The F1 circus was in the United States for the first of three times this season. First up is the Monaco-wannabe FORMULA 1 CRYPTO.COM MIAMI GRAND PRIX 2023 under the sun in Miami. With Max Verstappen starting out of position and Sergio Perez in pole, everyone was looking for a repeat battle between the Red Bulls.
Sergio Perez got away well from pole position, managing to cover off Fernando Alonso into the first corner. Alonso had a look around the outside of the corner, but wasn’t able to make a move. By the end of the first lap, Alonso had already fallen out of the DRS range, with Perez looking to capitalize on his teammate’s out-of-position start down in P9.
In the first corner, Nyck de Vres locked up and hit the rear of Lando Norris’ McLaren. Neither driver was damaged too badly and both were able to continue. The stewards looked at the incident, but decided that no further action was required.
Kevin Magnussen, who had matched his best ever starting position of P4, lost a position at the start. Before long, he was under pressure from Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. The Haas driver was doing a good job holding off the Ferrari behind, but he was overtaken in the final sector. But it was short-lived as the DRS was activated down the following straight. This allowed both Magnussen and Verstappen to gobble up the Ferrari.
Verstappen pushed his way through the field, making it look easy. On lap 9, a move to get by George Russell put the Red Bull into the top five. By lap 15, the reigning World Champion was able to get by Fernando Alonso to make it a Red Bull 1-2, albeit with a lot of the race left.
Carlos Sainz was the first of the leading cars to come into the pit lane to try and undercut Fernando Alonso on lap 18. Sainz had a huge lockup as he crossed the pit speed limit line. He rejoined the race just ahead of a gaggle of midfield cars, but he was able to heat up the tyres quickly and start making progress on the field. Alonso extended his stint and pitted on lap 25, rejoining behind Sainz. Although Sainz’s undercut was successful on the track, it wasn’t in the time sheets as Sainz was caught speeding in the pit lane and was handed a five-second time penalty. But Alonso’s car looked faster, as he climbed his way to P3 after a few laps.
Much of the mid-race action came from the mid-field, most notably the Haas drivers who provided a lot of entertainment when trying to defend their positions. The team radios were quite noisy as well, with a few drivers complaining to their teams about a lack of information and some frustrations in their race strategy.
About halfway through the race distance, George Russell had caught up to the back of his teammate, who seemed to be struggling in the race with the slower pace of the Mercedes. The team told Hamilton to let Russell by. Despite some initial protesting over the team radio, the seven-time World Champion obliged. Russell showed his pace shortly after, making his way up to P4.
Charles Leclerc had spent most of his race looking at the back of a Haas, as he appeared to struggle with the car’s handling in the race. Near lap 40, Leclerc overtook at the Haas of Magnussen in the final few corners, but that allowed Magnussen to fight back with DRS down the main straight and take the position back. Leclerc was able to make a move stick the following lap, this time waiting to attack until the main straight.
Having started the race on the hard compound tyres, Verstappen finally pitted for medium tyres on lap 46. He rejoined the race narrowly behind Sergio Perez, but with the fresher tyres and the faster compound, it was only a matter of time until Verstappen would take the lead of the race. Perez put up a good fight, holding the defensive line down the main straight and managing to hang around the inside of the first corner.
From there it was smooth sailing for Verstappen to claim another victory and for Red Bull to claim their third 1-2 finish of the season. Fernando Alonso was back on the bottom step of the podium, having missed the podium in Azerbaijan. Verstappen maximized his points collection, taking the extra point for fastest lap.
F1 will return for Italy for a race in Imola in two weeks. The race will be on the weekend of May 21.
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| Race Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M. Verstappen | 26 | |
| 2 | S. Perez | 18 | |
| 3 | F. Alonso | 15 | |
| 4 | G. Russell | 12 | |
| 5 | C. Sainz | 10 | |
| 6 | L. Hamilton | 8 | |
| 7 | C. Leclerc | 6 | |
| 8 | P. Gasly | 4 | |
| 9 | E. Ocon | 2 | |
| 10 | K. Magnussen | 1 | |
| 11 | Y, Tsunoda | ||
| 12 | L. Stroll | ||
| 13 | V. Bottas | ||
| 14 | A. Albon | ||
| 15 | N. Hulkenberg | ||
| 16 | G. Zhou | ||
| 17 | L. Norris | ||
| 18 | N. de Vres | ||
| 19 | O. Piastri | ||
| 20 | L. Sargeant | ||
