F1 champion Lando Norris confused by Max Verstappen self-destruction at Miami Grand Prix

Lando Norris and Max Verstappen — Photo: © IMAGO

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Lando Norris confused by Max Verstappen self-destruction

Lando Norris finished second in Miami, with Max Verstappen down in fifth

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 5 May 2026 21:58

Reigning F1 world champion Lando Norris was left baffled by his old rival Max Verstappen's tactics at the Miami Grand Prix.

Norris and Verstappen have been in a fight for the title in each of the last two seasons, with 2025 seeing Norris get the better of the four-time champion by two points, with the championship going down to the final race in Abu Dhabi.

This year, however, it doesn't look like either driver will be in a fight for the championship just yet, with their respective teams having experienced a drop off compared to their 2025 form.

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Despite this, Norris and Verstappen both found themselves battling for a podium at the Miami GP, and Norris even came within three seconds of race winner Kimi Antonelli.

Verstappen, meanwhile, started in second, but some uncharacteristic mistakes from him on lap one ended his chances of winning the race very early on.

The Dutchman looked like he had got ahead of Antonelli off the line, but went wide into Turn 1 after locking up his tyres, before getting on the power too early and spinning around at Turn 2, dropping all the way down to ninth.

After gambling with an early pit stop under safety car conditions, Verstappen started making his way through the field, with some aggressive overtakes in what looked more like the Verstappen of old.

While he got himself all the way up to first while his rivals around him pitted, he soon started falling backwards, having taken too much out of his tyres early on in the stint.

In the cooldown room after the race, Norris watched some of Verstappen's overtakes back on the big screen, and was quite confused by the approach that the Dutchman had taken.

Watching on with race winner Antonelli and team-mate Oscar Piastri, Norris exclaimed: "I don’t get what Max was doing? He just ruined his own race."

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Are Red Bull and McLaren back in the fight?

The early weeks of the 2026 season were all about Mercedes, who dominated the first three grand prix weekends, and whether Ferrari could catch up to the Brackley outfit.

Even ahead of the Miami GP weekend, all of the talk was about Ferrari, who had brought 11 upgrades to the Miami International Autodrome.

Yet Red Bull and McLaren both brought seven apiece, including Red Bull's so-called 'Maxarena' rear wing, which is similar to Ferrari's 'macarena' design.

Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies told Sky Sports during the weekend that the changes had been made to give Verstappen more of a chance of pushing his RB22 to the limit, after he had been outqualified by Isack Hadjar at two of the previous three grand prix weekends.

And it was clear that he could do exactly that, finishing around a second ahead of Hadjar in qualifying, before then showcasing more of the Verstappen of 2025 during the race. His fifth-placed finish was his best grand prix finish of the season so far.

As for McLaren, they claimed a sprint race win and a double grand prix podium throughout the weekend, and proved that they are still very much a force to be reckoned with in F1 2026.

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen McLaren Lando Norris Miami Grand Prix