Miami sure knows how to pull off a showstopping production, and there was no shortages of this with a stellar performance by Mclaren’s Lando Norris, achieving his maiden victory at the “pinnacle of motorsport”.

WEEKEND ROUND-UP:

The Miami International Autodrome hosted the second out of six Sprint weekends on the 2024 calendar, meaning drivers only had a 60 minute session to acclimatise to the track lay-out before launching straight into the Sprint Qualifying.

Several teams introduced new upgrades to their cars for Round 6 of the Formula 1 Championship, most notably McLaren who fielded its first major upgrade package for the MCL38. The Woking-based team listed a total of ten component changes on the car spanning from the front wing receiving a revision all the way to the rear break ducts, which all aimed at reducing the gap to reigning World Champions Red Bull.

FP1

The only Free Practice session in Miami did not fail to entertain, with the hour-long running period featuring the only Red Flag of the weekend. Leclerc, sparked drama in the early minutes of FP1, after bouncing over the kerbs while exiting Turn 16 and spun – narrowly avoiding the barriers. 

Awkwardly ended up facing sideways, momentarily blocking the track for future Ferrari team mate Lewis Hamilton and a host of other drivers. Edging forwards and backwards, there was nothing the Monegasque could do to recover the overheating Ferrari, eventually giving in and jumping out of the cockpit, allowing the marshals to step in and remove it from the circuit under Red Flag conditions.

At the halfway mark of the session, the sister Ferrari of Carlos Sainz lead the session with a 1m 29.346s on hard tyres from Sergio Perez (Red Bull) and Hamilton (Mercedes), a lock-up at Turn 17 from reigning World Champion Max Verstappen saw him towards the bottom of the timesheet, something fans of F1 have not seen very much of this season.

However, Verstappen eventually overcame this slow pace and after an abandoned first lap on the soft tyres, managed to set a 1m 28.595s to top the session and finish a tenth clear of McLaren’s Piastri and Ferrari’s Sainz. The rest of the field followed suit, with only a few dicey moments, Alex Albon finishing in 14th after a wild moment through Turn 4 and McLaren’s Norris finishing 16th after battling “an asymmetric power steering assistance” issue as a result of the new upgrades.

SPRINT QUALIFYING

Max Verstappen stormed his way to pole position for the Sprint race in Friday’s Sprint Qualifying with earlier challenges from McLaren not following through when it mattered. SQ3 saw every remaining driver opting for a singular flying lap, with the Dutch-man going quickest of them all with a 1m 27.641s. Red Bull’s star driver was joined on the front row by Leclerc, who ended up 0.108s behind Verstappen.

Perez filled into third, while the RB of Daniel Ricciardo impressed many by going fourth fastest ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who rounded out the top 5.

After a promising start earlier in the session, the two Mclaren’s failed to set a fast time on the soft tyre with Oscar Piastri claiming P6 and teammate Lando Norris starting p9, with the Aston Martin driving pair of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso finishing in P7 and P8 respectively. The Haas of Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10.

Mercedes saw a double disappointment in the Sprint Qualifying after both drivers failed to exit SQ2, with George Russell lining up in P11 and departing teammate Lewis Hamilton joining him on the sixth row in P12 (while simultaneously being noted for a pit lane infringement).

The leading Alpine of Esteban Ocon finished 13th, ahead of Haas’s Kevin Magnussen in 14th and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda ended the session in P15.

Pierre Gasly failed to end his tough luck in qualifying as he failed to escape SQ1, starting P16, with Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu and Valterri Bottas finishing P17 and P18 respectively.

William’s also experienced a difficult session, with local boy Logan Sargeant exiting in 19th and teammate Alex Albon rounded out the field in 20th as a result of a lap time being deleted, dropping him from 16th to the back of the grid.

SPRINT RACE

Max Verstappen converted a Sprint pole position into a victory during the Saturday Sprint Race at the Miami Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez taking the spoils after an action-packed race around the Miami International Autodrome.

Verstappen lead a blinder of a pace from the start and overcame an extremely early Safety Car period to build a large advantage on the rest of the field, as Ferrari’s number 16 had to settle for second and fellow Red Bull Perez fought fiercely against Daniel Ricciardo to finish third.

Ricciardo fended off the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz (featuring a special livery for the Miami Grand Prix) and Oscar Piastri – who was the only McLaren to finish the 19-lap, 100-kilometre dash after Lando Norris retired on the first lap – to claim fourth, with Nico Hulkenberg finishing seventh and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda gaining the final point after originally finishing in P11, but inheriting 10th place after Lewis Hamilton received a post-race penalty.

