MIAMI GARDNS, Fla. (AP) — Oscar Piastri has maintained his edge in the Formula 1 Championship battle by winning the Miami Grand Prix in his fourth victory in six races this season.
Piastri is currently winning three consecutive Formula One races with McLaren Racing, with him and teammate Lando Norris looking to abdicate Red Bull’s four-time defending champion Max Verstappen.
Piastri is the first McLaren driver to win three consecutive Formula 1 races in 28 years. Mika Hakkinen won the 1997 season finale and won the first two races in 1998.
He expanded Norris’ lead to 16 points in driver standings, with Verstappen down Piastri by 32 points.
Norris won his first Grand Prix victory in Miami last year. Norris won the sprint race on Saturday. Piastri ruled, but the safety car was delayed, so he won, but Verstappen won the pole in qualifying.
Announcing the birth of his first child on Friday morning, Verstappen decided to disprove the myth that fatherhood would make him a more conservative driver. That was clear when he darted at the start and then actively held back Norris’ challenge to lead.
Red Bull and McLaren were on the line, and Norris was about to go ahead of the Dutch, but he got on track and lost four spots. Norris said he had no choice but to get Verstappen to get him off track and avoid running to the wall, but he did not take any action against Verstappen.
“What can I say? If I don’t go for it, people complain. If I go for it, people complain,” Norris said. “You can’t win, but that’s really what it’s max. It’s a crash or their pass.”
Norris recovered and opted for a way back towards the front, but not before Piastri took control from Verstappen on the 14th of 57 laps. McLaren decided to allow Piastri and Norris to compete neatly against each other without team orders, and Norris was cleared to challenge his Australian teammates for a victory.
On the declined rap, Norris managed to close the gap, but he was unable to catch Piastri on a 1-2 finish for McLaren, setting himself in second place. The two had a close 40 seconds advantage over Mercedes’ George Russell, finishing third.
Verstappen faded fourth.
“It’s incredible and a tough job I’ve done,” Piastri said of McLaren. “We were the slowest team here in Miami two years ago. We were really the slowest team. We were rapped twice and won the Grand Prix in over 35 seconds is an incredible result of everyone’s efforts.”
Williams’ Alex Albon came in fifth, Mercedes’ Kimi Antoneri was sixth, and Charles Leclerc was seventh after ordering Ferrari to give Lewis Hamilton a position on the closing lap. Hamilton was in 8th place.
Carlos Size Jr. was ninth in Williams and Tsunoda was 10th in Red Bull.
The suspicious doohan
Jack Doohan drove to another car on the opening lap and crashed on lap 2. This is a quiet, non-talking show with the rookie on the verge of being replaced by Franco Colapinto in Alpine.
In Argentina, there were media reports that Corapinto will replace Douhan in the next race in Italy in Formula 1 later this month. He was fired over the Miami weekend by the principal of Oliver Oaks, who said “just like today.”
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“When he got into the car, I think it was a sponsor of an off-camera in Argentina. “We were pretty open as a team that was just noise. Jack needs to keep doing a good job, but it’s only natural that there’s always speculation there.
“Jack is our driver along with Pierre (Gastrie), as we do today,” he continued. “We were pretty clear about it. We’re always valuing it, but that’s what it is today.”
Doohan, who didn’t complete two laps on Sunday and last finished, has yet to score points in six races this season. His best finish was 13th in the Chinese Grand Prix.
