Oscar Pias-Three Leads McLaren 1-2 In Miami

McLaren scored the maximum 58 points this weekend in Miami: first and second yesterday in the Sprint and another one-two in today’s Grand Prix. Yesterday, Lando Norris was first past the chequered flag, followed home by Oscar Piastri, but today the positions were reversed, the Australian recording his fourth Grand Prix win of the season, the third in a row and the sixth of his career. It was McLaren’s 51st one-two finish, its second this season.

Joining them on the podium was George Russell (Mercedes) his fourth top-three finish of the year, with one second and three third places.

As predicted prior to the event, on the grid the drivers were split into two groups, 13 of them opting for the Medium tyre for the first stint, thus adhering to the theoretically quicker strategy and the rest who went with the Hard, banking on being able to delay the pit stop window, in the hope of making the most of a safety car period in which to pit, or to deal with the possibility of rain, the threat of which was there throughout the race.

Two drivers shared the longest stint of 36 laps on a set of Hards, Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber and Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin. As for the Medium, 29 laps was the longest stint, accomplished by both McLaren drivers and the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc who drove his first stint on the C4 and Lewis Hamilton who used it for his second stint.

Oscar Piastri – P1

“I won the race that I really wanted to do. Yesterday was a tricky day. Obviously, the Sprint was what it was, but qualifying was probably one of my trickiest sessions of the year. And to come away with a win still on Sunday is an impressive result. So yeah, obviously there was a bit of argy-bargy at Turn 1… but we had a pace advantage, and clearly the car was unbelievable today.

“It’s just incredible the hard work that’s gone in. You know, remember two years ago here in Miami we were genuinely the slowest team – I think we got lapped twice – and to now have won the Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result. And the hard work of every single person – firstly the people here at the track, but everyone at the factory as well.”

Lando Norris – P2

“I mean it’s never the best feeling but, you know, the team have done an amazing job, so I can’t fault them at all. Good pit stops, great pace… Yeah, we were up the road. So it was a good feeling. But Oscar drove well. Max put up a good fight as always, and I paid the price. But it is the way it is. What can I say? If I don’t go for it, people complain. If I go for it, people complain. So, you can’t win. But it’s the way it is with Max – it’s crash or don’t pass. Unless you get it really right and you put him in the perfect position, then you can just about get there. But I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today. But I’m still happy with second.”

George Russell – P3

“I am really happy to come away with P3 today in Miami. I’ve been struggling a little more than usual this weekend and not felt as comfortable in the car as at previous races this season. I’ve been a little on the back foot but when it mattered, we’ve put in a good performance and come away with another strong result. Verstappen was close behind me after we pitted but I felt positive on the Medium tyre and knew I could manage my pace to keep him behind.

“Ultimately the McLarens had a decent advantage over the rest of the field so congratulations to them. It will be a tough ask to close them down, but we will keep working on doing that, and we’re looking forward to the upcoming triple header in Europe, starting at Imola.”

Mario Isola – Pirelli Director of Motorsport

“It was a very straightforward race as far as the tyres were concerned. From the little data gathered over the weekend it had become clear that, despite bringing a trio of compounds one step softer than last year’s in order to create more strategy choices, it would probably still be a one-stop race and so it proved to be. There was very limited degradation on the C3 and the C4, in fact on the latter it was even less than expected. That explains why drivers who started on the Medium were able to extend their first stint to the halfway point of the race or even further, especially as the Virtual Safety Car made it easier for the leaders to switch to the Hard compound.

The low tyre degradation also contributed to the many battles, especially early on when drivers were able to push as hard as they wanted. It was a different scenario to the one we witnessed in Suzuka for example, a month ago. The track characteristics here are very different, with overtaking possibilities, and it also demonstrates how difficult it is to have everything in place to produce the great show that the fans deserve to see.”