Oscar Piastri rues bad luck after F1 Miami sprint win eludes him

McLaren‘s Oscar Piastri feels he did “everything right” after ceding the F1 Miami GP sprint win to Lando Norris due to a late safety car intervention.

After muscling past Mercedes’ surprise sprint polesitter Andrea Kimi Antonelli at the start, Piastri led the way from Norris on a drying track, with the pair easily keeping Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at arm’s length.

In the latter stages of the 18-lap race, Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s stop to the faster slick tyres started putting pressure on the leading McLaren pair to follow suit, with Piastri first to come in followed by Norris.

Piastri’s earlier stop to slicks would have normally safeguarded his position, but as Norris pitted the safety car came out for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who was nudged into a crash by Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson.

With Piastri forced to reduce speed, Norris emerged ahead to snatch the sprint win as the race ended behind the safety car.

Afterwards Piastri rued his luck as he missed out on an opportunity to keep his winning streak going following back-to-back grand prix victories in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

“I feel like I did pretty much everything right there, so obviously a bit disappointed to come away with second,” the Australian said.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

“But that’s how it goes sometimes. Unfortunately, racing is a pretty cruel business. Hopefully that means I’ve got a bit of luck for this afternoon and tomorrow. It was another great start and I had to get my elbows out on that one.”

In the grand scheme of things Piastri only suffered a two-point swing in the championship to Norris, leading his team-mate by nine units as the pair gears up for another pole battle in grand prix qualifying later on Saturday afternoon.

“I think we had a little bit of pace on the table in sprint qualifying yesterday and hopefully we can use that for qualifying this afternoon,” he nodded.

“It’d be nice if the weather could make up its mind. But no, I’ve been enjoying it and I think we’ve got a quick car underneath us.”

Photos from Miami GP – Sprint