McLaren Comes Up Big in Miami
McLaren’s massive upgrades heading into Miami have finally helped Lando Norris capture his first ever race win as McLaren look towards battling RedBull for the remainder of the season. After a second place finish in China, McLaren have finally helped Lando Norris capture his first win after 15 podiums, tied for 1st in F1 history. The Miami Grand Prix finally gave fans a well deserved break from RedBulls dominance, and thanks to the genius of McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, Norris’ stellar performance was seemingly long overdue. Despite a massive step for McLaren, heads have now turned towards Ferrari with many seeing 3rd and 5th position finishes as a step backwards as they look to challenge RedBull’s grid dominance. Overall McLaren’s masterclass in Miami was a much needed wake up call for the team and rest of the grid in general, proving that RedBull is not inevitable. The sprint weekend began with Friday’s single practice lap where Max Verstappen and RedBull seemed as sharp as ever, with a time of 1:28.595 after 25 laps, a great improvement from last weeks FP1 in Shanghai, but RedBull weren’t the only team that had brought their A game to Miami, as Oscar Piastri was close behind with a gap of just 0.105s separating the two drivers. It seemed that Miami would look to be McLarens weekend where they would be able to show that the upgrades they made were more than enough to challenge for the front of the grid. On the other hand, Ferrari weren’t so fortunate as Charles Leclerc spun out on the track and was unable to get the SF-24 moving again after just 3 laps., though it was McLaren who had both drivers in P1 and P2 in SQ1 as they looked to start off their Grand Prix with a strong showing. SQ2 saw both Mercedes eliminated as Hamilton made contact with the wall and Russell was unable to catch up with Hulkenberg as both drivers were left in the drop zone. SQ3 had fans looking at rather unusual results that would shake up the starting grid. Daniel Riccardo placed 4th with VCARB after a spectacular lap in MIA, but it was Max Verstappen who took sprint pole position in Miami. The sprint race held nothing back as drivers had just 19 laps to try and pick up points on Saturday, but straight into turn 1, there was a massive pile up that prematurely ended Stroll and Noris’ weekend with a collision. The sprint saw a battle between a defensive Magnussen and ambitious Hamilton and in the light of their lap 14 battle, it was Yuki Tsunoda who benefitted from the tension between the two drivers as he managed to take 9th position away from Hamilton, and with the penalty applied to Magnussen, Tsunoda moved up to 8th position. After lap 19, it was Verstappen who was the winner of the Miami sprint, with Leclerc and Perez finishing in 2nd and 3rd.
Saturday’s race qualifying session was once again action packed, unfortunately for Kick, both drivers were in the drop zone come the end of Q1, accompanied by Sargeant, Ricciardo and Magnussen. Q2 saw a double elimination from Alpine, but for Pierre Gasly it was the first time all season that he out qualified Ocon despite his exit.In Q3, Verstappen would find himself battling the two Ferrari’s as they managed to drop down to P5 below Piastri who claimed P4 for a short time before Perez hit a personal best and reclaimed P4. Qualifying left Sunday’s starting grid with Verstappen in P1 followed by Leclerc and Sainz, while it was Sergio Perez who took P4 on the starting grid. McLaren occupied P5 and P6, followed by Russell and Hamilton, with Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda rounding out the top 10.
Sunday’s race proved to be eventful from the first turn as the two RedBulls almost made contact was it not for a move into the inside line from Perez. After lap 4 Piastri found himself in 2nd position following an overtake on Leclerc. Early in the race Hamilton found himself in a battle with Hulkenberg as the two alternated between 7th and 8th position with Hamilton completing 2 passes on Hulkenberg in the first 10 laps to claim 7th position going into lap 11. In lap 12 Hulkenberg would’ve thought he was seeing double as Russell overtook him to improve to 8th position. Lap 28 saw a safety car being deployed as Sargeant and Magnussen made direct contact, leaving Sargeant out of the race. After a hard fought race, Norris claimed 1st position and managed to fight off Verstappen and Leclerc for his first race victory in Miami.
Overall McLaren’s weekend strategy and Norris’ skillset landed him his first race win, from 5th on the grid to 1st on the podium. McLaren have finally shown that they can do more than just compete with RedBul but beat them in a grand prix.
