Martin Brundle on the results of the Miami Grand Prix

Former Formula 1 driver and Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle summarized the Miami Grand Prix.

Even Norris’s direct rivals were happy with his victory. It was high time that Lando and McLaren won the Grand Prix.

Lando is a very popular racer. But I’m sure many were happy to see at least someone beat Red Bull and Verstappen in a fair fight. Of course, Lando could and probably should have won in Russia in 2021, and perhaps in Monza in the same season, but it didn’t work out in his favor. Then doubts began to arise that Norris would ever win in principle.

It’s easy to say the safety car helped him on lap 28, it’s much more complicated. Norris was initially forced to sit behind Perez after Sergio slid into the safety zone at Turn 1 and miraculously didn’t hit anyone but returned to the track.

Norris then demonstrated astonishing pace in the updated McLaren, as did his teammate Piastri – his car only had half of the new products. Oscar remained second for a long time, managed to manage the gap with Verstappen and keep both Ferraris behind him.

Max had to push hard that day and made a rare mistake at the Turn 14/15 chicane, clipping the orange apex cone and then bouncing off the curb. This caused damage to his car and caused a virtual safety car to come out to remove the damaged cone.

Norris was luckier and was able to complete a longer stint at a better pace, which ultimately gave him the opportunity to pit behind a real safety car when Sargent and Magnussen collided.

With rivals limited by the speed of the safety car, Lando lost 11 seconds driving through the pit lane and changing tires, compared to twenty if the race had continued as normal.

Lando’s only mistake that day was the restart. He had to either attack from the top of the last corner or drive slowly to the finish and then accelerate, given the short distance to the first braking zone.

Instead he did something in between, and with Verstappen already at the back, the question was who would be at the front coming out of Turn 1. Norris braked late, kept the car on the track, then completed a lap with great confidence and was able to pull away. The team thinks they had enough speed to win without the safety car, but we’ll never know.

Max’s bad day put him in second place, so there was no tragedy. Charles Leclerc, who missed Friday’s only practice due to an unlucky spin, climbed to the third step of the podium in a scarlet Ferrari in a light blue jumpsuit.

Sergio Perez finished fourth, but only after Piastri and Sainz had ruined each other’s race. Carlos was outraged on the radio, but the stewards disagreed with his arguments, and I agree with them.

Carlos overtook the McLaren at Turn 17, and the sliding of his car’s rear axle caused Oscar’s front wing to break, resulting in a five-second penalty, dropping the Spaniard to fifth. Things could have turned out differently for Sainz this day as he pitted just one lap before the safety car came out, putting Norris in the lead.

Lewis Hamilton had a good race, including some excellent overtaking moves, including a risky maneuver against Nico Hulkenberg. Mercedes shows good pace at times, but both he and George Russell had a very unstable weekend. Soon Mercedes will show some updates that will define their future shape and set the foundation for 2025. We’ll see if they could identify and fix what was wrong with their car.

Let’s hope they succeed, because the updated McLaren cars now seem to be closer to Red Bull and Ferrari is looking forward to the updates to come.

Aston Martin is still behind. Fernando Alonso could only manage ninth place on Sunday, 37 seconds behind the leader, although the safety car rallied the pack on lap 28.

Yuki Tsunoda did another excellent job in his RB, splitting the Mercedes drivers and finishing seventh, ahead of George Russell, who was surprisingly out of trouble that day.

Daniel Ricciardo drove a brilliant sprint in the second RB car, but due to a failed qualification he only finished the main race in 15th.

This once again shows how fierce the battle is for the points remaining after the five strongest teams. Alongside Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon earned Alpine’s first point of the season in 10th place.

Kevin Magnussen is probably tired of giving explanations in the stewards’ room. In the sprint he defended himself very aggressively against Hamilton, sometimes going to the extreme, but was still praised by Lewis. But in the race, Magnussen’s collision with Sargent was stupid and unnecessary, so Williams has to prepare spare parts again. A terrible start to the season for them.

In Miami we saw a great show, the organizers solved the problems of the first year and this stage was ideally suited to the Saturday sprint format.

All weekend long, fans and celebrities cheered loudly as the 24-year-old, ever-smiling Brit from Glastonbury finally got his first win. I look forward to the continuation of this season.