Lando Norris hits out at Max Verstappen after watching Miami Grand Prix battle with Oscar Piastri

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Lando Norris has accused Max Verstappen of ‘ruining his own race’ after the Red Bull driver’s action-packed Miami Grand Prix.

Verstappen had a 360-degree spin on the opening lap and dropped into the midfield, but his early pit stop generated a powerful undercut that put him back amongst the frontrunners.

The Dutchman briefly led the race after his rivals pitted but fell to sixth as Kimi Antonelli, Norris, Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and George Russell all got past.

Lando Norris questions Max Verstappen’s racecraft at the Miami Grand Prix

Speaking in the cooldown room, third-place finisher Piastri complained to teammate Norris (P2) that it was difficult to make overtakes stick in the 2026 cars. The use of boost and overtake mode has often led to back-and-forth battles.

The podium finishers were watching a replay of Piastri’s scrap with Verstappen at the time.

Norris, who was also briefly re-passed by the Red Bull driver, suggested that Verstappen should have been willing to concede defeat. Given the state of his tyres, he was always likely to be fighting a losing battle.

Does Max Verstappen need to recognise when he’s beaten?

Lando Norris questioned his racecraft in Miami

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The exchange went as follows:

Piastri: “Watch this. I overtake him, sweet…

Norris: “He came back past you?”

Piastri: “Nothing I could do.”

Norris: “I don’t get what Max is doing. He just ruins his own race.”

Max Verstappen wins driver of the day at the Miami Grand Prix

Norris may have been frustrated by Verstappen’s tactics, but F1 fans were impressed by the Dutchman’s drive. P5 was his best result of the season so far, even if, at the time of writing, he faces an investigation for a potential pit-lane procedure breach.

Verstappen earned 26.3% of the driver of the day vote, beating race winner Antonelli (18.3%) to the award. Charles Leclerc’s race unravelled after he hit the wall on the final lap, which may have affected his vote share (13.2%).

• READ MORE: Red Bull are ‘smiling’ as Miami Grand Prix upgrades ‘halved’ weight issues with Max Verstappen’s car

Franco Colapinto was fourth with 11% of the vote after matching his career-best result in P8, while Norris was fifth (9.2%) following his best showing of the season.

Verstappen and Red Bull will hope to regularly contend at the front of the grid going forward, with Saturday’s front-row qualifying performance the highlight of the weekend.