Miami Grand Prix: Verstappen – Leclerc – Sainz

Miami Grand Prix: Verstappen – Leclerc – Sainz

For the American owners of Formula 1, Miami is a landmark venue for the Grand Prix, but in fact it turned out to be a traditional “parking track” for the USA. The advantages were obvious – racing on a narrow strip of asphalt surrounded by barriers is unpredictable.

The disadvantages were discussed after the first training sessions – on Friday, the drivers at the briefing said that the surface did not meet the standards of Formula 1. A lot of bumps, uneven asphalt – in some areas it had to be changed already on Thursday evening after several laps of the safety car.

Good grip was only on the trajectory, any step to the side, where the asphalt was dirty, led to a U-turn and crash into the wall, which in its own way added intrigue, but made it impossible to overtake. Immediately three experienced racers – Bottas, Sainz and Okon got into serious accidents in training. Criticism was heard, and the track was cleaned before the start.

FIA Race Director Nils Wittich focused on the fight against decorations and was asked why there were no TecPro barriers in the 13-14 turns. The riders crashed into a bare concrete wall – on Friday, Carlos Sainz received bruises (an overload of 47g at a relatively low speed of 140 km / h), and on Saturday, Esteban Ocon missed qualification after an accident – with an overload of 51g, the front suspension pierced the chassis. Wittich stated that with the barriers, the track in this section would become too narrow, and did not take any action.

The new FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem was present at the Grand Prix and was aware of the situation. The question of what is more dangerous – a pectoral cross or a concrete wall, did not receive an answer. The scenery of a waterless lagoon and yachts, installed inside the track, completed the image 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 hot weather, which affected the balance of power. On hot pavement, it was difficult to get the tires to work, and the abundance of red flags in training did not allow us to drive long series of circles to assess their wear. The strategy had to be dealt with during the race.

On Friday, Leclerc and Russell were in the lead, on Saturday morning Pérez set the fastest time, and in qualifying the Ferrari drivers occupied the entire front row of the starting field. Verstappen made a mistake on the final lap, Leclerc took his third pole of the season, and Sainz set a second time, regaining confidence after a serious crash on Friday.

Leclerc and Sainz started from the first row, Verstappen and Perez from the second, Bottas and Hamilton from the third. Esteban Okon, who did not participate in the qualification, was allowed to start by a special decision.

Before the start, the Aston Martin racers did not go to the starting field. The team cooled the fuel too much and, in order not to get a fine from the FIA ​​for this, they decided to heat it up to the required 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 moved ahead of Sainz to move up to second place. Gasly and Alonso overtook Hamilton, who lost speed behind the slowed down Perez.

Top ten on the second lap: 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 place.

On the 4th, Magnussen was ahead of Ricciardo in the fight for 12th.

On lap 6, Hamilton moved ahead of Gasly to move up to sixth.

On lap 7, Zhou pitted at the request of the team and retired due to a leak in the cooling system.

On lap 9, Verstappen overtook Leclerc to take the lead.

Top ten on lap 10: Verstappen – Leclerc – Sainz – Perez – Bottas – Hamilton – Gasly – Alonso – Norris – Schumacher.

On lap 10, Ricciardo overtook Tsunoda for 12th place.

Leclerc blocked the rubber on the brake, losing a second but keeping his position.

On lap 12 Tsunoda changed tires, on lap 13 Magnussen, on lap 15 Schumacher.

On lap 14, Russell overtook a wide-ranging Ricciardo.

On the 16th lap, Alonso made a pit stop – there was a hitch with the rear right wheel fastening. On the 17th, Gasley and Albon changed tires, on the 19th – Norris.

Vettel and Magnussen were ahead of Norris, who returned directly in front of them to the track.

Perez complained about the reduction in the power of the power plant, lost a few seconds, but continued to move. There was a problem with one of the sensors, partly it was solved, but the motor lost power.

Top ten on lap 20: Verstappen – Leclerc – Sainz – Perez – Bottas – Hamilton – Russell – Ricciardo – Ocon – Gasly.

On the 23rd lap, Hamilton made a pit stop, on the 25th – Leclerc, on the 27th – Verstappen and Bottas, on the 28th – Perez and Sainz – while servicing Carlos’s car, there was a hitch with the front right wheel fastening. On lap 31, Ricciardo changed tires.

Magnussen, Schumacher, Vettel and Norris were driving in a tight group. On lap 32, Magnussen edged ahead of Vettel and Schumacher to move up to 12th. On lap 35, Magnussen made a mistake and missed Schumacher, then Vettel blocked the rubber and Norris passed him.

On the 40th lap, Alonso overtook Gasly, the cars touched down, but continued to move – later the stewards punished Fernando with a five-second penalty.

On lap 41, Schumacher was ahead of Gasly. Pierre went off the track, and on his way back, he caught the Norris wheel.

Lando’s car was turned several times – and she froze on the track. The safety car drove off. Russell, Stroll, Perez, Ocon, Vettel and Ricciardo changed tyres.

Top ten behind the safety car: Verstappen – Leclerc – Sainz – Perez – Bottas – Hamilton – Russell – Alonso – Schumacher – Magnussen.

On lap 43, Magnussen changed tyres.

On the 46th lap, a restart was announced. Verstappen kept the lead. Gasly turned into the pits and retired from the race.

On lap 50, Hamilton and Russell overtook Bottas, who made a mistake, then George, on fresher tires, got ahead of Lewis.

Top ten on lap 50: Verstappen – Leclerc – Sainz – Perez – Russell – Hamilton – Bottas – Alonso – Schumacher – Ocon.

On lap 52, Pérez attacked Sainz, the cars touched and Carlos kept his position.

Schumacher crashed into Vettel in the struggle for position, both riders turned into the pits. 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 – he drove for a long time with a broken front wing and the team removed him from the race.

Max Verstappen won the Miami Grand Prix, scoring his third win of the season and 23rd of his career.

Charles Leclerc finished second, Carlos Sainz climbed to the third step of the podium.

In two weeks the fight will continue in Barcelona.

RACE RESULTS

** Fernando Alonso received two 5-sec penalties.
* Kevin Magnussen gained 5 sec. penalty by becoming the culprit of the incident
* Daniel Ricardo received 5 sec. Penalty for leaving the track and receiving an advantage

Best lap : Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) – 1:31.361 (lap 54, 213.255 km/h)

REASONS FOR LEAVING

CHAMPIONSHIP POSITION : INDIVIDUAL

CHAMPIONSHIP POSITION : CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP