Lando Norris finally scored his first Formula 1 win on Sunday (May 5) at the Miami Grand Prix. With 16 podium finishes and eight being for second place, as recently as the previous race in China, Norris had taken on the position of best driver not to have won. In fact, the Sky Sports prerace show even hooked Norris up to a lie detector to which he averred that he would indeed win with McLaren. How prophetic!
Max Verstappen did something that must have confused him: He finished second. He has done so 29 times in his career but only four times in the last three seasons. It is hard to finish second when you are always finishing first. Still, there is no reason to feel bad for Verstappen. He still leads the championship standings 136-101 over teammate Sergio Perez.
Charles Leclerc continued his steady year by taking third, and still not finishing outside the top four. He sits with 98 points and as another driver hoping for Red Bull to display a chink in their formidable armor to score his sixth win.
Carlos Sainz looked like he might have the pace to pass his Ferrari teammate but never made a move and settled for fourth. Much like Leclerc, he has been consistent and has yet to finish outside the top five, but he has had a withdrawal owing to his appendectomy.
Perez followed in fifth after he dive-bombed the leaders at the onset. Starting from fourth, Perez sat in a great position to gain positions but undid his race by barging toward the leaders with little control and going wide at turn 1. After he gathered up his Red Bull and fell in line, Perez fought with Norris for much of the first half of the race. His uneven performance does nothing to dispel rumors that Sainz will be taking over Perez’s spot at Red Bull next year. (Ed. Note: Sainz was relegated to fifth after the stewards assessed him a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Oscar Piastri in their post-race review.)
Perhaps Mercedes is starting to stabilize. Or maybe they just put together a decent weekend, but the team still does not resemble the dominant force it had been just four years ago. But credit should be given to Lewis Hamilton for starting eighth and finishing sixth while showing pace to push the cars in front of him. Neither the team nor Hamilton will be challenging for titles this year, and only with a lot of luck might the group win a race, but solid points days from here out are what should set them as the third-best team if they all remain…
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