Oscar Piastri has taken an early lead in the contest for F1’s 2025 Drivers’ Championship with a brilliant victory at the Miami Grand Prix—his third podium-topping performance in a row and fourth this year. If the 24-year-old Australian racing wunderkind keeps up the momentum, this could well be McLaren’s first Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship win in 17 years.
Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris wasn’t far behind across the Miami finish line, making it a 1-2 sweep for McLaren at the first of three U.S. races on the F1 calendar—an especially impressive feat given that Norris dropped from his second-place starting position to sixth during the first lap after losing an early battle to rival Max Verstappen.
As BBC notes, Piastri also made several attempts to pass a defensive Verstappen early in the race before before finally squeezing around the Red Bull in a corner at the beginning of lap 14. From then on, Piastri put on a clinic at the front. Norris made his big movie on Verstappen at lap 17, and the McLaren drivers dominated all the way to the checkered flag. Piastri’s win also marks the first time a McLaren driver has won three races in a row since Mika Hakkinen over the 1997-1998 seasons. With 131 points, Piastri now leads Norris by 16 points in the standings, with Verstappen 32 points back in third.
“Max put up a good fight, and I just paid the price,” said Norris after the race, per The Guardian. “What can I say? If I don’t go for it, people complain. If I go for it, people complain. With Max it’s crash or don’t pass, and I just had to get him in the right position.”
“I remember two years ago in Miami we were genuinely the slowest team,” added Piastri, recalling a race in which he and Norris started in 19th and 16th to finish 17th and 18th, respectively. “To now have won the grand prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result.” Ultimately, it was Mercedes’ George Russell who took third-place, followed by Verstappen’s fourth-place finish a couple seconds behind.
With this early string of McLaren successes, it’s now possible to imagine the end of Verstappen’s reign that’s seen the Dutchman win four consecutive Drivers’ Championships from 2021 to 2024. And just maybe, we’ve watched the passing of the torch to Piastri.