The spell is broken! Lando Norris wins the Miami Grand Prix and takes his first victory in Formula 1 after 15 podiums. The McLaren driver triumphs in the first of three USA races in the 2024 season. A safety car after a collision involving Logan Sargeant and Kevin Magnussen turns the race on its head and helps Norris win.
Max Verstappen made an unusual mistake by clearing a bollard after braking. However, the Dutchman did not suffer any damage and ultimately ended up in second position behind Norris. Charles Leclerc completes the podium. Carlos Sainz secures fourth position after a tough duel with Oscar Piastri. However, the Australian suffers damage and comes away empty-handed. Sergio Perez completes the top 5. Esteban Ocon ends up in P10, securing Alpine’s first point of the year.
Update: After the race, Sainz was given a five-second penalty for contact with Piastri. As a result, he lost 4th place to Sergio Perez.
Formula 1 – Miami 2024 – Race – Result
The highlights from the Formula 1 race in Miami
- Lando Norris wins his first Formula 1 race
- Max Verstappen is deprived of victory by the safety car phase
- Alpine gets its first point of the season
- Collision between Sargeant and Magnussen turns race on its head
- Sainz receives a penalty
Driver voting Miami: Grade all Formula 1 drivers now!
Formula 1 table 2024, World Cup status: Norris overtakes Sainz
World Championship status: In the World Championship, however, his first Grand Prix victory brought Norris a position. The Brit is now in P4. Verstappen was able to further extend his championship lead with 136 points. Perez is now 33 points behind (103 points), Leclerc is close on the heels of the second Red Bull driver, only three points behind. Sainz is tied with Norris on P5 (83). In the Constructors’ World Championship the leaders once again grew further apart. Red Bull (239) is now 52 points ahead of Ferrari (187), McLaren in P3 has 124 points, Mercedes only has 64 points.
Formula 1 table: F1 World Championship as of 2024
The weather: The temperatures remained summery at 28 degrees. On race Sunday there was only light cloud cover over Miami and the Formula 1 track, which led to a slightly lower track temperature than on the previous days: 43 degrees were measured at the start of the race.
Formula 1 – Miami GP 2024 starting grid – result
Formula 1 in Miami: Max Verstappen wins the start, but not the race
Verstappen controlled the Formula 1 race on the first few laps, but was only able to gain a lead of a few seconds over the entire duration of the first stint. Behind him, Piastri passed Leclerc for P2 on lap 5. As a result, the trio consisting of the Australian and the two Ferraris drove along in a DRS train, but there were no changes in position until the pit stops.
First pit stops: Sergio Perez couldn’t keep up with the group and slowly fell back. As the pressure from Norris increased, Red Bull dropped anchor on lap 17 and brought him into the pits. In the lead, Leclerc was the first to change tires on lap 20. His direct opponents did not react to the stop.
Max Verstappen clears Pöller and takes care of VSC
There was excitement on lap 22. Max Verstappen made an unusual mistake for him by braking in the chicane in turns 14/15 and cleared the bollard positioned there. This came to rest on the racing line, which resulted in a short VSC phase. However, none of the top pilots benefited from the timing of this neutralization. Verstappen also stopped, but the VSC was dissolved a few seconds beforehand.
Lando Norris in safety car luck
Safety Car: On lap 28 the race was turned upside down. Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant collided in Turn 3. The Dane subsequently received a penalty for the collision. But the timing caused a lot of confusion. Sainz and Piastri had pitted a lap earlier, which gave Norris the lead.
The McLaren driver had lucky safety car timing, as the neutralization vehicle only came onto the track behind him and left Verstappen and the rest of his pursuers behind him. It was only one lap later that these vehicles were waved past the safety car. By then, Norris had already completed his pit stop and was suddenly in the lead with a tire advantage, adjusted for stops.
Max Verstappen has no chance against Lando Norris
2nd half of the race: At the restart, Verstappen was only able to put Norris under pressure briefly, the McLaren driver was able to drive quickly out of the DRS window. Verstappen complained about understeer on his Red Bull, while Norris continued to extend his lead throughout the stint.
Verstappen could no longer attack Norris. By the finish, Norris had extended his lead to over seven seconds. Nothing changed on the podium places: Verstappen remained unchallenged in P2, Leclerc in third position.
There was a fierce battle for fourth place between Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz. The McLaren driver defended aggressively against Sainz shortly after the restart, but there was slight contact and Sainz went off the track. The Ferrari driver called for a position swap, but this didn’t happen. On lap 39, Sainz aggressively pushed past Piastri on the inside of Turn 17 – including making contact. The Australian’s counterattack failed.
Oscar Piastri unlucky after Sainz contact
Things got even worse for Piastri: his front wing was badly damaged during the maneuver, Piastri fell back several positions and finally had to stop for a new wing and fell out of the points. Sainz also subsequently complained about potential damage. But this didn’t seem to be a tragedy as Sainz was able to hold on to P4 until the end of the race. Perez completed the top 5. The Madrilenian was also given a 5-second penalty for the incident with Piastri. This caused the two to swap positions.
Mercedes was not in the race for the top positions. Instead, the name of the Silver Arrows’ biggest competitor in the first stint was Nico Hülkenberg. In the starting phase, the German passed Russell and subsequently also Hamilton, who had started on Hards. But in the long run he lost out. Hamilton still had to fight for position against Hülkenberg twice in the first stint because he lost the place again after braking.
Even after an earlier pit stop, the Haas pace wasn’t enough to do much in the midfield. Instead, Yuki Tsunoda was able to take on the role of “best of the rest” and cross the finish line in seventh position behind Hamilton (P6). Russell finished eighth ahead of Alonso. Esteban Ocon landed in P10 and thus scored the first Alpine point of 2024.