Formula 1: Did McLaren cost themselves – and Lando Norris – an extra point?

McLaren's Lando Norris took advantage of a mid-race safety car to make his pit stop and come out ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen, and he pulled away after the restart en route to securing the first victory of his Formula 1 career in his 110th start.

The sixth-year driver appeared to be on course to score 26 points -- 25 for winning the race and one for running the race's fastest lap. In fact, for a while, the 24-year-old Briton was setting purple lap after purple lap, almost as if he had been leading and winning Formula 1 races for years.

However, the fastest lap ultimately ended up being run by teammate Oscar Piastri, yet neither Piastri nor McLaren scored the extra point associated with it.

Fastest lap point not awarded in Miami

Piastri was in a heated battle for fourth place with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr.. Sainz, irate over Piastri's defensive driving from several laps earlier, made the move on Piastri and made contact with the McLaren in the process, ultimately damaging Piastri's front wing and forcing him to make an unscheduled pit stop.

Piastri fell well outside of the points, but because he was on new tires, he went on to set the fastest lap of the race en route to a 13th place finish. Because he did not finish the race inside the top 10, he did not score the point for running the fastest lap. McLaren were not credited with the point in the constructor championship either.

However, Piastri himself didn't cost Norris and McLaren the extra point. In fact, even had Piastri not run the fastest lap, nobody would have scored the extra point. The next fastest lap was run by Williams' Alex Albon, who placed 18th.

Sainz and Red Bull's Sergio Perez both ended up running laps faster than Norris as well. They initially finished in fourth and fifth place, respectively, but a post-race time penalty for the incident with Piastri dropped Sainz to fifth and promoted Perez to fourth. In turn, it bumped Norris up to a fourth place tie in the standings with Sainz. Norris owns the tiebreaker, despite Sainz having missed a race.

The lack of a fastest lap point for Norris ultimately made Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who finished in second place, the top point-scorer of the weekend, despite the fact that he did not win the Miami Grand Prix. In addition to the 18 points he scored on race day, he also collected eight points for winning Saturday's sprint race. Norris retired from the sprint race on the opening lap.