Piastri charges to win in Miami, Norris P2 and Russell P3

As it happened

At the start Max Verstappen went deep into Turn 1, which brought Norris into play. The Dutchman then made his car as wide as possible on the outside of Turn 2, which put the Briton out of the track and caused him to drop all the way down to P6. Andrew Kimi Antonelli moved up to P2 and tried to put the pressure on the Dutchman only to be denied on the entry into Turn 4.

The VSC came out to clear up the track following a clash at the back between Jack Doohan and Liam Lawson.

At the restart however, Oscar Piastri wasted no time in dispatching Andrea Kimi Antonelli and setting off in pursuit of Verstappen. Lando Norris then cleared both Williams cars, who were also fighting amongst each other, with Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz exchanging positions, but ultimately the Spaniard took over P from his teammate.

On lap 7, Norris enquired as to Verstappen having damage or a penalty. As he was asking for said information the stewards ruled ‘no further action’ on the incident between the Briton and the Dutchman.

Norris put both Mercedes in his rearview mirror and started the pursuit of Piastri and Verstappen who were locked in an enthralling battle for the lead, with Verstappen executing a mind-blowing defense in response to the McLaren driver’s attacks.

However, On lap 14, Piastri made good use of his MCL39’s superior pace to force Verstappen deep into Turn 1 and capitalise on his poor exit into Turn 2. Verstappen then complained about his braking performance, labeling it as ‘useless’.

On lap 15, Norris tried to mimic his teammate’s move on the previous lap, to no avail, however, as Verstappen went laet on the brakes once again and successfully defended his position.

On lap 18, however, into Turn 11, Norris was able to make the move on Verstappen, taking P2 from the Dutchman.

Lewis Hamilton, after a poor start, managed to claw his way back to the points after overtaking Esteban Ocon for P10.

Antonelli then made his pitstop on lap 26. His stop however, was a bit delayed by Sainz who was making his way to his box holding the Italian driver up in the Mercedes pits momentarily.

One lap later, Verstappen and Albon stopped for fresh hard tyres.

On lap 28, Oliver Bearman had technical difficulties with his Haas, slowing into Turns 7, 8 and 9. Race Control triggered the Virtual Safety Car, and McLaren elected to double stack their cars. Hamilton made his stop and came out ahead of Tsunoda, who was ahead of him before the pitstops.

Russell and Leclerc benefitted massively as well from the VSC, with the Mercedes Briton coming out ahead of Verstappen in P3.

Williams made use of their great pace, with Albon overtaking Antonelli and Sainz taking Leclerc’s P7.

On lap 33 Bortoleto stopped his Sauber C45 car off track triggering yet another VSC which came to an end on lap 34, and as the VSC ended Leclerc was right behind of Sainz, after forcing a maneuver into Turn 1, pushing the Spaniard wide, he opened the door for Hamilton to take Sainz’ position as well.

Hamilton was quicker than teammate Charles Leclerc. He then was asking Ferrari to issue team orders to let him by. However, the pitwall did not seem to agree. Hamilton then took to the radio to criticise the Scuderia's behaviour, saying 'this is not teamwork'.

When Riccardo Adami, Hamilton's engineer tried to reply justifying the team's decision, Hamilton reminded them of China when he asked Ferrari to tell Leclerc to go by as the Monegasque was faster than him. Ferrari then acquiesced to the 7-time world champion’s request.

Max Verstappen tried to move up closer to George Russell as the race drew close to an end, but he was unable to make any actual ground on the British Mercedes driver.

Lando Norris seemed to be able to do a late charge for the lead. Nevertheless, Piastri responded matching the British driver's pace. The gap between the two would stay at around the same 4 seconds mark.