Piastri completes hat-trick of wins to stretch F1 lead

MIAMI :Oscar Piastri won the Miami Grand Prix in an utterly dominant McLaren one-two on Sunday to complete a hat-trick and stretch his Formula One championship lead over teammate Lando Norris to 16 points after six rounds.

The win from fourth on the grid was the Australian's third in a row, after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and fourth of the season. McLaren have so far been beaten only once.

George Russell finished third for Mercedes but a mighty 37.644 seconds behind.

"Two years ago at Miami we were the slowest team. I think we were lapped twice," said Piastri after another implacably flawless drive.

"Now to have won the Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result."

Red Bull's world champion Max Verstappen was fourth, overtaken by both McLarens and maintaining a sequence dating back to the race's debut in 2022 of the driver starting on pole position in Miami failing to win.

Alex Albon was fifth for Williams, ahead of Kimi Antonelli in a Mercedes and the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

Carlos Sainz made it a double points finish for Williams in ninth and Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda was 10th despite a five second penalty.

FIRST LAP CLASH

The start provided an immediate talking point with Norris challenging Verstappen for the lead but then having to go off after making contact at turn two and losing three places, with Antonelli second and Piastri third.

"He forced me off," said Norris over the team radio. "What am I meant to do? Just drive into the wall or something? I was completely alongside."

Stewards took a look and decided no further action was needed.

"Max put up a good fight as always and I paid the price, but it's the way it is," Norris said later.

"If I don't go for it, people complain. If