Lando Norris turned his 110th start into a maiden victory, while Max Verstappen's sprint win and pole position were not enough to stop the McLaren charge.
Lando Norris won the 2024 Miami Grand Prix for McLaren on 5 May 2024, his first Formula One victory after 110 starts. Max Verstappen started from pole and finished second, while Charles Leclerc took third and Verstappen extended his points lead over Sergio Perez to 33.
The 2024 Miami Grand Prix was held at the Miami International Autodrome in Miami Gardens, Florida, on 5 May 2024. It was the sixth round of the season and the second weekend to use the sprint format, and it ended with McLaren's first victory since 2021. Lando Norris won the Grand Prix, Max Verstappen finished second and Charles Leclerc third.
Why was the Miami race important in the title fight?
Verstappen started the weekend at the top of the drivers' table with 110 points, 25 ahead of his team-mate Sergio Perez and 34 clear of Leclerc. Red Bull led the constructors on 195 points, ahead of Ferrari on 151 and McLaren on 96. Norris's victory showed that McLaren had found real pace in the race.
The race was the third running of the Miami Grand Prix and the third time the venue had hosted a race in its history, across a weekend that ran from 3 to 5 May. It was the first time Miami used the sprint format.
A maiden win after 110 starts, a sprint lost to Verstappen's pace and a race decided by a restart and a safety car.
How did the weekend begin with practice?
There was only one free practice session, on 3 May at 12:30 local time. Verstappen was fastest, ahead of Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz Jr. A red flag came out early when Leclerc spun at turn 16 and was unable to move his car. Aston Martin were fined 400 euros after Lance Stroll went 3.5 km/h (2.2 mph) over the 80 km/h (50 mph) pit lane limit.
What happened in sprint qualifying?
Sprint qualifying was held on 3 May at 16:30 local time, and it set the grid for the sprint. In the first segment, Valtteri Bottas's Sauber nearly collided with Piastri as the McLaren started a flying lap. The stewards investigated the incident, but no action resulted. Alexander Albon's initial time was deleted for track limits, dropping him from sixteenth to twentieth.
Mercedes were also looked at during SQ2, when team personnel were seen without protective gear as Lewis Hamilton entered the pit lane, but the stewards took no further action. Norris set the fastest lap in both SQ1 and SQ2 after his car had received upgrades. Verstappen took pole for the sprint, with Leclerc alongside him on the front row and Sergio Perez third. Daniel Ricciardo joined Perez in fourth, the best grid position of his season.
| Place | Driver | Team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | Lando Norris | McLaren | Maiden Grand Prix win after 110 starts |
| Second | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | Pole position and a late fight with Norris |
| Third | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | Within five points of Perez in the standings |
| Fourth | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | Five-second penalty added after the race for hitting Piastri |
How did the sprint race unfold?
The sprint ran on 4 May at 12:00 local time for 19 laps. Before the grid had formed in the pit lane, Esteban Ocon collided with the Ferrari of Leclerc, and the Alpine needed a front wing change. Ocon was given a ten-second penalty and a penalty point for an unsafe release.
Lando Norris retired at the first corner after a three-car collision involving Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Alonso's Aston Martin made contact with Norris's McLaren, and Norris was out with terminal damage. Later the stewards fined Norris 50,000 euros for returning to the pit lane on a live track, although half the fine was suspended unless a similar incident happened again.
Daniel Ricciardo moved up to third early on after Sergio Perez locked up into turn one. Perez then retook third from him with DRS down the straight and into turn 11, and Ricciardo later finished fourth, which earned him his first points of the season. Kevin Magnussen climbed from fourteenth on the grid to eighth, and then picked up a series of penalties for leaving the track to gain an advantage and for exceeding track limits.
Magnussen was handled particularly heavily. He was given a ten-second penalty for his battle with Hamilton, then two more ten-second penalties and a five-second penalty for track limits. A black and white flag came out on the third occasion, after repeated warnings. Hamilton managed to finish eighth despite a battle with Magnussen and an attack from Yuki Tsunoda, but a drive-through for speeding in the pit lane under the safety car was converted into a twenty-second penalty, which let Tsunoda take the final point.
Max Verstappen won the sprint from pole, led every lap and set the fastest lap, ahead of Leclerc and Perez.
Who took pole for the Grand Prix?
Qualifying took place on 4 May at 16:00 local time. Verstappen set the fastest time in both Q1 and Q3, which gave him pole ahead of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. in third. Zhou Guanyu was warned for forming a queue in the pit lane during the first session, and the stewards looked into it after the session.
