At one stage, Lando Norris looked the favourite to qualify on pole for the sprint race in Miami. But he ended up walking away without a single point.
Norris was electric in SQ1 and SQ2 in his heavily-upgraded McLaren car on Friday. In fact, the lap time he set in the second segment would have been good enough for pole position.
Unfortunately, Norris lost nearly a second as one of the many drivers who couldn’t switch on the soft compound tyres. That meant he ended up starting down in ninth.
And his race would come to an end at the very first corner, through no fault of his own. The Briton was the victim of a tangle between Lewis Hamilton and the two Aston Martins.
Hamilton, looking to make progress, from 12th, braked late on the inside of the corner. He couldn’t avoid Fernando Alonso, who in turn hit teammate Lance Stroll, knocking him into Norris.
The contact spun the 24-year-old around, and the damage was so severe that he couldn’t continue. It’s the second sprint in a row where the start has been his undoing.
Granted, this time there was nothing he could do, whereas in China, he made a mistake and ran wide as he battled with Hamilton. Norris started on pole for that race but finished sixth.
Zak Brown reacts as Lewis Hamilton escapes penalty following Lando Norris DNF
Alonso expressed his unhappiness with Hamilton over the radio, complaining that he’d arrived at turn one ‘like a bull’. Despite that, the stewards decided not to award him a penalty.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 during the race, Zak Brown took a dim view of the seven-time world champion’s move. He seemed to expect a punishment.
The McLaren Racing CEO said: “It looked like Lewis got overly aggressive, couldn’t get it slowed down for the first corner and drove into a couple of cars that were already driving into themselves already.”
McLaren did at least salvage something from the 19-lap race. Oscar Piastri came home in sixth, which earns him three points heading into the main race on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton sees race ruined by clashes with Kevin Magnussen
It won’t offer much comfort to Norris, but Hamilton didn’t score any points either on Saturday. He was involved in a race-long tussle with Kevin Magnussen and latterly Yuki Tsunoda, eventually battling his way to eighth.
That would have been good enough for a point, but the 39-year-old received a significant penalty for speeding in the pit lane. That dropped him all the way down to 16th.
Hamilton repeatedly complained over the team radio as Magnussen fought desperately to stay ahead and create a gap for teammate Nico Hulkenberg. The Danish driver also suffered a post-race demotion as the stewards handed him multiple penalties.
In the battle behind Max Verstappen and Red Bull, it wasn’t a good day for McLaren, Mercedes or Aston Martin, with Piastri the only driver at any of those teams to score points. Ferrari were the relative winners, with Charles Leclerc second and Carlos Sainz fifth.
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