Miami Grand Prix: Max Verstappen Takes Hard-Fought Win Over Charles Leclerc

It was Verstappen's second consecutive win, the first for a driver this year, and it extends his streak of either winning or retiring this year, albeit both times when he was in second place after losing a fight with Leclerc.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the inaugural Miami Grand Prix despite a late-race assault from Ferrari’s title rival Charles Leclerc. Verstappen was on his way to an easy victory after passing Leclerc early in the race, but a late safety car brought them together for a re-start with 10 laps remaining.

For five laps, Leclerc pushed everything he had to get close enough to pass, but Verstappen broke his challenge. The victory by Verstappen reduced Leclerc’s championship lead to 19 points. It was an unexpectedly dramatic end to a race that appeared to be dying after Verstappen’s early charge from third on the grid to first.

The world champion passed Carlos Sainz’s second Ferrari around the outside of Turn One and into Turn Two, then chased down Leclerc before taking the lead on the ninth lap.

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Verstappen then extended his lead through pit stops to appear to be cruising to victory with an eight-second lead before a safety car was deployed due to a bizarre crash involving McLaren’s Lando Norris and Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly.

Closing the field gave Leclerc another chance when it appeared that his hopes had vanished, and he gave it his all to reclaim the lead. For five laps after the restart, he was within a second of Verstappen but was always just too far away to make a proper lunge for the lead.

Max Verstappen eventually used his faster pace to extend his lead to just over a second, preventing Leclerc from benefiting from the one-second advantage provided by the DRS overtaking aid, and the race was over.

It was Verstappen’s second consecutive win, the first for a driver this year, and it extends his streak of either winning or retiring this year, albeit both times when he was in second place after losing a fight with Leclerc.

It was an impressive comeback after losing a lot of track time on Friday due to a series of reliability issues that he felt kept him from fighting for pole position. The two title contenders were in a league of their own, far ahead of their teammates.

Despite having the advantage of fresh tyres after Red Bull pitted him for new medium tyres during the safety car period, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz held on to third place for the final podium spot. George Russell drove an excellent race to finish fifth overall, ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Russell fought his way up from 12th on the grid, starting on the hard tyre and going long. At one point, he told the team to keep going and hope for a safety car, and his wishes were granted.

That gave him a cheap pit stop, where he lost less time to rivals because they were lapping slower, and put him on new medium tyres behind Hamilton on old hards at the restart, and the 24-year-old used his extra grip to pass the former world champion.

He had to repeat the move because the first attempt was ruled unfair by race control because he made it after benefiting from going off track before making it. Despite being told to let Hamilton pass, Russell re-passed him straight into Turn 11.

“The strategy hasn’t been kind to me, man,” Hamilton said over the radio to race engineer Peter Bonnington, lamenting the fact that he had lost the race for the second time in three races due to the timing of a safety car.

He and Bonnington discussed stopping for new tyres during the safety car period, but ultimately decided against it because it would mean losing at least one place to Russell, but that happened anyway, as it seemed likely to in the circumstances.

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Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo led at the start but slid wide at the last corner, losing out to both Mercedes. Esteban Ocon of Alpine finished eighth, ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso, who was penalized five seconds for a collision with Gasly, and Alex Albon of Williams in 10th.

Norris’ collision with Gasly occurred shortly after the Frenchman’s contact with Alonso.

Gasly ran wide through Turn Eight and was on the radio complaining about a car problem when he and Norris collided as they accelerated onto the long straight that followed, Gasly’s front left wheel colliding with Norris’ rear right and tipping the McLaren into a spin.

There is now a two-week break before F1 returns to Europe for the Spanish Grand Prix, and Ferrari must act to counter Red Bull’s growing momentum.

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