Ricciardo was eliminated in 18th place after struggling for grip on his final flying lap, and he was then dropped to twentieth by the three-place grid penalty he carried from the previous race. Double yellow flags came out in the second session after Albon ran wide at turn 17 and reported tyre damage. A possible impeding incident between Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg was noted in the third session, but no action followed.
Verstappen took his seventh consecutive pole, the first driver to do so since Hamilton in 2015. He also became the second driver to claim the first six poles in a season, following Alain Prost in 1993.
How did the Grand Prix start and unfold?
The race started at 16:00 local time and ran for 57 laps. Ricciardo started from the back of the grid to serve his penalty. At the start Perez appeared to jump the lights, locked up badly into turn one and nearly collided with Verstappen, Leclerc and Sainz, while Oscar Piastri moved from sixth to third. Pierre Gasly won a wheel-to-wheel fight with Esteban Ocon for the place behind, and Nico Hulkenberg drove his Haas past Lewis Hamilton for seventh.
Piastri soon passed Leclerc with DRS, and Hamilton briefly moved ahead of Hulkenberg before locking up. The leaders then began to pit, with Perez first among the frontrunners to stop. Leclerc followed on the hard compound, which most teams preferred. Verstappen made a mistake at the chicane between turns fourteen and fifteen and struck a bollard, which stayed attached to his front wing until turn 16 and triggered a brief virtual safety car. The kerbs also damaged his floor.
Verstappen pitted immediately after the virtual safety car period ended. Hamilton switched to mediums and George Russell to hards, and Piastri and Sainz pitted, which handed the lead to Norris. The race was then changed by an incident involving Magnussen and Logan Sargeant, who hit the wall and retired with terminal damage. Magnussen had to visit the pit lane for repairs, and that brought out a full safety car.
The safety car gave Norris an advantage. He changed his tyres under it, and when the restart came he led the race ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc. Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Ricciardo also changed tyres during that period. Ocon held tenth place until the end, which brought Alpine their first point of the season.
Why did the restart decide the result?
The safety car returned to the pit lane on lap 32. Norris came under pressure from Verstappen at the restart and defended his position, which allowed the gap to grow. Verstappen lost time behind him. In the battle behind, Sainz attacked Piastri and damaged his front wing, which dropped the McLaren out of the points.
Piastri tried to recover but suffered lock-ups, and his race engineer told him to calm down because another safety car could cost Norris the lead. Piastri still set the fastest lap of the race. Late on, Lance Stroll ran wide while trying to pass Albon and was handed a ten-second penalty.
Norris finished the race ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc. It was his first Grand Prix win after 110 starts, and it gave McLaren their first victory since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix. It was also the first win for a British driver, or for a Mercedes-powered team, since the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
What did Norris's win mean for his career?
Norris had enjoyed 15 podiums before his first win, which tied the record for the most podiums scored before a maiden Grand Prix victory. The record had been held jointly by Patrick Depailler, Mika Hakkinen, Eddie Irvine and Jean Alesi. It was also his first win in any competitive race for more than six years, since he won the feature race at the 2018 Bahrain Formula 2 round.
His race engineer, Will Joseph, said the victory allowed Norris and the whole McLaren team to move on from the haunting experience at the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, where Norris led most of the race before losing out after a late rain shower and a decision not to switch to wet tyres.
How did the championship change after Miami?
Despite not winning, Verstappen extended his drivers' lead over Perez to 33 points. Leclerc remained third in the standings and got within five points of Perez. Norris's victory lifted him to fourth overall on 83 points, level with Sainz. Red Bull's constructors' lead over Ferrari grew to 62 points, and McLaren were 63 points further back in third.
What penalties followed the race?
Several drivers were penalised after the chequered flag, and the changes reshaped the finishing order. Sainz was given a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Piastri, which moved him out of fourth. Stroll received a ten-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, while Magnussen was hit with a ten-second penalty for causing a collision with Sargeant.
Magnussen also picked up a drive-through for not changing tyres while entering the pit lane under safety car conditions, and that penalty was turned into an extra twenty seconds on his race time. The combined penalties left him 18th in the classification.
What penalty did Ricciardo carry into the race?
The three-place penalty came from the Chinese Grand Prix, where Ricciardo had overtaken Nico Hulkenberg under safety car conditions. He had qualified 18th, so the penalty dropped him to last for the start.
