Verstappen won Saturday’s sprint – all Formula 1 news 2024

Cloudy. Air +29C, highway +47C.

The weekend’s format with a Saturday sprint appeals to Formula 1 owners and promoters, allowing them to sell better tickets and receive bigger payouts, but the drivers don’t like it because it goes against the basic principle: come to the track, set everything up. the car the best of all and win, which surprises the fans. What could surprise the fans on Sunday after two qualifying sessions and the race? They’ve already seen it all. Is it rain?

During a sprint everything is hectic. I arrived, did a single practice session and then immediately qualified on a still muddy track, leaving everyone wondering this time why the Soft tires were slower than the Medium tires in the final. Then Saturday’s sprint is a short race, and immediately afterwards there is another qualifying. The question of why a second qualification is necessary after the qualifying and sprint race is already over, has no answer and never will. But the crowd, far from racing, as in China and Miami, is happy.

On Friday, Verstappen set the fastest time in the only training and qualifying for the sprint. As the sessions progressed there was a hint of competition, but at the decisive moment Max was faster. Many teams have brought large-scale updates to try out before Formula 1 returns to Europe. They worked best for McLaren and worst for Mercedes, where two fast drivers didn’t even reach the final qualifying stages.

In the sprint, Verstappen and Leclerc started from the first row, Perez and Ricciardo (!) from the second, Sainz and Piastri from the third row. Bottas was penalized with a loss of three positions for blocking Piastri and finished last.

Pirelli brought three “medium” compositions – C2, C3 and C4 in the Hard, Medium and Soft roles. In the sprint, Tsunoda and Sargent chose Soft, the rest started on Medium.

On the way from the pits to the starting grid, the Alpine mechanics dangerously let go of Ocon. Esteban hit the right rear wheel of Charles Leclerc’s car when entering the pit lane. The stewards reviewed the incident and imposed a 10-second penalty on Ocon.

Verstappen retained his lead at the start. The Aston Martin drivers collided and Norris spun. Fernando touched his partner’s car and he collided with Norris due to inertia. Lando and Lance got out, Fernando rolled back. The safety car came out. The stewards decided not to punish anyone.

Top ten in round 3: Verstappen – Leclerc – Ricciardo – Perez – Sainz – Piastri – Hulkenberg – Magnussen – Hamilton – Tsunoda.

On lap 6 Perez passed Ricciardo for third place.

Hamilton put Magnussen under pressure for a long time, but the Mercedes lacked speed on the straight even compared to the Haas F1. In his defence, Kevin drove off the track and failed to regain his position, receiving a 10-second time penalty. Lewis drove too fast in the pit lane and also received a penalty.

On the 14th lap, Hamilton pulled ahead of Magnussen, both drivers went off track and as a result, Tsunoda, who was behind, pulled ahead of Lewis. Magnussen pushed Hamilton off the track and received another 10 second time penalty.

Top ten in lap 16: Verstappen – Leclerc – Perez – Ricciardo – Sainz – Piastri – Hulkenberg – Tsunoda – Hamilton – Magnussen.

Sainz pressured Ricciardo until the final meters of the distance, but Daniel retained his position. Hamilton overtook Tsunoda for eighth place on the final lap, but was penalized for speeding in the pit lane and left without points.

Max Verstappen won the short race in Miami on Saturday for his second of the season and ninth sprint victory in his career. Charles Leclerc finished second, Sergio Perez third. Daniel Ricciardo finished the sprint in fourth place and earned his first points of the season.

Qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix will take place in a few hours.

Sprint results

* Lewis Hamilton receives a 20-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane

**Kevin Magnussen was penalized with three 10-second penalties for leaving the track and failing to regain the lead and one 5-second penalty for infringement.

Best round: Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – 1:30.415 (4th lap, 215.486 km/h)

Reasons for the meetings

Championship Position: Individual Competition

Championship position: Constructors’ Championship