The competition has been perfectly tamed: Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won the first Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc, second and Carlos Sainz, and is gradually eating away at Leclerc’s lead in the championship.
It took less than ten laps for the reigning world champion to take the reins of the race, which he would not let go until the finish. The Dutchman, who started third on the grid, blew Sainz out of second place from the start only to take the lead of the race a few laps later, to the detriment of championship leader Charles Leclerc.
“It was a very difficult race physically. We struggled with the medium tires and we were overtaken, but with the hard tires we were very competitive”, reacted the Monegasque at the finish.
At the end of this round, status quo in the championship after five races: Leclerc remains in the lead, with 104 points, ahead of Verstappen who is 19 units behind his rival (85 pts) and the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull, 66 pts ), who finished just off the podium in Miami, after a battle for third place with Sainz.
In the constructors’ championship, the same situation: Ferrari continues to lead the dance, ahead of Red Bull but with only a 6-point lead.
This is the 3and victory of the season for Verstappen and the 23and of her career.
“It’s a sacred comeback. I think I didn’t even make a start [simulé], so I didn’t know what to expect at the start,” said the winner. He has indeed come a long way: victim of various technical problems on Friday during the first day of practice, he had spent most of the two sessions in the garage, which is never ideal, especially on a new track.
Behind the leading men, the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, secure the 5and and 6and place, in front of the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas.
Frenchman Esteban Ocon, driving his Alpine, climbed to eighth place despite starting from the back of the grid.
Five abandonments are also to be deplored. Besides that of the Chinese Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo), the Dane Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and the German Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), the Briton Lando Norris (McLaren), was the victim of a collision with the AlphaTauri of the Frenchman Pierre Gasly, also forced to retire.
“Not up to standard”
Around the Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins American football team and the Miami Tennis Open, heat and humidity put the bodies of the pilots to the test, under the eyes of David Beckham, Paris Hilton, Pharrell Williams and company glimpsed at the start line.
If the splendor of this first Grand Prix in the Florida city seems to have met the expectations of the spectators (82,000 were expected on Sunday), on the track, a wind of discontent cooled the atmosphere. In question: the asphalt which, in the opinion of the pilots, is not sufficiently adherent outside the trajectory and contains many debris.
Deemed “not up to standard” by Alonso – or simply described as a “joke” by Pérez, promoter Tom Garfinkel assured that he was “open to any changes to improve the track”.
“The surface itself, we assess it. We want to make sure we get it right, because if the drivers can’t get off the racing line, there won’t be as many overtaking and that’s not what you want,” said Tom. Garfinkel during a press briefing on Sunday.
The race, however, did not confirm these pessimistic predictions.
To add to the spectacle, the layout also featured ‘error generators’, which according to the organisers, were ‘designed to allow the cars to get closer to each other’ and thus increase the chances of overtaking.
It was near one of them that Ocon – and Sainz before him – came to the same place and violently crashed into a concrete wall during the tests – questioning the safety of the circuit.