A Miami Grand Prix that promised a chaotic battle - both through the spectacular action of the opening stint and the threat of game-changing rain - ultimately turned into a monumental McLaren beatdown.
Here are our picks of the winners and losers from Sunday's contest, the first of F1's three grands prix in the USA this season.
Winner
Oscar Piastri
Three in a row for Oscar Piastri. He got a bit of fortune from Max Verstappen outbraking himself at Turn 1, but he was also patient and didn’t force a) a move that wasn’t on or b) a move that Verstappen would use to force Piastri off the track, as he had done with Lando Norris early on.
It was a slightly more conservative approach than, say, Jeddah, and one that required help from Verstappen who rarely makes errors, but today it worked. And once ahead, it looked to me at least that Piastri was comfortable and had pace in hand to manage the rest of the race.
At the moment, he looks the superior McLaren driver. But the team still needs to find a way to make the car easier to drive in qualifying because the over half-minute gap to the opposition in the race shows it has enough pace that it should be ahead and controlling these races from the start, not getting involved in squabbles with slower cars. - Jack Benyon
Loser
Lando Norris
Norris’s second fight with Verstappen was similar to his team-mate's. He was basically trying to pressure Verstappen into an error as Piastri had done.
That first fight is the real markdown instead. It ultimately proved ill-judged given the pace McLaren had in hand, and cost him the chance to be the first to pass Verstappen.
Making a low-yield move on the first lap shows Norris has not learned all he needs to in a battle with Verstappen - and Piastri’s more conservative approach showed a superior way to do it.
Norris said after the race that people will complain if he goes for the move and people will complain if he doesn’t. That may be true, but it’s up to him to make the right decision and not worry about what others think. - JB
Winner
George Russell
It would be maybe overly kind to say Russell made his own luck in the Miami GP - as his decision to start on hards over mediums, which was crucial to him catching VSC period in his pit window, seemed a consequence of a below-par qualifying.
Rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli clearly gave him a lot of trouble this weekend, and that won't be forgotten in a flash, but come chequered flag there was Russell on the grand prix podium again, now at four out of six to start the campaign.
Verstappen's within touching distance in the standings. The McLarens aren't, but Russell will anyway know he will need a major change in the cars' performance rankings to factor in the drivers' championship.
That turnaround may not come - it probably won't come - but all he can do now is keep buying more time, and he's doing exactly that. - Valentin Khorounzhiy
Loser
Max Verstappen
Another dramatic race for Verstappen where his conduct will be questioned by some - but, unusually, in this instance his robust defence did not pay off.
After crowding out Norris at Turn 2, he lost out to Piastri by outbraking himself at Turn 1 and Norris after a longer fight that ended at Turn 11.
Those were always going to be losing battles - and he was then jumped by Russell through no fault of his own.
A poor result for the effort applied. The fact Verstappen held up the McLarens for so long and ended the race over a half a minute behind them showed how tough his task actually was. - JB
Loser
Ferrari
Say what you will about Ferrari, but both in the Mattia Binotto era and now in the Fred Vasseur era there's a real je ne sais quoi to its bad races. All teams have those, but it does feel like only one of the 10 suffers them in this kind of fashion.
The Ferrari SF-25 was capital-s Slow all weekend, beaten by a Williams on merit and now facing a frankly incredible 152-point hole in the constructors' standings. That's the big worry. That's the thing that should horrify the people at Maranello.
However, what will be remembered from this weekend instead was Lewis Hamilton firing off hilarious one-liners as he was first denied a swap with Charles Leclerc, then granted one, then told to reverse it, all the while nothing of value was accomplished except for painting a colourful picture of mild team disharmony.
Which, again, might actually be much easier to reckon with than the cold facts of the car's abject performance in Florida. - VK
Winner
Williams
Alex Albon's fifth-place finish makes it tempting to suggest Williams may yet come to regret being the first team (or at least the first team that's publicly communicated this) to end the development on its 2025 car in favour of the new rules in 2026.
But Albon was also 48 seconds back from the win, so while the FW47 is clearly a good car it's not the car that can take Williams back to its past glories. What it needs to be instead is a car that's good enough to put into that no man's land (previously occupied by Aston Martin, more on them later) between the top four and the rest of the grid.
Albon beat both Ferraris, a Mercedes and a Red Bull this weekend but realistically those teams are out of reach. But is Williams now out of reach for the teams behind? It has nearly double the points of Haas.
Maybe it isn't just yet. But James Vowles can feel pretty good about the decision to take this FW47 out of the windtunnel. This FW47 is enough.
Losers
Jack Doohan and Liam Lawson
A nightmare weekend for Liam Lawson concluded with a shunt at Turn 1 that also involved Jack Doohan’s Alpine.
It was a typical Turn 1 incident at basically any grand prix. Doohan was on the inside and Lawson got squeezed in the middle. Lawson positioned himself in a dangerous area, but could Doohan have left more room?
Ultimately, both paid the price and failed to finish. - JB
Loser
Aston Martin
Aston scored a very healthy - for its current situation - four points yesterday so must count the weekend overall as a positive one.
But it's hard to feel very good about the team, and certainly about the AMR25, after a day on which only Piastri's last-lap clearing of Nico Hulkenberg spared them the blushes of being the only cars off the lead lap, on which lead driver Fernando Alonso spun out of battle and still finished ahead of team-mate Lance Stroll.
There's been a lot of talk about whether new recruit Adrian Newey can cure the '25 car - but every passing weekend suggests this Aston Martin season isn't worth rescuing. - VK
