Oscar Piastri full of praise for McLaren after ‘unbelievable’ and ‘impressive’ victory in Miami

Oscar Piastri did not have a straightforward journey from P4 to the race win around the Miami International Autodrome, but he believes the victory proved how far both he and McLaren have come in recent years.

The Australian came agonisingly close to crossing the line in first place in Saturday’s Sprint, but he lost out to his team mate Lando Norris who benefitted from the late Safety Car conditions to take the lead.

Piastri was then focused on replicating his earlier Sprint Qualifying performance of P2 to put himself in a strong position for the 57-lap Grand Prix, but the session fell away from him and he was forced to settle for fourth position.

At lights out, an off-track moment from Norris in a scrappy fight with polesitter Max Verstappen saw him drop from P2 to P6, promoting Piastri and giving him the opportunity to quickly clear the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli.

2025 Miami Grand Prix: Piastri powers past Verstappen to take the lead

With the lone Red Bull separating him from controlling the race, the lead McLaren then entered an incredibly tense and masterful battle that lasted for four laps around the track and eventually saw him come out on top.

“I won the race that I really wanted to,” Piastri summarised. “Yesterday was a tricky day. Obviously the Sprint was what it was, but Qualifying was probably one of my trickiest sessions of the year.

“To come away with a win still on Sunday is an impressive result. Obviously there was a bit of argy-bargy at Turn 1 which helped me out a little bit, and then I was aware enough to avoid Max coming through in Turn 1.

“From that point onwards I knew that I had a good pace advantage and clearly the car was unbelievable today.”

Race winner Oscar Piastri of Australia and McLaren celebrates in parc ferme with his team during the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at Miami International Autodrome on May 04, 2025 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images) — McLaren have seen a magnificent turnaround in their performance over the last few years

The Australian comfortably led the race through multiple Virtual Safety Cars and consistently kept Norris behind him – although the Briton gradually closed the gap over the last few laps, he crossed the line just over four seconds behind.

But the most important gap was to George Russell in third place, who didn’t take the chequered flag until a mighty 37.644s after Piastri, demonstrating McLaren's remarkable dominance when it comes to race pace.

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Piastri said: “I think towards the end I started to get things a bit more back under control but there’s still definitely some things to work on from this afternoon. Very happy with the win, very happy with the points but constantly got to keep learning. Very happy to be leaving Miami on top.

“It’s just incredible, the hard work that’s gone in. I remember two years ago here in Miami we were genuinely the slowest team. I think we got lapped twice.

“To now have won the Grand Prix by over 35s to third is an unbelievable result and the hard work of every single person – firstly the people here at the track but everyone at the factory as well.”