Piastri finished the race only 13th after contact from Carlos Sainz while battling for fourth in the latter third of the race.
In the first stint, however, the Australian proved the closest challenger to Max Verstappen after charging from fourth on the grid to second in the opening laps.
That saw the 23-year-old lead the race for a time after Verstappen pitted, with his race ultimately compromised by the emergence of the Safety Car shortly after he’d boxed for the hard tyres.
With Norris running long in the opening stint, that gave the Brit track position and a tyre advantage once the Safety Car was withdrawn – key advantages coupled with the impressive pace from his upgraded McLaren.
Both McLaren drivers had upgrades, though Piastri only half the package fitted to his team-mate.
That he managed to out-qualify Norris in the Sprint, and effectively match him in qualifying the race, caught the eye of team boss Andrea Stella.
“Oscar comes out of [Miami] even more conscious of his strengths as a driver,” he said.
“We sort of knew already how fast he is on a single lap.
“Consider that he didn’t have the full package – and let me pay proper credit to Oscar, the gap he had to Lando in qualifying is smaller than the difference of the package he had.
“So he was really pulling off strong performance over a single lap in very difficult conditions, like all drivers with soft tyres.”
An area Piastri has singled out as needing improvement has been his race pace, specifically tyre management.
In Miami, he showed he’s taken another step forward as he kept Verstappen honest throughout the opening stanza.
It was that early performance that galvanised Norris into believing he had a shot of victory once he got into the race lead.
“His performance in the race was again very strong,” Stella noted of Piastri.
“Lando said something really nice before; he said by looking at Oscar overtaking a Ferrari, he got like, wow, we are actually there.
“So, it was a realisation for Lando himself. And Oscar could keep a strong pace in the first stint.
“So, I think he comes out of [Miami] with this sort of convictions, which, especially in terms of race pace, is something that we wanted to improve, having looked at Japan, having looked at China.
“For me, he’s in a very strong place.”
Coupled with the points scored during Saturday’s Sprint, McLaren left Miami with another 28 points to its name in the constructors’ championship while hinting that it will be a much stronger challenger to Ferrari and Red Bull Racing going forward.
Norris, meanwhile, is tied with Sainz for fourth in the drivers’ championship, with Piastri sixth despite ending Sunday’s grand prix empty-handed.
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