Luke’s Weekend Review – Miami GP 2024

Ferrari wasn’t the only team concerned by the pace of the McLaren as on Lap 15 we hear Verstappen’s engineer come on the radio to tell him to pick up the pace and not manage the tyres so much as Piastri was only 2 seconds adrift from the race leader which put Max under threat of an undercut, Max responds by getting the fastest lap on that lap but it was short lived as Piastri takes it right off him the same lap and Leclerc also got the fastest lap straight after Piastri.

Lando Norris was troubling Perez as he was right on his gearbox for a few laps and on Lap 18 Red Bull decided to bring Perez in for fresh tyres to attempt to undercut Norris later after he pits. Great pitstop by Red Bull here as they manage a sub 2 seconds stop with a 1.9 seconds to get Perez out back on track as soon as possible. McLaren decided that Perez was not their fight and came on the radio asking Norris to push and go after Sainz who was ahead in 4^th which Norris agreed to and started to push getting himself the fastest lap of the race on Lap 20.

Lap 20 we see Leclerc come into the pits himself for fresh boots and Ferrari also manage a sub 2 seconds pitstop which was their first one this season and also the fastest one in Miami this weekend getting Leclerc out back on track and Leclerc didn’t wait too long as on Lap 21 he was able to clear Hamilton into Turn 11 taking a longer way on the outside.

We head now onto the race leader who at this stage of the race was in front minding his own business but on Lap 21 we hear him come on the radio saying that he hit the bollard on Turn 15 and was asking his team to check the front wing for damage. Due to the bollard being on the track, the risk for a Safety Car or VSC was high, on lap 23 we hear Russell mention that the bollard did go into the racing line due to someone hitting it and the VSC was deployed. Some of the drivers who hadn’t pit yet took the opportunity to take a cheap stop however the front runners had already passed the pitlane entry and missed out as the VSC was cleared off very quick. Despite this, Max still opts to pit at the end of lap 23 to change his tyres and Piastri takes the lead of the Miami GP.

On Lap 26 we really see Lando close to Sainz as he managed to close the gap to 1.8 seconds and was showing no signs of slowing down. In the meantime Hamilton comes on the radio saying that without the bollard, it was very hard to see the kerb now given that Turn 15 was uphill and drivers are sat very low in a F1 car. On Lap 27, Hamilton decides to come in to get rid of his hard tyres and switch to the mediums which again was surprising as it came way earlier than expected and on the following lap we see Piastri and Sainz follow each other into the pits from 1^st and 2^nd  and come back out in 4^th and 5^th while Lando takes the lead of the Miami GP.

On Lap 29 is where it all started to get a bit exciting as we see Double Yellow Flags being waved in sector 1 as we cut to the camera to see Kevin Magnussen reversing back onto the track but we also see Logan Sargeant in the barriers with a broken rear wing and out of the race which could only mean 1 thing, the Safety Car comes out to slow the cars down and gives the Marshals time to clear the car. The incident between Magnussen and Sargeant seemed to happen into Turn 3 as Magnussen goes for a move on the inside and catches Sargent which led to Sargeant spinning and go straight into the barriers rear wing first.

Lando Norris takes this opportunity to pit from the lead and come back out in the lead which was great news for the young brit and his chances in this race. But we also see a bizarre incident as the Safety Car got confused and picked up Max Verstappen as the lead driver even though Norris was still leading the race. This led to the Safety Car letting the whole 19 drivers behind it through and it slowed down to catch Norris once he came back around. After a few laps behind the Safety Car, on Lap 32 it came in and it was now down to Norris to control the pace and decide when to go. Lando decides to go quite early and doesn’t manage to catch Verstappen napping as he was right on his tail and so was Leclerc on Verstappen. Coming into Turn 1 it looked very close but Norris managed to hold the lead and by the end of the first lap after the restart he was over 1 second clear from Max to protect himself from the DRS threat.

Further back we see Sainz going for a move on Piastri into Turn 11 but Piastri seems to squeeze Sainz off track and stays ahead. Stewards noted the incident and were investigating but Sainz didn’t want to wait and he was urging Ferrari to let McLaren know to tell Piastri to let him by to avoid a penalty but McLaren seemed confident that Piastri was in the right and recommended not to let him past. Stewards after investigating the incident confirmed that no further action required here. On Lap 40 Sainz attacks Piastri again into Turn 17 and goes through but Piastri manages to get right by him before Turn 1 but Piastri left it too late to brake and Sainz goes through once more, it seemed like though the pair touched and Piastri picks up some front wing damage as on Lap 40, Perez and Hamilton also get by Piastri in one corner. This is where McLaren came on the radio and asked Piastri to pit to get a new front wing which gave Piastri a monumental job to try and get back in the points as he comes out in last.

Back at the front we see Norris building his gap to Max as on Lap 27 he was 2.2 seconds ahead and we were wondering if Max is biding his time to attack later but on Lap 39 that question got answered as Max comes on the radio saying that he can’t get the car to turn and with 10 laps to go on Lap 47 the gap was up to 5.2 seconds which was looking very promising for Lando Norris to get his first ever F1 victory.

Looking a bit further back we see a great battle between Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso as we see Alonso trying to attack Ocon but Ocon seemed to be doing a great job defending against the best defensive driver on the grid, seems like the French man was able to learn a few tricks from the Spaniard when they were still teammates. Fernando however was still able to get past on Lap 48.

At the latter stages of the race on Lap 51 we see Oscar Piastri locking up as he was going for a move on Daniel Ricciardo into Turn 1 as Piastri tries to outbreak the master of the late brakers and locks up onto the runoff. We immediately hear his race engineer come on the radio to remind him that Norris was leading the race and they don’t want to risk a Safety Car or anything especially as Piastri was out of the points with a very slim chance of getting back into the points. On Lap 55 however Piastri was able to get past Ricciardo cleanly.

Lando Norris takes the chequered flag for the first time in his F1 career which was long coming ever since that race in Sochi were he missed out on a win due to the rain and also after he was taken out from the Sprint Race yesterday. Lando Norris was followed by Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon formed the Top 10.

Lando Norris very deservingly gets driver of the day for an amazing drive starting from 6^th to take the win at the Miami GP and on the in lap we see many drivers slow down next to him to congratulate him and a few others went to also congratulate him in the pitlane. Piastri takes the fastest lap but he did not get an extra point as he only managed to get back up to 13^th.

After the race a few penalties were announced as Kevin Magnussen gets another 10 second penalty for the collision with Logan Sargeant and he is now on 10 penalty points in the last year and is at risk on getting a race ban. Carlos Sainz also gets 5 second penalty for his collision with Piastri and drops to P5 behind Perez due to this.

Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the Miami GP? Lando Norris was definitely the biggest winner of this race and I’m sure he will have a smile on his face for a long time now. We now head into a week break before we make a return to Imola for the Emilia-Romagna GP which we missed out on this race last year due to the floods that were happening.