Formula 1's third Miami Grand Prix was by far its most entertaining as first-time winner Lando Norris defeated Max Verstappen.
But was Norris the top performer of the weekend? And who else impressed?
Here's the verdict from Ben Anderson (subbing in for Edd Straw this weekend) on which drivers performed best across the whole weekend.
How do the rankings work? The 20 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes. How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration.
It’s important to note both that this reflects performance across the entire weekend, cognisant of the fact that qualifying is effectively ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race, and that it is not a ranking of the all-round qualities of each driver. It’s simply about how they performed on a given weekend. Therefore, the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend.
And with each of the 10 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (ie factors outside of a driver’s control) contributing to the way the weekend plays out, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results.
Started: 6th Finished: 13th
On a weekend when pretty much everyone, including his race-winning team-mate, made errors, Piastri’s performance really stood out for how clean and efficient it was.
His McLaren was light on upgraded parts, and reckoned to be 0.2s per lap down on Norris’s according to the team, but Piastri was within that margin of Norris throughout qualifying - and ahead in Q2.
Piastri’s first lap in the race was superb - and he put moves on Charles Leclerc, kept Verstappen in check through the first stint and got inside Carlos Sainz’s head later in the race too.
Until the safety car gave Norris his chance to take control, I’d argue Piastri was the more consistent and marginally more impressive McLaren driver in Miami.
Verdict: A highly effective drive that didn’t get the result it merited.
Started: 2nd Finished: 3rd
Not a perfect weekend from Leclerc, but a pretty strong one overall.
He paid a heavy price for a small mistake in FP1 and basically missed all of that session as a consequence, but his recovery from that was exemplary in extracting pretty much the maximum from the Ferrari in both qualifying sessions and the sprint race.
I’m not sure the Ferrari was quite worthy of the podium here in normal circumstances, so Leclerc finishing third - without benefitting from the safety car timing - probably represents a slight overachievement.
Verdict: Not much in it, but marginally the better Ferrari driver.
Started: 5th Finished: 1st
The final stint after the safety car restart was obviously superb from Norris. There’s not been many races over the past three seasons where someone has genuinely driven away from Verstappen.
But up until the safety car gave him that crucial track position boost, I feel Norris had slightly underdelivered in the heavily upgraded McLaren - in both qualifying sessions - and was having to work too hard to extract a podium finish from a car that was clearly fast enough to win.
Verdict: Supreme final stint, but not a complete weekend.
Started: 1st Finished: 2nd
It’s almost frightening to consider how, even on a weekend such as this when he’s not comfortable in the car and making small mistakes, Verstappen is still basically dominating everyone.
He couldn’t get the two axles balanced properly in either qualifying session, but no one stepped up to take the chance to beat him. OK, he was eventually beaten in the grand prix, but there’s little doubt in my mind that the safety car intervention, as well as handing track position to Norris, also cost Verstappen the chance to fire up those hard tyres properly. By the time he did, the race was lost.
Verdict: Not his best or cleanest weekend, but still strong enough.
Started: 10th Finished: 7th
Tsunoda continues to put himself near the front of the queue of the midfield interlopers ready to pounce if any drivers from the top five teams underperform or hit trouble.
This time it was Mercedes and Aston Martin tripping up and Tsunoda was right there to capitalise, nestling between the two faster Mercedes cars and genuinely outpacing George Russell’s over the final stint of the grand prix.
Going out early in SQ2 is about the only thing Tsunoda did wrong this weekend.
Verdict: Another strong performance picking off inherently faster cars.
Started: 8th Finished: 6th
There were a couple of occasions this weekend when the Mercedes W15 somehow got the tricky Pirelli tyres into the correct working temperature range, where Hamilton was absolutely mighty.
His Q2 lap was so good he lapped within two tenths of Verstappen and Leclerc, and Hamilton’s final race stint after the safety car restart was also impressive, as he fired up the medium compound, despatched Tsunoda and menaced Sergio Perez’s Red Bull.
He was lucky to get away with hitting Alonso in the sprint, lost a point from that race to a speeding penalty, and slightly underperformed in Q3 compared to Russell, but was very good in the grand prix itself.
Verdict: Probably his best Sunday of the season so far.
Started: 13th Finished: 10th
Ocon is driving well this season and there was almost nothing to choose between him and Gasly at the business end of this weekend.
It was impressive to see him go wheel-to-wheel with his team-mate for almost half of the first lap of the grand prix without making contact, and although he lost that fight Ocon did win on-track skirmishes with Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin and Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas.
It's just a shame Ocon's pace fell away a bit across the final stint and he lost out again to the Aston.
Verdict: Slightly underwhelming in qualifying but a really strong race.
Started: 12th Finished: 12th
Gasly finally got his hands on the upgraded, lighter Alpine chassis and floor that team-mate Ocon had first dibs on in China - and mostly put it to very good use.
Considering the lack of track time on a sprint weekend, and being a race behind in terms of familiarity with the updated car, Gasly drove well in the sprint and did a good job to shade Ocon in grand prix qualifying.
An inferior strategy of pitting early meant he got trapped in the Hulkenberg DRS train and that cost Gasly his chance of being in the mix for that final point.
Verdict: Couldn’t make things happen in the race, but impressive underlying pace.
Started: 3rd Finished: 5th
Sainz would have been higher in this list had he not gone to pieces during that late-race battle with Piastri. Up until the safety car reset things, Sainz was looking quite strong and in contention to finish on the podium depending on how the strategies shook out.
His underlying pace was within a tenth of Leclerc's, and Sainz was also quite unlucky to not gain track position, having outgunned his team-mate at the start but almost been collected by Perez’s wayward Red Bull at Turn 1.
LAP 35 / 57
Sainz is on the radio demanding Piastri give back P4 after this moment