By Ben Morse, CNN
(CNN) — Oscar Piastri continued his blistering form to start the 2025 Formula One season as he claimed a dominant victory at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday.
Although Max Verstappen led early on after starting on pole position, Piastri was able to overtake the Dutch driver during the 14th lap and never look back.
It was a McLaren one-two in Florida as Lando Norris overtook Verstappen four laps later and the two papaya cars put distance between themselves and the rest of the pack; second-placed Norris finished almost 38 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell in third.
Piastri’s victory – his fourth of the season already – is his third in a row and maintains his lead atop the driver’s championship standings, where he leads teammate Norris by 16 points. He is the first McLaren driver to win three consecutive Grands Prix since Mika Häkkinen in 1997-98.
But despite the excellent run he’s on, the Australian driver said there was plenty for him to work on going forward, specifically highlighting his performance in Saturday’s qualifying.
“I think this weekend was not my best, and a lot of that was yesterday. The race today was pretty solid, but yesterday, I was pretty frustrated with my performance,” Piastri told reporters. “Ultimately, yes, I won the race this weekend, but I think the likelihood of winning many races (after) qualifying fourth is pretty low.
“I did a lot of things right today, but there was definitely some good fortune there as well, and a very quick car. I don’t want to rely on that every single Sunday. Clearly, this is the exception to the pace we’ve had this year. Yes, we’ve always had a strong car, but the pace we had today from lap one, it felt like was unexpected, even for us.”
The only downside for Piastri on Sunday’s result was his post-race celebration, he says.
The 24-year-old performed the Griddy dance after jumping out his car, having made a bet pre-race with Minnesota Vikings star Justin Jefferson – who popularized the dance with his touchdown celebrations – that if he won, he’d do the dance.
Piastri admitted afterwards that his Griddy “might need a bit of work” and said he didn’t practice it after qualifying as he thought winning on Sunday would be a long-shot.
“That was my first attempt at a Griddy live on world TV. I stayed true to the bet, but that’s the one and only time you’ll be seeing me do that,” he told reporters.
Jefferson gave Piastri’s effort the seal of approval, writing on Instagram: “You did just fine. We gone work on the dance moves another time, just keep winning brother!!”
It was a typically star-studded affair in Miami for the Grand Prix, with celebrities such as actor Timothée Chalamet, Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and Blackpink star Lisa in attendance.
And it was a unique build-up to the race with each driver participating in the drivers’ parade in a fully drivable LEGO model of their F1 cars rather than the typical truck.
The cars – made of nearly 400,000 LEGO bricks – were modeled on the drivers’ cars, decorated with their unique numbers and liveries, and were driven around the course ahead of the race.
‘It was frustrating’
While there was success for his former team, Lewis Hamilton was consigned to an eighth-place finish as his debut season with Ferrari continues to stutter.
The seven-time world champion started 12th on the grid but was able to fight his way back, finishing three seconds behind teammate Charles Leclerc and over a minute behind Piastri.
And Hamilton’s early season frustrations – he sits seventh in the drivers’ championship standings, 90 points off Piastri – were evident during the race in a terse exchange over the radio with his Ferrari team.
A mid-race pitstop saw Hamilton find some speed and close in on Leclerc. But, having initially told both drivers to hold position, Ferrari engineers instructed Leclerc to cede his position to Hamilton a few laps later.
Hamilton was clearly frustrated with the delay in the instructions, telling his engineers they could “have a tea break while you’re at it.” After eventually given permission to pass Leclerc, he said the delay was “not good teamwork” and when he was later told that Williams’ Carlos Sainz was on his tail, he sarcastically asked if they wanted him to “let Sainz through as well.”
The British driver said afterwards that the comments were made in the throws of competition, saying that he still has “that fire in my belly.”
“I lost a lot of time behind Charles, and in that moment, for sure, I was like: ‘Come on, let’s make a concise decision really quick, let’s not waste time,’” the 40-year-old told Sky Sports.
“I’m sure people didn’t like certain comments, but you’ve got to understand it was frustrating, people say way worse things than what I say. It was more sarcastic than anything and I’m not frustrated now. We’ll work internally, we’ll have discussions and we’ll keep pushing.”
He added: “Let’s not get emotional about it. We’re here to race, we’re not where we want to be. I’ve still got that fire in my belly. I could feel a little bit of it really coming out there, and I’m not going to apologize for being a fighter, I’m not going to apologize for still wanting it.”
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Oscar Piastri dominates Miami Grand Prix to claim third-straight win, as Hamilton addresses ‘frustrating’ Ferrari team orders News Channel 3-12.
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