As the race leader, Oscar Piastri was the prioritized driver when it came to McLaren making pit stops for slick tires during the Miami sprint race on Saturday, and he made the move to pit before Lando Norris.
It presumably would have given him an advantage, given the drying conditions around the 19-turn, 3.363-mile (5.412-kilometer) Miami International Autodrome temporary street circuit around Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Norris spent the entire next lap complaining on the radio about the need for a safety car, due to an incident involving Williams' Carlos Sainz Jr. that scattered some debris on the track surface.
The obvious reason for his nonsensical and totally rubbish stance was because of the fact that a safety car would have handed him the lead over his teammate, due to the ensuing "free" pit stop he'd have made to switch to slick tires himself.
Lando Norris inherits win without ever leading
As it turns out, he got the safety car, but for a much more massive (and legitimate) incident involving Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso.
At this point, Norris had already come into the pits, but a safety car was inevitable. By the time Norris was released, the safety car had been deployed, and Piastri had to slow down.
Though there were four of 18 laps remaining in the race, the crash was unable to get cleaned up in time, and Norris was scored as the race winner despite Piastri having led the race after taking the lead from rookie polesitter Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes.
Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good. And Norris got a taste of that last year in Miami, when a well-timed safety car got him the lead over Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
The difference between that incident and today's is the fact that Norris actually had to race his way to the victory last year, as he held off Verstappen following the ensuing restart. This year, he was effectively given the lead and subsequently the win.
So instead of Piastri growing his championship lead from 10 points to 11, Norris reduced it from 10 to 9.
While the on-track gap between Piastri and Norris when the pit sequence began was not what it was earlier in the race, everyone (except apparently Sky Sports, which actually tried to argue that Norris didn't "reverse" his way into the win) knows that catching is one thing, and passing is another.
But Norris never had to do either one, and he didn't even have to hold off his teammate on a late restart, either.
But, as they say, you take them however you can get them.
Qualifying for the actual Miami Grand Prix, which is set to be shown live on ABC tomorrow afternoon beginning at 3:55 p.m. ET, is scheduled to take place at 3:55 p.m. ET this afternoon, with live coverage set for ESPN. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss any of the action!