Red Bull took a double points finish but no podium or win at the Miami Grand Prix.
Despite starting on pole position, Max Verstappen finished fourth after being overtaken on track by both McLaren drivers and then jumped by George Russell in the pit-stop phase, with an attempt by Red Bull to get a penalty imposed on Russell after the race unsuccessful.
Yuki Tsunoda finished 10th, with the Japanese driver finishing where he started the race despite getting a time penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.
With six races and a quarter of the F1 season completed following the Miami Grand Prix, Verstappen is the only driver not driving for McLaren to win a race so far in 2025.
The Dutchman has 99 points in the Driver’s Championship and sits third in the standings, with the reigning four-time champion sitting 6 points ahead of 4th placed Russell, 16 points behind Lando Norris in second and 22 points behind early leader Oscar Piastri.
Team-mate Tsunoda sits 11th in the standings after picking up nine points in races with both Red Bull and their junior team RB.
In the Constructor’s Championship, Red Bull sit third after this opening run. The Milton Keynes-based team are currently 11 points ahead of fourth placed Ferrari, 36 points behind second placed Mercedes and 141 points behind the comfortable championship leaders McLaren. The Woking-based team are currently over 100 points clear of the rest of the grid, having won the full Miami Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to the next best team’s car.
A mixed Saturday had seen Verstappen denied points during the sprint by a ten second penalty for a collision in the pit-lane while Tsunoda was promoted into the points after Verstappen, Alex Albon, Liam Lawson and Ollie Bearman all got penalties.
Verstappen then swiped pole in the qualifying session, edging out Norris and Piastri to take his third pole position of 2025.
In the race, Verstappen initially held onto the lead, with the Dutchman resisting an early charge by Norris to maintain the advantage. The Dutchman had locked up into turn one, allowing Norris to move alongside and challenge but Norris went off track, with the stewards ruling Verstappen’s defence had been legal unlike what had happened in Saudi Arabia in the previous race.
Norris fell down the order and instead this saw Piastri emerge as the lead McLaren, with the Australian later passing Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes to jump to second.
Piastri soon began putting in faster laps than Verstappen and by lap 10, the McLaren was able to catch up to the Red Bull that had lead the opening phase of the race.
This lead the cue to a frantic multi-lap battle where Verstappen attempted to resist Piastri’s attempts to pass. He managed a few laps where he was able to keep Piastri behind until the start of lap 14, when Verstappen had a lock-up into turn one, which allowed Piastri to scoot past and take the lead.
Norris had been able to close up on Verstappen during his battle with Piastri, with the McLaren having got ahead of Albon and the two Mercedes after initially losing positions to them. This lead to another mutli-lap battle, in which Norris at one point passed Verstappen off track and gave the position back.
But at the start of lap 18, Norris got past Verstappen to go into second, with the two McLarens able to make the most of their clear air by bolting off.
With expected rain not coming, proceedings duly continued as a one-stop race.
Verstappen’s day then had a further hiccup when a virtual safety car was deployed following the breakdown of Bearman’s Haas on lap 29. Russell pit during this period, and the ability to make his pit-stop during the VSC meant the Mercedes jumped the Red Bull in the order.
When the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto limped to a halt, it lead to yellow flags and later a VSC. Verstappen initially queried if Russell had broken yellow flag rules, which would’ve given the Mercedes a penalty. This wasn’t issued in the race, with Russell taking third ahead of Verstappen in the fourth.
Red Bull protested this after the race, but this appeal was unsuccessful, with Russell maintaining his third place position and Verstappen confirmed as staying in fourth place.
As for Tsunoda, he had a fairly quiet afternoon where he was not involved in many battles with cars ahead or behind and was mainly on course to finish in the 10th place where he qualified. The key moment in his day however came when he made his pit-stop, with Tsunoda caught speeding in the pit lane.
Tsunoda was just able to hold onto his 10th place, finishing just over 5 seconds ahead of 11th place Isack Hadjar in the Racing Bulls, which became just over a tenth in practice with the penalty.
F1 returns in two weeks time for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola in Italy, which is the first part of a triple header alongside races in Monaco and Spain.