Notable incidents:

Valterri Bottas started from the back of the grid as a result of a three-place grid penalty for impeding Australian-born Piastri in qualifying, and William’s Alex Albon started from the pitlane due to changes to the suspension of his car under Parc Ferme conditions.

Leclerc and Esteban Ocon found themselves in an unusual incident while leaving the pitlane to make their way to the grid, with the Alpine driver – who was unsafely released by the team into the path of the Ferrari driver – being forced to change for a new front wing and receiving a 10-second time penalty.

Lando Norris had a drama filled first lap of a Sprint race for the second race in a row, having been spun out in the first corner – and left with retirement-inducing damage – after contact between Alonso, Stroll and Hamilton as a result of the track bottleneck, saw the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll into the McLaren. This incident was reviewed by the stewards who deemed no further action was needed, after complaints from former teammates Hamilton and Alonso were heard over the radio.

Qualifying:

Max Verstappen continued his dominance in the Qualifying session on Saturday taking P1 and his seventh consecutive pole position, despite not improving his time on his final flying lap.

The Red Bull Racing driver provisionally took pole in some of the first runs of Q3 having set a time of 1m 27.241s which comfortably saw him through the chequered flag for the session. He was joined on the front row once again by Charles Leclerc, while Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz rounded out the top three.

Sergio Perez took P4 in the second Red Bull and the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished fifth and sixth respectively. P7 and P8 was achieved by the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, meaning the top 8 was dominated by just 4 teams.

Aston Martin continued to have a disappointing day – after their earlier misfortune in the Sprint race – both exiting in Q2, with Stroll qualifying in P11 and Alonso in P15. Pierre Gasly finally escaped Q1 for the first time this season, however failed to set a fast enough time to make it through the final Qualifying section, ending up in 12th, ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon in 13th and the Williams of Alex Albon in 14th.

Local boy Logan Sargeant failed to get the Williams out of Q1 finishing in P17, and despite an impressive performance in the Sprint Qualifying and Race, RB’s Daniel Ricciardo exiting this Qualifying session in P18 – although a three-pace grid penalty given in China dropped him to the back of the field on race day. 

Race:

After Red Bull dominance all weekend, many fans were getting ready to hear the usual anthem at the end of the race, however Miami threw a curveball. 

McLaren’s very own Lando Norris added his name to the vast list of Formula 1 Race winners on Sunday with a sensational victory at the Miami Grand Prix, dominating the field to take the chequered flag in P1.

During the earlier stages of the race, Norris was sitting in P6, with Mclaren teammate Piastri looking like the driver most likely to cause an upset, however a Safety Car at the midway point in the race seemed almost like something written in the stars, after he had chosen to stay out and not pit for fresh tyres like the rest of the grid. 

Pitting under Safety Car almost always guarantees less damage to time lost whilst in the pitlane, as the red of the drivers out on track have to slow down to a delta time set in order to be safe, and Norris emerged from the pits in the lead, with Verstappen now in second after stopping under normal racing conditions. Despite an initial attack from Verstappen after the restart, there was nothing stopping the flying McLaren from dominating the rest of the race.

Balance problems for the Red Bull of the reigning World Champion, meant Lando Norris put on a cool, calm and collected performance in the latter stages of the race, with the Briton finally putting rumours about his capability to win a race to bed (2021 Russian Grand Prix), and became at race winner after his 110th time of lining up on the grid.

Verstappen had to settle for the best of the rest at the chequered flag, while Charles Leclerc finished P3, ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz – who after a clash with McLaren’s Piastri late on in the race, which caused the Australian to have to pit for a new front wing – finished in P4.

Perez finished P5 after completing a second stop under Safety Car condition, while the pairing of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell secured some solid points on a difficult weekend for Mercedes, finishing P6 and P8 respectively.

Tsunoda finished P7, Alonso P9, and Esteban Ocon scored Alpine their first point of the season, rounding out the top 10, after capitalising on Piastri’s problems.

Lando Norris’s win gives McLaren their first Grand Prix win since Monza in 2021, and it was an emotional victory for McLaren with tributes by both the winning driver and team personnel going to the late Gil de Ferran, who played an integral role at McLaren to bring it to where it is now.

Formula 1 will return to Europe for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on the 17-19th May for Round 7 of the Championship.