Track Interviews - Conducted by Jenson Button

George P3, not a bad result considering most of the weekend you felt you haven't really got to grips with the car around Miami?
George Russell: Yeah, to be honest, really happy to come away with P3 because I've been struggling this weekend, personally, and always on the back foot. But ultimately, when it mattered, got a really good result today. But well done to the McLarens - they're just down the road.

Obviously, you lucked in a little bit on the Safety Car, but at the end of the race you had to keep Max behind you. It's never an easy challenge.
GR: No, it's not. But I was pretty calm and I felt really good with the car to keep him behind me, so it was good. I think Lando's a bit upset with me because we had a bit of a crash on the Lego race this morning. I gave him a bit of an injured leg, so I don't know if he's going to complain at me for something.

So George, what was your favourite race of the day here in Miami?
GR: Oh, without a doubt the race this morning - the Lego race. That was awesome! We need to do that every race.

Lando, congratulations. It's a P2 - a formidable job by the whole team to get both cars 30 seconds in front of the rest of the field. It must hurt a little bit though?
Lando Norris: Yeah, I mean it's never the best feeling but, you know, the team have done an amazing job, so I can't fault them at all. Good pit stops, great pace... Yeah, we were up the road. So it was a good feeling. But Oscar drove well. Max put up a good fight as always, and I paid the price. But it is the way it is.

So was it too inviting to go around the outside of Max in Turn 2? Obviously, it was always going to get narrow.
LN: What can I say? If I don't go for it, people complain. If I go for it, people complain. So, you can't win. But it's the way it is with Max - it's crash or don't pass. Unless you get it really right and you put him in the perfect position, then you can just about get there. But I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today. But I'm still happy with second.

The important thing is that you did what was right for you.
LN: Exactly, because that's what I should do.

Oscar, the Sprint race didn't quite go your way, obviously with the safety car, but you won the Grand Prix here in Miami.
Oscar Piastri: Yeah, I mean, I won the race that I really wanted to do. Yesterday was a tricky day. Obviously, the Sprint was what it was, but qualifying was probably one of my trickiest sessions of the year. And to come away with a win still on Sunday is an impressive result. So yeah, obviously there was a bit of argy-bargy at Turn 1 [inaudible]... but we had a pace advantage, and clearly the car was unbelievable today.

For me, the big difference I see from you from last year to now is the race pace - how you control a race. It seems that when we put Oscar in the lead of the Grand Prix, there's no looking back. You can control the pace from the time you get into the lead until the chequered flag.
OP: Yeah, I mean I think the first stint was really, really strong. Then the Hard stint, I was honestly struggling a little bit. So it was a good thing that I built that gap in the first stint. I think towards the end I started to get things a bit more back under control. But there's still definitely some things to work on from this afternoon. So I'm very happy with the win, very happy with the points - but constantly got to keep learning. So yeah, very, very happy to leave Miami on top.

The last one is about the team. Have you got any comments about the team - they've given you this absolute weapon?
OP: I mean, it's just incredible the hard work that's gone in. You know, remember two years ago here in Miami we were genuinely the slowest team - I think we got lapped twice - and to now have won the Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result. And the hard work of every single person - firstly the people here at the track, but everyone at the factory as well.

Press Conference

Oscar, we'll start with you. Great race. Very well done. First up, what's with the little dance in parc fermé? Hint of a Griddy?
OP: I knew that was going to be the question! It was an attempt at a Griddy, as you can tell, poorly executed. I met Justin Jefferson on Thursday, who has essentially made the Griddy world famous, and stupidly made a bet with him that if I won the race, then I would do one for him. After qualifying yesterday, I didn't practice because I thought that was definitely not going to be needed. So yeah, that was my first attempt at a Griddy live on world TV. I stayed true to the bet, but that's the one and only time you'll be seeing me do that.

Let's talk about the on-track business. You had to fight hard in those early laps and then demonstrated phenomenal pace in clean air. Just how much did you enjoy yourself out there today?
OP: I enjoyed it at certain points, yes. It was tough at the beginning trying to get past Max. I tried pretty hard to get past, with everything still on my car. It was not easy but I picked my moments when I needed to. I could tell that we had a lot of pace from the get-go today, and it was going to be a matter of when I got past, not if. But I wanted to do it as efficiently as I could because I knew once Lando got back behind me, he was going to be catching us a lot. I wanted to get through quickly but cleanly. I felt like I did a pretty good job of that, then built a gap. Maybe not the strongest second half of the race of my life, but I think building that gap and being quick at the right times was what I needed.

You were clinical dispatching Kimi Antonelli. Just how tough was it to get past Max Verstappen?
OP: I mean, to be honest with you, Kimi was very nice to me and didn't make life very tough, which is nice when you race against people who identify when someone's quicker and don't make the race more difficult for both of us. So that was nice of him. Obviously, for Max, leading the race, a different story. But I knew to expect that. I could tell we had a lot of pace. Like I said, it was a matter of just biding my time, waiting for a moment, or forcing him into a moment. That's what I was able to do. Once I got past, I knew I had to try and build a gap while Lando was behind him. That got me the win.

Oscar, you were 37 seconds ahead of the first non-McLaren car. That could be described as dominance. When you reflect on the weekend as a whole, where is there still work to do?
OP: Celebrations - that's definitely top of the list at the moment! I think this weekend was not my best, and a lot of that was yesterday. The race today was pretty solid, but yesterday I was pretty frustrated with my performance. Ultimately, yes, I won the race this weekend, but I think the likelihood of winning many races [after] qualifying fourth is pretty low. I did a lot of things right today, but there was definitely some good fortune there as well, and a very quick car. I don't want to rely on that every single Sunday. Clearly, this is the exception to the pace we've had this year. Yes, we've always had a strong car, but the pace we had today from lap one it felt like was unexpected, even for us. I'll definitely take the performance and we'll try and work out how to do that every weekend, but there's still definitely things to work on from a personal side and from a team point of view.

What part of the racetrack was the car particularly strong on here?
OP: Honestly, I don't know. In qualifying we were not the quickest in the high-speed corners. I think generally in the low-speed corners is where we seemed quite good this weekend. In the race, all the corners become even slower, and looking after the tyres becomes more important. That's probably been a strength of ours so far this year. This has been the first very hot race we've had in terms of track temperature. Saudi was hot, but the track temperature today was the highest we've had all year. I think that helped our pace.

Alright, very well done to you, Oscar. Thank you very much. Lando, we'll come to you now. A great, very determined race by you. How difficult was it to work your way through from P6?
LN: It was good fun. It was enjoyable. I never wanted to let Oscar get too far out of my sights, but I had to put up a good challenge in the first quarter or third of the race trying to get past the Mercedes, trying to get past the Williams, trying to get past Max. So yeah, not an easy start for sure, but I made my way through reasonably quickly I think. And of course, the car was very strong today, so that definitely helps.

And can we get your thoughts on the battle with Verstappen today?
LN: It was fine. He's fighting hard, but it's up to him to do that. He's ruining his own race. He's not racing very smart. We probably could have finished 1-2 today, and he didn't because of that. So yeah, he's fighting, that is always expected, but that's what it is.