I must admit I missed quite a lot of the F1 last weekend as I was in London for an early 30th birthday celebration. I tried to watch some clips of the sprint and qualifying sessions, but I only saw the race on Sunday, so I will do my best to recap. This time we were in Miami, so let’s have some facts. Miami consists of 57 laps with 16 turns. The track length is 5.412 km, and the circuit debuted in 2022, holding 3 races so far. Of those 3 races, there have been two different winners. Max has won two of those, and Norris has won one. The Miami Grand Prix has never been won from pole position; they have so far been won from third, fifth, and ninth on the grid. Of 171 laps, Max has led the most, with a total of 106, and 48 of those were led in a single race. The safety car has made two appearances in Miami, once in 2022 and again in 2024. There has yet to be a first-lap retirement in the main race; however, Norris retired on the first lap of the sprint race in 2024.

Kimi Antonelli took a surprising pole position for Saturday’s sprint race; however, a well-timed pit stop during a late safety car period allowed Norris to win, ahead of teammate Piastri. For the first time, Miami experienced heavy rain, causing Charles Leclerc to crash en route to the grid before the race started. Poor visibility during the formation lap led to a red flag and race delay. Max was unsafely released from his pit stop, hitting Kimi Antonelli, likely costing them both points. Alonso spun into the barriers after being tagged by Lawson. Hamilton finished third, following the McLaren pair, and Albon finished fourth but received a penalty for a safety car infringement, dropping him out of the points.

We then moved on to qualifying for the main event. Exiting early from Q1 were Bearman in 20th place, Stroll in 19th, and Gasly in 18th, who was outqualified by his teammate for the first time since the season began. Alonso finished in 17th, and just missing out on Q2 was Hülkenberg in 16th. Eliminated in the second segment were Lawson in 15th and Doohan in 14th. Making his best qualifying position yet was Bortoleto in 13th, but the real shocker was Hamilton, who put his car into a disappointing 12th place, with rookie Hajar finishing ahead in 11th. Into Q3 now, and Tsunoda took 10th spot, while Ocon made his first appearance in Q3 for Haas. Despite his crash in the sprint, Leclerc took 8th place; Albon was in 7th, and just missing out on the top 5 was Sainz in 6th. Russell got 5th position, while Piastri had to settle for fourth, and Antonelli made another top 3 appearance, taking 3rd. Norris missed out on pole by six-hundredths, and I was told that despite a mistake, Verstappen had put in a phenomenal lap, claiming the top spot.

The race was okay. The first half was much better than the second. Max got a good start off the line but locked up slightly, causing him to be under pressure. Norris thought he could pass, but due to some defensive driving, he fell to sixth, allowing Antonelli to move into second and Piastri into third. Meanwhile, it was an unfortunate start for Doohan, who got a puncture from Lawson tagging his wheel. Lawson always seems to be taking people out. This caused the virtual safety car to be deployed. Not long after, there was talk of heavy rain, and Norris was climbing back up the grid. The incident between him and Max was noted, but no further action was taken. By lap 10, the weekend worsened for Alonso, who spun and fell to 18th. Piastri was hunting down Max for first place, and the pair ended up side by side; however, Max managed to hold off the Australian until lap 14 when Piastri made a successful move. Norris finally passed Max on lap 17 but gave the position back as he had forced Max off track. I enjoyed their racing; however, things got a bit boring soon after.

After a move down the inside at Turn 11, Norris passed on the following lap. On lap 20, Piastri was already 9 seconds ahead of his teammate; it felt like the race could have ended there, although rain could have spiced things up. A virtual safety car appeared on lap 27 as Bearman had an issue and was running slowly. This worked well for Piastri and Hamilton, who pitted for tire changes. Six laps later, another retirement and another virtual safety car appeared as Bortoleto stopped in the Sauber. Hamilton’s sarcastic radio messages, expressing his displeasure with the decisions, kept things interesting. On lap 44, Lawson was the fourth driver to retire, and Carlos Sainz was under investigation by the stewards for a yellow flag infringement. The race finished with Oscar claiming his fourth win of the season, followed by Norris, George, Max, Albon, Antonelli, Leclerc, Hamilton, Sainz, and Yuki, who claimed the last points.

Overall, the race was okay. Like I said, the first half was better than the second, but it is becoming one of those seasons where a driver zooms off miles in front, and no one else is able to catch them. It seems to be McLaren this season. I know not everyone likes Max’s driving style, but in all honesty, I don’t agree with every move, but he does make moves other drivers won’t, and for me, that makes the sport more enjoyable to watch. I have seen moments where some drivers try risky moves—like Kimi Räikkönen (I have seen him try some riskier overtakes)—and Piastri, not so much risky, but he does pull off some clever moves. However, there are quite a few drivers who play it much safer. Next, we have Imola in a few weeks, and I must admit, I do rather like this track, so I am hoping it will be a good race. The points are starting to spread out a bit now in the championship, so I am hoping something will happen so there is not just one contender. It will also be interesting to see how Colapinto will do in the next race.

2025 Driver Standings

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Car	Pts
1	Piastri	AUS	McLaren Mercedes	131
2	Norris	GBR	McLaren Mercedes	115
3	Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT	99
4	Russell	GBR	Mercedes	93
5	Leclerc	MON	Ferrari	53
6	Antonelli	ITA	Mercedes	48
7	Hamilton	GBR	Ferrari	41
8	Albon	THA	Williams Mercedes	30
9	Ocon	FRA	Haas Ferrari	14
10	Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	14
11	Tsunoda	JPN	Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT	9
12	Gasly	FRA	Alpine Renault	7
13	Sainz	ESP	Williams Mercedes	7
14	Hulkenberg	GER	Kick Sauber Ferrari	6
15	Bearman	GBR	Haas Ferrari	6
16	Hadjar	FRA	Racing Bulls Honda RBPT	5
17	Alonso	ESP	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	0
18	Lawson	NZL	Racing Bulls Honda RBPT	0
19	Doohan	AUS	Alpine Renault	0
20	Bortoleto	BRA	Kick Sauber Ferrari	0