Sunny. Dry. Air + C, track + C
For the American owners of Formula 1, Miami is a landmark for the Grand Prix, but in fact it turned out to be a traditional “parking track” for the US. The benefits were clear: racing on a narrow strip of asphalt surrounded by barriers is unpredictable.
After the first training sessions, the disadvantages came up – on Friday the drivers said at the briefing that the surface did not meet the standards of Formula 1. Many bumps, uneven asphalt – in some places a change had to be done on Thursday evening after a number of laps of the safety car.
Good grip was only on the track, every side step where the tarmac was dirty led to a U-turn and crashed into the wall, causing intrigue in its own way but making it impossible to overtake. Immediately three experienced racers – Bottas, Sainz and Okon had serious accidents during practice. There was criticism and the track was cleaned before the start.
FIA Race Director Nils Wittich focused on the battle of decorations and was asked why there were no TecPro barriers in the 13-14 corners. The riders crashed into a bare concrete wall – on Friday Carlos Sainz was bruised (a 47g overload at a relatively slow speed of 140 km/h), and on Saturday Esteban Ocon missed qualifying after an accident – with an overload of 51g, the front suspension pierced the chassis. Wittich stated that with the barriers the track would become too narrow in this section and took no action.
New FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem was present at the Grand Prix and was aware of the situation. The question of which is more dangerous – a pectoral cross or a concrete wall, was not answered. The landscape of a waterless lagoon and yachts installed in the course completed the picture as the organizers saw it.
Sports intrigue turned out to be very interesting. For the first time in the season, the teams were looking for settings in such warm weather, which affected the balance of power. On hot roads it was difficult to get the tires to work and the abundance of red flags in practice didn’t allow us to drive long series of circles to assess their wear. The strategy had to be addressed during the race.
On Friday Leclerc and Russell took the lead, on Saturday morning Pérez set the fastest time and in qualifying the Ferrari drivers occupied the entire front row of the grid. Verstappen made a mistake on the last lap, Leclerc took his third pole of the season and Sainz set a second fastest time and regained confidence after a serious crash on Friday.
Leclerc and Sainz started from the front row, Verstappen and Perez from the second, Bottas and Hamilton from the third. Esteban Okon, who did not participate in the qualifying, was allowed to start due to a special decision.
Before the start, the Aston Martin racers did not make it to the grid. The team cooled the fuel too much and in order not to be fined by the FIA for this, they decided to warm it up to the desired temperature and start from the pit lane.
Pirelli brought the “middle” trio of compositions – C2, C3 and C4 in the role of Hard, Medium and Soft. Stroll, Russell, Vettel, Latifi and Okon started on Hard, the rest on Medium.
There were no incidents at the start. Leclerc retained the lead. Verstappen advanced Sainz and moved up to second place. Gasly and Alonso overtook Hamilton, who lost speed behind the braked Perez.
Top ten in the second round: Leclerc – Verstappen – Sainz – Perez – Bottas – Gasly – Alonso – Hamilton – Norris – Tsunoda.
On lap 2, Schumacher overtook Ricciardo for 11th place.
On lap 3 Hamilton overtook Alonso for seventh.
On 4th, Magnussen faced Ricciardo in the battle for 12th.
On lap 6 Hamilton was ahead of Gasly to move into sixth.
On lap 7, at the team’s request, Zhou turned into the pits and retired.
On lap 9, Verstappen overtook Leclerc to take the lead.
Top ten in round 10: Verstappen – Leclerc – Sainz – Perez – Bottas – Hamilton – Gasly – Alonso – Norris – Schumacher.
On lap 10, Ricciardo overtook Tsunoda for 12th.
Leclerc blocked the rubber on the brake, lost a second but kept his position.
On lap 12 Tsunoda switched tires, on lap 13 Magnussen, on lap 15 Schumacher.
On lap 14, Russell overtook a wide Ricciardo.
On lap 16, Alonso made a pit stop – there was a tow bar with the right rear wheel attachment. On the 17th, Gasley and Albon switched tires, on the 19th – Norris.
