Max Verstappen didn’t have the best of starts to Saturday’s Sprint race in Miami, but he rebuffed any ideas that Charles Leclerc might have had of taking the lead into turn 1 and from there went on to maintain a firm grip on proceedings.
Leclerc did his best to snipe at the Red Bull but eventually had to settle for second, with Sergio Perez joining them in the top three in the second Red Bull ahead of a fantastic drive from RB’s Daniel Ricciardo.
The race saw an early safety car after a four-wide incident sparked by a move down the inside into turn 1 by Lewis Hamilton which caused the Aston Martin cars to make contact and Lando Norris to come to a halt by the trackside.
The front row of the grid for the Miami Sprint race had a comfortingly familiar look to it, with Max Verstappen on pole followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. There were only 19 cars present, with Alex Albon consigned to pit lane after Williams broke parc ferme rules to work on his car overnight. Esteban Ocon was also starting under a shadow of a ten-second penalty for an unsafe release and contact with Leclerc on the way to the grid.
When the lights went out, the immediate question was whether the Monegasque could find some way to spring an early surprise and seize control of proceedings from the Red Bull driver. Verstappen didn’t have the best started and immediately acted to fend off the Ferrari’s attack. Leclerc was forced to back off, while behind them Daniel Ricciardo took the opportunity to force his way past Sergio Perez for third.
Leclerc was still sniping at Verstappen when the safety car was scrambled because of Lando Norris parking his McLaren by the side of the track after coming off worst in a four-wide with the two Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, with Lewis Hamilton joining the fray down the inside of this gaggle of cars after a flying start in the Mercedes. Despite being the primary instigator, Hamilton got away with it more or less unscathed, but Alonso needed to pit for a new front wing and Stroll headed to pit lane to retire. Ocon cheekily pitted to serve his ten-second penalty under the safety car.
For the restart, Verstappen once again had control ahead of Leclerc, Ricciardo, Perez, Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri and the two Haas cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen rounding out the rest of the top eight points paying positions. None of the leaders were able to gain (or lose) positions when the race got back up to speed and Verstappen was soon leaping away at the front despite grumbling about ‘terrible zero rear grip’, with Leclerc the only man even close to keeping in touch.
As soon as DRS was available, Perez made a determined move to retake third place from Ricciardo and just about made it past down the back straight on lap 6 despite running deep. That left the RB under heavy pressure from Sainz dnd Piastri, but Ricciardo was just able to keep close enough to Perez to benefit from DRS activation to counter the attacks from behind.
Further back, Hamilton was snapping at the heels of Magnussen in a fierce battle to get into the points with Yuki Tsunoda behind them hoping for an opportunity to open up, but the Dane was able to parry Hamilton’s best blows. However the stewards had been watching and handed Magnussen a ten second post-race penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, ending his hopes of points. Hamilton had another try on lap 14 but was swept wide by Magnussen and passed by Tsunoda for ninth in lieu of Magnussen’s collection of penalties which was growing in number by the minute.
©Ferrari
Perez had finally broken away from Ricciardo, who as a result was left without DRS in his defence against Sainz but the Ferrari could find no way through. Perez scampered after the top two but it was too late for him to do anything when he got there and Verstappen duly took the chequered flag by over three seconds followed by Leclerc and Perez.
Some fantastic driving enabled Ricciardo to narrowly secure fourth and pick up his first points of the season ahead of Sainz and Piastri. Hulkenberg crossed the line in seventh ahead of Hamilton who had managed to get the jump on Tsunoda on the final lap, but instead of picking up a point he was handed a drive-thru penalty for speeding in the pit lane during the race restored Tsunoda to eighth in the final classifications with Hamilton dropping to P16.
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Miami GP: Verstappen beats Leclerc in Saturday Sprint F1i.com.
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