TLDR: McLaren Dominate With a Capital D in Clean Air

Sprint

Before the race even start, Leclerc hits the wall in the massive downpour. The intermediate tyres were not enough for that downpour. Due to the amount of rain, the race was red flagged until there was a dry line.

We saw Antonelli get his first pole in F1. Unfortunately, his lead of the race went early on and turn 1. Piastri got the inside line on Antonelli with a better launch and easily took P1. There were debates on h he pushed him off or not but I would say racing incident. Antonelli is still learning but he can’t give the inside up that easily.

Max ruined Antonelli’s race when they collided in the pit lane. In all fairness it was Redbull’s pit crews fault for giving Max the clear. Verstappen was given a 10 second penalty however 10 seconds wasn’t enough from Antonelli’s point of view.

Sainz hits the wall given himself a real left puncture. This is a shame as a Williams fan I want to see our drivers do well but also we do not want a repeat of last season with the level of damaged we incurred. Alonso soon after completely wiped his car out. This brought out the safety car allowing for Norris to secure the win under the safety car. Another safety car assist for Norris in Miami.

Race

Max and Lando had a great launch off the line however Max comes across to block off Norris and forces the McLaren to go wide dropping back into 6th. Norris seems to be having issues when he’s going head to head with Max unlike his teammate Norris is very apprehensive to hold his position. It is these little things which decide the winners and the losers and the champions and the never champions.

Max compromised himself on the first corner which allowed Antonelli to catch up applying the pressure early on in the first lap. The Mercedes eased off in the coming laps as they were under attack from the McLaren of Piastri but also couldn’t seem to keep up the pace.

On lap 2 a virtual safety car was deployed as Doohan had a puncture that made his race come to an end. There are questions to be asked. Does Jack doing remain in that seat or will he be replaced by Colapinto in the coming race? We all heard the rumors at the start of the season and we could see a new driver and that seat come Imola. Doohan has shown some paces but overall his mistake are too frequent.

Virtual safety car by lap 4 and Piastri made sure that he got an overtake early on Antonelli so that he can start pursuing Verstapppen. Norris was yet to make his way up through the field however his time was coming.

Hamilton in the Ferrari was struggling to overtake the midfield cars. This is very unexpected. I’m not sure what Ferrari have to do to bounce back but there is something really wrong with that team at the moment whether it’s the car, the strategy or the drivers they need to sort it as soon Williams will be catching. One hopes they are choosing to focus on 2026 rather than 2025.

No worries by lap seven Norris had started making his way up back through and into fourth place.

Piastri and Verstappen were battling for several laps. Max seemed to be making late moves in the breaking zone which is very dangerous and is a clear violation of the rules however he managed to get away with it on this occasion.

On lap 14 Piastri goes to overtake Verstappen into turn 1 and absolutely finesses Verstappen. Verstappen locks up trying to catch Piastri off guard thinking he will go around the outside. Piastri dips into the inside line which then causes Verstappen then goes wide off track. This simply shows Verstappens intent he was almost certainly going to drive Oscar off the track however Piastri outsmarted him on this occasion and came on top.

This was perfect for Norris as he was now easily catching up to the 4 time world champion. Norris again struggled to get past Max ending up with his car off the track for the second time in this race.

He got his revenge on lap 17 performing a similar move to Verstappen on lap 1 forcing Verstappen off the track. McLaren engineers instructed Norris to hand the place back at the end of turn 17.

Norris finally got the move done at turn 11 making it look like easy work.

All the while the Williams were Strong in sixth and seventh. Beautiful to see. Albon made an excellent overtake on Antonelli for fifth place on lap 31.

Mercedes managed to perform a great undercut on Verstappen coming out nearly a second ahead. It was not a good day for the Dutchman.

Hamilton‘s radio messages made for some comedy throughout the race that’s for sure.

Piastri came to a dominant win finishing 4.5 seconds ahead of his team mate and 37 seconds ahead of third place. The McLaren and clear incredibly dominant.

Analysis

There was a bit of a mix of compounds in Miami to begin with. A few teams split their strategy between opting for one on the medium and one on the hard. Track temps were relatively low especially for Miami.

We definitely saw some good racing with several drivers moving up the grid. Both McLaren’s gain several places. The Ferrari managed to climb back up however there performance overall was pretty shocking. We saw some good midfield battling with the Williams and the HAAS of Ocon.

I’m happy that Williams have managed to be near the top with their pitstop timings. It’s something that we’ve progressively got better with throughout this season. It is surprising to see Mercedes last especially as their team that had a vital undercut on Verstappen.

Summary

Overall, this race was a good opportunity to see the drivers race each other on a track which isn’t just fast but also requires a good level of precision especially in sector two. Some mistakes were made however a very good weekend especially for the Aussie.

Piastri’s domination seems to be on another level compared to Norris at the moment. His lack of mistakes is what is keeping him in the lead. Norris seems to be making the mistakes but also isn’t taking the necessary risk when he needs to

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