Vettel and Magnussen went for Norris, who returned to the track immediately ahead of them.
Perez complained about the power plant reduction, lost a few seconds, but kept moving.
Top ten in round 20: Verstappen – Leclerc – Sainz – Perez – Bottas – Hamilton – Russell – Riccardo – Windows – Gasley.
On lap 23 Hamilton pitted, on 25th – Leclerc, on 27th – Verstappen and Bottas, on 28th – Perez and Sainz – during maintenance on Carlos’ car there was a hitch with the right front wheel mounting . On lap 31, Ricciardo switched tires.
Magnussen, Schumacher, Vettel and Norris rode in a close group. On lap 32, Magnussen advanced Vettel and Schumacher to move up to 12th place. On lap 35 Magnussen made a mistake and missed Schumacher, then Vettel blocked the rubber and Norris passed him.
On lap 40, Alonso overtook Gasly, the cars touched, but continued to drive – later the stewards punished Fernando with a five-second penalty.
On lap 41 Schumacher was ahead of Gasly. Pierre went off track and on the way back he grabbed the Norris wheel.
Lando’s car was flipped several times – and she froze on the track. The safety car drove away. Russell, Stroll, Perez, Ocon, Vettel and Ricciardo have changed tires.
Top ten behind the safety car: Verstappen – Leclerc – Sainz – Perez – Bottas – Hamilton – Russell – Alonso – Schumacher – Magnussen.
On lap 43 Magnussen switched tires.
On the 46th lap, a restart was announced. Verstappen kept the lead. Gasly returned to the pits and withdrew from the race.
On lap 50 Hamilton and Russell overtook Bottas, who made a mistake, and George, on fresher tires, overtook Lewis.
Top ten in round 50: Verstappen – Leclerc – Sainz – Perez – Russell – Hamilton – Bottas – Alonso – Schumacher – Ocon.
On lap 52, Pérez attacked Sainz, the cars collided and Carlos held his position.
Schumacher crashed into Vettel fighting for position, both drivers pitted. Mick got a new nose cone, Vettel retired.
Leclerc pressed Verstappen until the last lap, but the Red Bull car was faster on the straights. On the last lap Kevin Magnussen stopped the car due to mechanical problems.
†
Max Verstappen won the Miami Grand Prix, scoring his third win of the season and the 23rd of his career.
Charles Leclerc finished second, Carlos Sainz climbed to the third step of the podium.
In two weeks the battle will continue in Barcelona.
Race results
| pilot | Team | Time | Speed | Piet |
| 1. Mr Verstappen | Red Bull | a | ||
| 2. Sh. Leclerc | Ferrari | +3.786 | a | |
| 3. K. Sainz | Ferrari | +8.229 | a | |
| 4. C.Perez | Red Bull | +10.638 | 2 | |
| 5. D. Russell | Mercedes | +18,582 | a | |
| 6. L. Hamilton | Mercedes | +21,368 | a | |
| 7. V. Bottas | Alfa Romeo | +25.073 | a | |
| 8. E. Okon | alpine | +28.386 | a | |
| 9. F. Alonso | alpine | +32.128 | a | |
| 10. A. Albon | Williams | +32.365 | a | |
| 11. D. Riccardo | McLaren | +35.902 | 2 | |
| 12. L. Walk | Aston Martin | +37.026 | a | |
| 13. Y. Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | +40.146 | 2 | |
| 14. N. Latifi | Williams | +49,936 | a | |
| 15. M. Schumacher | hare | +73.305 | 2 | |
| 16. K. Magnussen | hare | meeting | 3 | |
| 17. S. Vettel | Aston Martin | meeting | 2 |
best lap: Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) – 1:31.456 (lap 53)
Reasons for leaving
| pilot | Team | circles | Cause |
| G.Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 6 | mechanical problems |
| L. Norris | McLaren | 40 | accident |
| P. Gasly | AlphaTauri | 45 | delay |
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
