Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari, after starting fourth, in the first race following a forced April break due to the Iran war leading to the cancellation of Middle Eastern rounds.
Mercedes pair Kimi Antonelli and George Russell crossed the line fourth and fifth respectively, but the Italian was demoted to sixth after being given a five-second penalty for repeated track limits violations, with Russell moving up a place.
The drop meant the 19-year-old winner of the previous two grands prix in China and Japan saw his championship lead over Russell cut to seven points. It also meant Red Bull’s four-times world champion Max Verstappen moved up to fifth, with Lewis Hamilton seventh for Ferrari.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly secured the final point in the 100km race run in hot and humid conditions.
Norris took the chequered flag 3.7 seconds clear of Australian Piastri after starting from pole position and pulling away to lead untroubled in a car benefiting from a raft of upgrades.
"Nice to be back on the top step. A good day for us," he said of his first win since Brazil last November.
"I was pushing, trying to find that balance of pushing and staying relaxed to not make mistakes. A good start to the weekend but now I’ve got to do it all over again."
The win was a repeat of Norris’s 2025 sprint success at the Hard Rock Stadium, where the Briton took his first career F1 win in 2024, and he was presented with the winner’s plaque by Reid Wiseman, commander of the recent Artemis II Lunar flyby mission.
Antonelli made a poor start but recovered and had looked to get the better of Russell after a tussle for fourth place, the pair passing and re-passing early on, but the Italian proved too erratic.
New Zealand driver Liam Lawson finished 15th in the sprint race but was later upgraded to 14th, after Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto was disqualified for an engine technical infringement.
After the sprint race, Antonelli earned his third consecutive pole for the grand prix by edging Verstappen and Leclerc.
Antonelli posted a time of 1min 27.798sec that held up even though the 19-year-old Italian was unable to improve upon the time on his final lap at the Miami International Autodrome. Verstappen threatened but ultimately finished a little more than a tenth of a second behind.
Norris was to start fourth for McLaren, followed by Russell.
Lawson qualified 12th but was set to be bumped to 11th as former team-mate Isack Hadjar faced disqualification for breaching technical regulations.
The Miami Grand Prix was to begin at 5am (NZ time). It had been brought forward three hours due to forecast storms. — Reuters/Allied Media
