Oscar Piastri leads the F1 drivers’ championship by 10 points to Lando Norris, yet has been warned he should not even expect a McLaren one-two in the Miami Grand Prix.
The 2025 F1 season rolls into Florida this weekend for round six with Piastri holding the lead of the drivers’ standings for the first time in the Australian’s career. He dethroned Norris last time out by winning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for the 24-year-old’s third win of the term.
Jeddah further marked the first time this year that Norris failed to finish a Grand Prix on the podium after only managing to salvage P4 having started in P10. The Briton has struggled to match the speed that Piastri has produced since Norris won the season-opener in Australia.
Winning in Melbourne had placed Norris atop the F1 drivers’ championship for the first time in the 25-year-old’s career. But he now needs to hit back after Piastri’s wins in China, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as they return to the venue for Norris’ first win in F1 at the 2024 Miami GP.
Lando Norris ‘always’ has a pace advantage over Oscar Piastri at the Miami Grand Prix
Mike Hezemans is confident that Norris can win the Miami GP in back-to-back editions when F1 visits Hard Rock Stadium this weekend, as well. He even thinks Piastri may struggle to gift McLaren a one-two finish in Florida as Max Verstappen of Red Bull can split the papaya pals.
The Miami GP a year ago was the start of Norris’ rise to being a Formula 1 title contender as McLaren unveiled their first major set of upgrades for the term. Their new parts allowed the Briton to run away and win after Norris gained the lead from Verstappen behind a safety car.
READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration
Norris’ dominant victory at the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix further encourages Hezemans that he can return to the top step of a podium at the 2025 Miami GP, as well. The McLaren star beat Verstappen by 22.896 seconds at Zandvoort to claim the biggest winning margin all season.
Hezemans has told RacingNews365: “He is incredibly fast in Zandvoort and Miami. For some reason, Norris is just super-fast in Miami. He has always been that way in the years that the race has been organised, and in Zandvoort, he is also so mega fast.
“And also much faster than Piastri. Normally, the McLarens should just become one and two with Max in principle in P3… I think Norris will take pole position and still win, with Max and Piastri behind him. Although it should actually be Norris, Piastri and Max.”
Lando Norris’ 2025 Saudi Arabian GP qualifying crash echoed his Sprint Qualifying error at Miami 2024
McLaren were far from a competitive force when F1 staged the 2023 Miami Grand Prix, with Norris and Piastri only able to qualify in P16 plus P19 while separated by 0.090s and finish in P17 plus P19. But their upgrades taken to the 2024 event returned a very different weekend.
Norris will now be hoping to repeat what he showed one year ago in Florida after qualifying in P5 with Piastri in P6 by 0.081s. The Briton even set the fastest laps in SQ1 and SQ2 for the Sprint at last year’s Miami GP but could only take P9 in SQ3 after trying too hard into Turn 1.
Despite Hezemans’ beliefs, Piastri can find cause for optimism in last year’s Sprint Qualifying results, as well. Norris crashed in Q3 for the 2025 Saudi Arabian GP trying to carry too much speed into Turn 4 after seeing the pace that Piastri took through that corner two weeks ago.
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Piastri even jumped from P6 up to P3 on the first lap of the 2024 Miami GP whilst Norris fell to P6, before the Australian overtook Ferrari star Charles Leclerc for P2 on L4 of 57 with the Briton still in P6 – a position he even remained in until Red Bull’s Sergio Perez pitted on L18.
Norris only gained places in last year’s meet at Hard Rock Stadium when other drivers made their sole pit stops. But he was then in the ideal place to benefit when Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant collided, while Piastri fell back behind Leclerc and soon saw his hopes end.
While Norris was able to utilise the lead he inherited and Verstappen damaging his floor on the Turn 15 kerb, Carlos Sainz hit Piastri on L39 of the 2024 Miami GP. The then-Ferrari pilot slid into the Australian fighting over P4 and forced the McLaren man to pit and finish in P13.
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