Lando Norris took advantage in a dramatic sprint race in tricky, changeable conditions at the Miami Grand Prix to claim victory from his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, with Lewis Hamilton enjoying a well-timed strategy call by his Ferrari team to take third place.
The defending world champion, Max Verstappen, had a shocker, demoted from fourth to 17th after he was penalised for an unsafe release in the pit lane by his Red Bull team. It was a blow to the Dutchman’s title defence as he dropped to 21 points behind Piastri who leads the championship. Verstappen said he was relieved no one was hurt and the Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, said it had been “human error”
Norris demonstrated great control in what was decidedly inclement weather. A burst of heavy rain had engulfed the circuit before the race and the formation lap started behind the safety car, such was the volume of water on the track. Visibility was poor and after a single lap the race was red-flagged.
It had already caught out Charles Leclerc who sput his Ferrari in the wall on the formation lap, taking damage that prevented him from starting the race.
After a 30-minute delay they tried again, once more opening behind the safety car before taking a standing start for the remaining 16 laps and in the short dash to turn one, Piastri pounced from second on the grid to pass the Mercedes of pole sitter Kimi Antonelli, who ultimately finished seventh.
Piastri’s quick start paid off and having gained clear air he immediately stretched his legs and opened a gap, appearing to be in complete control from Norris and Verstappen. However, just past the midway point the race turned.
With the track drying swiftly, taking slick rubber was an option by lap 11 and Ferrari opted to bring Hamilton in early and he he moved up to third. Verstappen also stopped for new tyres but was released into the path of Antonelli and the pair clashed, with the Dutchman taking damage to his front wing and taking a 10-second penalty.
Vroom in the USA
Scarab
Two ambitious Americans, Lance Reventlow and Bruce Kessler, took a look at what the Europeans were doing at Ferrari, Maserati, Aston Martin and Jaguar and decided the could build a better car. Victories came at the 1958 LA Times Grand Prix at Riverside Raceway and their front-engined racers would go on to enter 93 races, with 39 wins and 32 podium finishes until 1963. In F1 they competed in just one full season – 1960 – racing in six of the 10 grands prix, finishing 10th with Chuck Daigh at the US Grand Prix, won by Stirling Moss in a Lotus-Climax.
Eagle
Dan Gurney and the Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby founded All American Racers in 1964 and competed in various classes before taking a crack at F1 with patriotically named Eagle. The stars and stripes team were based in Rye, East Sussex and ran with British‑built Weslake engines. They raced in 25 grands prix, entering a total of 34 cars. At the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix, Gurney achieved the first “all-American” victory in a grand prix since Jimmy Murphy’s triumph with Duesenberg at the 1921 French Grand Prix. An American team has yet to repeat that double feat.
Penske
The last American team to win a race – the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix, with the Northern Irishman John Watson (below) at the wheel. Penske are better known as Indycar racers, but their PC1 cars made their debut in 1974. They scored no points that year and the following season was marred by the death of their driver Mark Donohue.
Haas
A fully fledged American team returned to F1 in 2016, buying up the failed Marussia. Banbury-based, they are still blazing the trail with Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman at the wheel. Still no wins, though, with a lone pole claimed in Brazil in 2022.
Cadillac
The General Motors behemoth is eager to tap into the Race to Survive/Gen Z market, so is launching a team with its premier marque on the car next year.
McLaren had to react and pitted first Piastri, and then Norris a lap later. The Briton came in just when the safety car was called after Fernando Alonso crashed out, giving him almost a free stop. Enough to squeeze out of the pit lane just in front of Piastri to take the lead, which he held behind the safety car to the flag.
For Hamilton, who has endured a trying time in the Ferrari since he took victory at the sprint race in Shanghai, it was something to enjoy for the team and gave him some optimism that he could further improve in qualifying. “Every moment counts,” he said. “It’s definitely been not so great obviously since China.”
“Coming into this weekend we have made some changes, but we have more to do in order to be fighting more consistently at the front. We just need to knuckle down and I do believe that we can get some better results.”
It is Norris’s second sprint race win, having taken the first in Brazil last year, and closes the gap to championship leader Piastri to nine points.
Before the sprint race the McLaren team principal, Zak Brown, upped the ante in his spat with Red Bull by demanding a change in F1 regulations to prevent teams making what he described as “bogus allegations”.
On Friday, Brown made a light -hearted reference to suggestions last year that McLaren were injecting water into their tyres to keep them cool, believed to have originated from Red Bull, a practice McLaren vigorously denied. On the pit wall Brown was seen drinking from a water bottle labelled “tire water”.
On Saturday, however, he described it as poking fun at a “serious issue” and that allegations made should go through a strict official process via the FIA and should be accompanied by a financial cost deducted from a team’s budget cap to deter unfounded accusations.
“That process should be extended to all allegations to stop the frivolous allegations which are intended only to be a distraction,” he said. “If you had to put up some money and put on paper and not back channel what your allegations are, that would be a way to clean up the bogus allegations that happen in this sport which are not very sporting.
“If someone does believe there’s a technical issue by all means you’re entitled to it, put it on paper, put your money down. It should come against your cost cap if it turns out you’re wrong.”
Brown cited a figure of $25,000 (£19,000) as what he believed would be a sufficient deterrent. “Would I spend 25 grand on a distraction tactic or development of my own race car? I’d spend 25 grand on my race car all day long,” he said. “It doesn’t need to be hundreds of thousands, but it needs to be meaningful enough that you’re taking away performance you spend on your car.”
After penalties were applied post-race, George Russell was fourth for Mercedes, Lance Stroll fifth for Aston Martin, Yuki Tsunoda sixth for Red Bull and Pierre Gasly eighth for Alpine.
