Two-time World Champion Max Verstappen does it again after a bad result in qualifying, which saw him start ninth on the grid. For Max Verstappen fans, it is like a de ja vu as he wins the second time in Miami. His teammate Sergio Perez finished second after a late pitstop from Verstappen which gave him the advantage to close in on Perez in fresh medium tyres.
The Miami Grand Prix winner had this to say regarding his win:
“We kept it calm, kept it clean, and winning a race from P9 is very satisfying. It was a good race. I stayed out of trouble at the beginning, had a clean race, and picked the cars off one by one. I stayed out really long on the hard tyres and I think that’s what made the difference.”
Verstappen celebrating his win Photo: Verstappen.com
Max had a superb start on the hard tyres while his teammate did fairly well on the medium. However, it was noted that Redbull did not give Sergio Perez information regarding his battle with Verstappen. This has made fans assume that Perez was forced to play second fiddle given the fact that Max was being updated on his time.
Nonetheless, Perez said that he would re-evaluate what happened on the track.
“I tried. I gave it all, you know, I think the first stint was really poor with the graining that we had on that on the initial pace. That compromised the race quite a lot because we didn’t have too much of a difference on tyres. Max was particularly strong today, so a well-deserved win for him. I think Max had tremendous pace on the Hard tyre and I think I’m going to analyse what went wrong today because we simply didn’t have the pace.”
This being his fourth podium this year, the driver is still eager to hit the track again.
“The car is amazing and it was a bit of a lonely race today. It’s never easy, but it was a lonely race. Everything was fine, we take the podium, and going into Imola, Monaco, and Barcelona we hope to keep going. At the beginning of the year a podium was amazing, but now we want more.”
Fernando Alonso Photo: Courtesy
The Mercedes had a good race with Russel coming in fourth from sixth on the grid. Carlos Sainz came in fifth after being passed by the Aston Martin and incurring a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane to undercut Alonso.
Other Notable Performances
Lewis Hamilton had an awesome comeback finishing sixth from thirteenth, after passing Charles Leclerc who finished the race seventh not improving on his grid position. The Ferrari was followed by the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Estaban Ocon which were eighth and ninth respectively. Kevin Magnussen managed to score some points for the Haas team in the USA as he finished tenth.
Lance Stroll came from the eighteenth position to finish at twelfth on the grid. Logan Sergeant finished twentieth in his Williams during his debut in his home country as a rookie. The entire race was perfectly balanced and eventful as there were overtakes all through the grid.
Miami Grand Prix Results
Max Verstappen
Sergio Perez
Fernando Alonso
George Russell
Carlos Sainz
Lewis Hamilton
Charles Leclerc
Pierre Gasly
Esteban Ocon
Kevin Magnussen
Yuki Tsunoda
Lance Stroll
Valterri Bottas
Alex Albon
Nico Hulkenberg
Zhou Guanyu
Lando Norris
Nyck de Vries
Oscar Piastri
Logan Sargeant
The next race will be the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Italy. Practice sessions will start on the nineteenth and twentieth of May, with an evening qualifying session on the twentieth.
The main race will be held on a Sunday. So don’t miss the Emilia Romagna GP live on Sky Sports F1 on 21st May at 16:00 GMT.
