Miami F1 Grand Prix 2025 promised much and largely delivered.
The opening stages were dramatic with great wheel-to-wheel action between pol-sitter Max Verstappen and championship leader Oscar Piastri. And also from an recovering Lando Norris that runs again towards the front of the race.
After 57 intense laps, we witnessed the increasingly impressive Piastri taking his third consecutive F1 victory, the fourth of this season, and his 32-consecutive point-scoring weekend, in a most insured way to increase his world championship lead.
The much -talked -about and expected rainstorm turned the hard rock stage meeting place, and three ‘virtual safety cars’ – rather than the physical ‘Follow me around and participate in the queue’ Safety car – meant the race did not generate the reset it needed in the second half. But there is still a significant amount to talk about.
Such is the merciless schedule for running, we are already a quarter of the way through the GP calendar and one -third of the road into the six scheduled sprint races
18-year-old Kimi Antonelli’s pole position for the Miami Sprint race and third on the grid for the most important Sunday GP was very a good news story. He is a breath of fresh air and a future star, though he was a touch of wild and loose in both races. He wants to sort what he is clearly a quick teacher.
‘Piastri more efficient and clinically than Norris’
Norris was helped by a practical safety car to win the sprint race, just as he was winning the Grand Prix last year, but to avoid Verstappen’s Red Bull, who slipped around the first two corners of the main race on Sunday, cost him a chance of another direct victory.
Max did not have a McLaren sliding up the inside of the turn one and demanding the high soil again, as it happened in Jeddah, but he arrived a little too hot and unlocked the front tires. Lando went under him and hit the throttle, the road was ready in front, and he had the package on his tail, that was the only thing he could and should have done. But Max had another jerk in turn two and suddenly Lando ran, now on the outside, quickly dry out of space and was obliged to go to the runway zone and cost him four positions.
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Lando Norris drops places after colliding with Max Verstappen at the start of the Miami Grand Prix
Once Piastri sent Antonelli to second place, he began chasing the leader Verstappen with something Gusto. Piastri has a large racial vessel, and it is fractional more efficiently and clinically than Norris, and Verstappen knows it too.
On the lap 14, Piastri would eventually force Verstappen to the defensive to Turn One, both in terms of forcing him offline and close inside and having to slow down too late. Piastri looked instinctively that Red Bull Slide developed and adjusted his position perfectly before he appeared underneath and grabbed a lead he would never give up.
Meanwhile, Norris drove past Williams from Alex Albon and both Mercedes from Antonelli and George Russell, in some style it must be said. But Norris couldn’t quite put Verstappen under the same tactical pressure as Piastri did, and as he finally slipped by for good on his lap 18, after having to give back the position to Verstappen on the previous lap to overtake the field, his teammate Piastri was nine seconds up the road.
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Lando Norris believes Max Verstappen is not running very smartly when he reflects on their beats during the Miami Grand Prix
In a weekend when McLaren wanted to secure a double one to two in the two races, a virtual safety car (VSC) was inserted when Ollie Bearsman’s Haas expired on the side of the field, played perfectly for the team, with a nice distance with double stacked pit stop just before the VSC was lifted and everyone was up to racing speed again.
From there, the two McLaren bandites were another pr. Lap faster than the rest of the field when Norris did his best to catch Piastri, and we saw the true and unfiltered pace in the car on a long -lasting and dry track.
Russell had fought through the event and apparently missed a few tenths of pace, but he kept his head, car and tires along with a solid momentum along with a good time one and only pit stop to secure another podium. What almost let him down was his stomach with some painful cramps in the last 15 laps.
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George Russell insisted that he suffered with stomach cramps in the last stages of his third place finish
Russell had also benefited from beating 29 under VSC and moving up to third place, but Max Verstappen kept him very honest throughout the closing stages, even told stories out of school that George had not lifted the throttle as he passed a yellow flag.
The Red Bull team escalated this after the race with a protest that the managers refused when he said ‘the protest is rejected and not founded’.
‘Albon in the form of his life’
Fifth would fall to Alex Albon with another excellent and feisty race. This means that Williams was the fourth fastest team of the day and had looked a lot like all weekend. But for a security carbonation in the sprint, Albon would have scored another handful of points there too, and he is in the form of his life.
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Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz reflects on all the major speech points from Miami Grand Prix
Carlos Sainz in the second Williams had a couple of adventures and suffered from the first round of contact with his teammate. The VSC Pit Stop Timing Fruits would mean he would end behind the two Ferraris, actually into the side of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari after a rather ambitious attempt to run up the inside of the man who took his Ferrari drive on the last lap. No further actions were taken on any of the driver for contact, and they were considered a fault for the ‘avoidable contact’.
Antonelli ended sixth after being unlucky after beating four laps before a VSC. He has surprisingly some cleans up to do with tire control on the longer, warmer stints.
Charles Leclerc and Hamilton ended seventh and eighth after something to swap around positions and lots of radio transfer anxiety. Leclerc was 57 seconds behind the leader in a 57-step race, so it’s easy to calculate how far from the pace they were in a difficult weekend.
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Lewis Hamilton sends jabs at Ferrari on Team Radio under Miami Grand Prix
Hamilton would start on hard composite tires and end with media, and Leclerc would do the opposite. When they met in the middle, Hamilton expected the team to let him go quickly when he quickly caught his teammate, but they prestored three laps.
It is probably unfair that some radio calls are sent to the world, but it is very much part of the F1 show and intrigue. Lewis ‘Take a Tea Break’ and effectively ‘Do you want me to let Williams past not’ comments also can’t be unspoken, even if the team and drivers closed rank after the race to help off smiled.
Leclerc got permission back past Hamilton, whose medium -sized composite tires now faded, but he couldn’t catch Antonelli in the final stages.
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Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc discuss Ferrari’s strategy under Miami GP
Yuki Tsunoda ended 10. For Red Bull, just keeping Isack Hadjar’s RB in check despite having attracted a five-second penalty for speed in the pit rail, and this meant that five teams in McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, Williams and Ferrari shared all the points, with two cars each in the top ten.
Aston Martin was painfully the slowest cars in the race, and unless they have some impending magic upgrades, it will be a long and very painful year for the Silverstone-based team and it is sad for all F1.
There is a week to catch our collective breathing, then a European triple head chair in Imola, Monaco and Barcelona will be upon us.
F1’s European season begins with Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on 16-18. May, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports With Now – No Contract, Cancel anytime