Piastri wins at Miami for third straight F1 victory

MIAMI GARDENS: The first time Oscar Piastri arrived at the Miami Grand Prix as a Formula 1 driver he was in the slowest car in the field and only narrowly avoided finishing last.

Fast-forward two years and Piastri and McLaren Racing have come full circle.

Piastri maintained his advantage in the F1 championship fight by winning at Miami on Sunday for his fourth win through six races this season. Piastri has won three consecutive F1 races for McLaren Racing, where he and team-mate Lando Norris are trying to dethrone four-time defending champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull.

McLaren has won Miami the last two years, with Norris on top last season for his first career F1 victory.

“It’s just incredible, the hard work that’s gone in,” Piastri said of McLaren.

“I 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 of the hard work of every single person.”

Piastri is the first McLaren driver to win three consecutive F1 races in 28 years; Mika Hakkinen did it with a win in the 1997 season finale and then victories in the first two races of 1998.

He widened his lead over Norris in the driver standings to 16 points, while Verstappen trails Piastri by 32 points.

Norris’ win at Miami last season snapped Verstappen’s two-year winning streak at the course surrounding Hard Rock Stadium. Norris also won the sprint race on Saturday — Piastri dominated but a late safety car cost him the victory — but Verstappen won the pole in qualifying.

Verstappen, who announced the birth of his first child Friday morning, has been determined to disprove the myth that fatherhood would make him a more conservative driver. It was evident as he darted away at the start and then aggressively held off Norris’ challenge for the lead.

The Red Bull and McLaren were side-by-side and Norris was trying to edge ahead of the Dutchman, but he ran off track and lost four spots. Norris said Verstappen forced him off track and there was nothing he could do but try to avoid running into a wall — but F1 took no 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 it really just how it is with Max — it’s crash or their pass.”

Verstappen was unapologetic after fading to fourth and insisted he raced within the rules.

“I mean, I had nothing to lose, so I also wanted to have a bit of fun out there,” Verstappen said, adding McLaren’s strong start to the season is “not frustrating at all.”

“We are here to win and today we were miles off that, so it doesn’t really matter,” Verstappen said.