Despite Max Verstappen being the obvious favourite, it was Lando Norris who won the Miami GP. The reigning world champion is not sad about it and is actually happy for his good friend. With the dominance of Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen in recent years in Formula 1, it is sometimes difficult to remember that they too can make mistakes. For example, the setup for the Miami GP was unsuccessful and Verstappen did not feel comfortable in the car all weekend. Before qualifying for the sprint race, the Dutchman was clearly surprised that he was on pole, because he made a big mistake in the chicane during his last lap.
Yet for a long time it looked like Verstappen would win the Miami GP on Sunday evening. He was in the lead throughout the race, with a stable lead of three seconds over Oscar Piastri. But not much later it turned out that it was not a gap that he was managing, but that there was simply no more that could be extracted from the car.
After Lando Norris took over the lead due to a lucky break with the safety car, Verstappen was unable to overtake the McLaren driver. In fact, the Briton drove further and further away from the Dutchman, eventually with a gap of seven seconds when Norris crossed the line. In an interview with Viaplay Verstappen says that a victory for Norris was coming at some point and that if he grants another driver the win, it will be his good friend.
“In the end, the best thing is that Lando wins. Of course you saw it coming that he was going to win a race one day. If someone has to beat me, of course I’ll give it to Lando. It was disappointing on our part, but you have to be realistic. We just didn’t have the speed, especially on the hard tire.”
– Max Verstappen
Verstappen extends his lead
Although the Miami GP was not the ideal race weekend for Verstappen, he did widen the gap with the rest of the grid. With victory during the sprint race and second place in the Grand Prix itself, he is the driver who takes home the most points at the end of the weekend.
