John N
Swaying palm trees, A-list celebrities, and the biggest Marina this side of Dade County – the Miami Grand Prix weekend was always destined to be a showstopper. Now it was just time for lights out in the Sunshine State.
Ferrari painted the front row red thanks to pole-sitter Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, row two belonging to the Red Bulls – Max Verstappen ahead of Sergio Perez – while Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas would share row three with former Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Aston Martin encountered pre-race fuel temperature trouble, both Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel starting from the pit lane to avoid a penalty from the FIA – while Esteban Ocon would begin from the back for Alpine, having crashed in FP2.
Bushels of ominous clouds looming, concrete walls closing in, and 18 drivers lined up on the grid. Amid the stifling heat, four drivers (Stroll, Vettel, George Russell, and Ocon) began on hard compounds, while the other 16 started on mediums.
At the start, Leclerc had a terrific launch. At the same time, Sainz lost out to Verstappen going into Turn 1, Hamilton fell to eighth after a Turn 1 lock-up, and Fernando Alonso jumped from 11th to seventh – making slight contact with Hamilton in the process.
While Leclerc held station in the lead, Verstappen was just over a second behind, with Hamilton complaining of damage after the Lap 1 tap from Alonso – breezing past the Alpine driver for P7 on the run-up to Turn 11 on Lap 3. On Lap 6, he took P6 off Gasly, and the seven-time champion was back where he began.
Lap 8 saw Verstappen get well into DRS range, right on the tail of Leclerc, and the Dutchman made the pass for the lead on the main straight at the start of Lap 9. Leclerc prepared his rebuttal, tailing the Red Bull throughout the next lap – but the reigning champion was now in a commanding position.
Ferrari began to struggle. Lap 13 saw Leclerc suffer a lock-up at Turn 17, his deficit now at 2.5s to Verstappen, while Perez was closing in on Sainz for P3.
Meanwhile, Mercedes was on a march, with Hamilton opening up a gap to Pierre Gasly (the Frenchman holding off Alonso for P7) while Russell’s hard tires came into play, and he passed Ricciardo on Lap 14. In an attempt to undercut Gasly, Alonso pitted one lap later, but his stop lasted five seconds, and he emerged 13th.
Lando Norris chose to pit soon after, David Beckham watching the 3.6-second stop unfold, with the McLaren driver emerging 12th but falling to both Aston Martins on Lap 19. Two laps later, he went wide in Sector 3 to bring out a short yellow flag. Towards the front, Russell was now up to seventh, behind Hamilton.
In the fight for the podium places, Perez was on the radio to relay that his “engine had gone,” his pit wall attempting to reassure the Mexican as he complained of a loss of power on the lengthy straights. A sensor issue was to blame, and Perez was back – but had lost considerable time (and some engine power to boot) to Sainz ahead.
Hamilton was brought into the pits on Lap 23, emerging seventh with a smooth stop – just ahead of McLaren’s yet-to-pit Ricciardo – and giving the rest of the top 10 something to respond to.
Leclerc was next to the pit, a swap to hards taking 3.2 seconds, as he emerged in P4 on Lap 25. That caused Verstappen to react at the end of the next lap and emerge second ahead of teammate Perez, leaving Sainz in the lead until the Spaniard stopped for hard compounds – along with Perez – at the start of Lap 27.
Sainz’s stop, however, lasted 5.4 seconds, Perez making ground with a 3.1-second stop to re-ignite the fight for P3.
Then, on Lap 41, Gasly – who had previously been tapped at the final corner by Alonso – went wide at Turn 8, rejoined, and clashed with Norris, ripping the McLaren’s rear-right tire off and sending him into a spin. A Virtual Safety Car was called, soon morphing into a Safety Car.
Russell took that moment to pit for the first time, dropping from fifth to seventh, with Perez swapping a second time and many others hoping to snatch positions. Hamilton was asked if he wanted to follow suit – but decided to stay out and try to protect his P6 position.
Therefore, the Lap 47 restart would see Verstappen lead Leclerc and Sainz (the top three on hards). Then we had medium-tyred Perez, Bottas, Hamilton, and Russell in the top seven. Alonso – now holding a five-second penalty for contact with Gasly – led Schumacher and Ocon at the back of the top 10.
Up and down the grid, the chase was back on.
Perez was right on Sainz’s tail, and the Spaniard had run wide on Lap 48, giving the Mexican a run for the final podium. However, the Red Bull driver made his move on Lap 52, locked up, and caused Sainz to dodge in avoidance. Sainz swept past for P3 and completed the podium.
Meanwhile, right at the front, Leclerc had closed the gap to within half a second, but Verstappen held firm to take his second consecutive victory of the season by an eventual 3.786s.
Russell and Hamilton had their duel on the restart. Medium tires helped Russell close in on Hamilton on Lap 49, and, with Bottas going wide at Turn 17, both Mercedes swept past. Russell passed Hamilton at Turn 11 but was forced to return the position, having gone off track. He retook P5 a few laps later, leaving Hamilton to lament another unfortunate tire call on the radio.
Bottas’s late mistake put him seventh, ahead of the soft-tired Ocon. The Frenchman started at the back but had made up 12 places by Lap 37, classified in P8 and ahead of Alonso, as the Spanish driver was given a five-second penalty for making contact with Gasly earlier on.
Alonso, therefore, finished ninth, with Alex Albon rounding out the top 10. The Thai driver ran as low as last but made it back up to 12th on hard tires and took the final point on the Safety Car restart.
Ricciardo pitted for hards on Lap 30 and again for softs for the late Safety Car restart but couldn’t make it count, finishing 11th ahead of Stroll – the pit lane starter having been demoted to P13 thanks to a late collision with Magnussen.
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda fell out of the top 10 past the halfway point and finished 13th, having also ended the race on softs – a gamble that didn’t pay off. That left Williams driver Latifi in P14.
Despite battling with Tsunoda early on to get into the top 10 and then again with teammate Magnussen, Schumacher has classified P15 thanks to late contact with a baffled Vettel, whose race started and ended in the pits.
Gasly didn’t finish the race after contact with Norris, and Zhou Guanyu was the first of the five drivers not to see the flag as Alfa Romeo pulled him into the pits with a mechanical issue on Lap 7.
The podium saw the top three celebrate in front of Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino – and his statue. On this given Sunday, Verstappen ran the whole nine yards in pursuit of his second consecutive victory and the first Miami Grand Prix win in history.
Key quote
“It was an incredible Grand Prix – very physical, but I think we kept it exciting until the end,” said winner Max Verstappen.
“I think I’ll stick to racing,” he said when asked by Willy T Ribbs if he was fit enough to step into the boxing ring, “but I appreciate a lot of boxing. It felt a bit like it out there… but yes, incredibly happy with winning here in Miami; it was an incredible Sunday for us.”
What’s next?
The championship continues in Catalunya with theSpanish Grand Prix on May 20-22. Red Bull is now only six points behind Ferrari – and Verstappen 19 points behind Leclerc.
CULLED FROM – formula1.com
