OSCAR PIASTRI showed Max Verstappen who the daddy was to win the Miami Grand Prix on the Dutchman’s big weekend.
Lando Norris also came in second as McLaren stole the show on the weekend that Verstappen welcomed his first child and secured pole position for Sunday’s race.
Oscar Piastri was victorious in Miami[/caption]
The McLaren stars celebrate on the podium[/caption]
The Dutchman, whose partner Kelly Piquet gave birth to their daughter Lily ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, settled for fourth behind George Russell in third.
Ferrari suffered more team orders chaos as Lewis Hamilton was left fuming with his race engineer over swapping positions with Charles Leclerc as the seven-time world champion finished eighth behind the other Ferrari in seventh.
There was drama from the start as Verstappen was a whisker ahead going into Turn One but he locked up and Lando Norris went wheel-to-wheel with him out of the corner.
But the McLaren driver ran wide on the outside and dropped into sixth as Kimi Antonelli sped into second with Oscar Piastri in third.
But the pack was stabilised under a virtual safety car as Jack Doohan’s Alpine stopped on track after contact with Liam Lawson.
Norris was fuming at the earlier battle with Verstappen, and said on his team radio: “He [Verstappen] forced me off mate. What am I meant to do? Just drive into the wall or something?
“Like I was completely alongside?”
Race Control was unfazed and noted no further investigation required between the duo and it was game on.
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The battle for the lead was on and Piastri was all over Verstappen who brilliantly defended until lap 13 when the Aussie driver got past.
But the McLaren attack was not done and two laps later Verstappen came under attack from Lando Norris.
Norris lunged down the inside and got through but later gave the spot back as the battle got tasty.
Finally the British driver got the job done on lap 18 and Norris got a clean overtake for second place despite Verstappen fighting tooth and nail to keep second.
British Haas driver Oliver Bearman’s engine blew up and he stopped at Turn Eight prompting a Virtual Safety Car and a flurry of pit stops.
It worked out very nicely for George Russell who jumped Antonelli and Verstappen into third under the VSC.
There was more pit stop chaos for Red Bull as Yuki Tsunoda was slapped with a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Yet another VSC arrived, the third of the race as Gabriel Bortoleto stopped on the back straight with engine issues.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both passed Carlos Sainz with an expert double move.
With 18 laps to go Piastri and Norris were separated by seven seconds and it would take a moment of magic for the Brit to close that gap.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton was seething with his team who did not swap him with Leclerc.
His engineer told him: “We want to keep the DRS to Charles go ahead like this.”
Hamilton replies: “Man you guys! This is not good team work. That’s all I’m going to say!”
Finally they switched the pair and fuming Hamilton said just before: “In China I got out of the way when you were on a different strategy. Have a tea break while you’re at it, come on!”
While Leclerc said: “I need Lewis to go faster, I’ve just got dirty air now.”
The Monegasque driver was all over Hamilton though and complained of his tyres overheating behind the Brit.
Hamilton was told to “swap positions” with Leclerc and let him through into Turn 11 on lap 52, bizarrely telling Leclerc BEFORE the Brit to add to confusion.
Sassy Hamilton was then told Carlos Sainz was 1.4s behind and he sarcastically responded with “Want me let him past as well?”