14.9s), Russell (16.3s), Albon (18.5s), Sainz (21.5s), Leclerc (22.9s), Tsunoda (25.9s), Ocon in tenth.

On lap 20 Norris sets fast lap at 1m31.555s.

On lap 22 Hamilton passes Ocon for tenth place.

On lap 23 Piastri sets fast lap at 31.465s.

The next lap Norris goes faster at 1m31.312s.

On lap 25 Antonelli pits and rejoins 8th. Sainz pits and rejoins 11th.

The next lap Verstappen and Albon pit and rejoin seventh and ninth.

On lap 28 Tsunoda pits.

Antonelli sets fast lap at 1m30.795s.

Bearman slows and stops on track.

Hamilton pits for hard tyres. The virtual safety car is out.

On lap 29 Piastri and Norris both pit for hard tyres. Leclerc and Russell both pit.

The virtual safety car is over, Russell jumps past Verstappen.

On lap 31 Albon passes Antonelli for fifth and Sainz passes Leclerc for seventh.

Piastri sets fast lap at 1m30.170s.

On lap 33 Bortoleto stops on the side of the track and the virtual safety car is out.

On lap 34 the virtual

On lap 35 Sainz tries to pass Leclerc, the two go wide and Hamilton gets past Sainz for eighth.

On lap 34 Piastri sets fast lap at 1m29.822s.

Hamilton on medium tyres is looking to get past Leclerc to have a go at the cars ahead.

On lap 36 Norris sets fast lap at 1m29.746s.

Hamilton says “in China I got out of the way - have a tea break well your on it.”

On lap 39 Leclerc lets Hamilton by to seventh.

At lap 40 Piastri leads Norris by 6.7 seconds, followed by Russell (30.2s), Verstappen (32.6s), Albon (39,1s), Antonelli (41.2s), Hamilton (46.3s), Leclerc (47.9s), Sainz (49.5s), and Tsunoda (54.7s) in tenth place.

On lap 43 Verstappen is closing on Russell in third.

Hamilton is 3,9 seconds behind Antonelli.

At lap 50 Piastri leads Norris by 3.7 seconds, followed by Russell (35.2s), Verstappen (37.0s), Albon (46.6s), Antonelli (52.0), Hamilton (54.6s), Leclerc (55.7s), Sainz (57.6s), and Tsunoda (1m04.4s) in tenth place.

On lap 53 Hamilton lets Leclerc back to seventh place. Ferrari tells Hamilton that Sainz is 1.4 seconds behind, Hamilton replies, “you want me to let him by as well?”

The order remains the same to the finish, Piastri winning over Norris and Russell.

On the final corner Sainz tries to dive down the inside of Hamilton, the two touch but Hamilton accelerates off the corner and keeps his position..