Max Verstappen recovered from P9 on the grid to defeat Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and win the Miami GP. After the Azerbaijan GP, Perez had slashed Verstappen’s lead to just six points, but the Dutchman’s Miami triumph sees him extend that margin once again.
Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin returned to the podium in third place, collecting his fourth podium result in five races.
- Verstappen wins, 5.384 secs from Perez
- Leads championship by 14 points
- Alonso takes P3
Verstappen wins Miami GP to extend F1 title lead
Sprint and Sunday race victory at Azerbaijan saw Perez close in on teammate Verstappen in the title battle. Miami gave him the chance to potentially take the lead, with Charles Leclerc’s qualifying crash, handing Perez pole and leaving Verstappen to start from P9.
While Perez held on to the lead in the initial stages, it soon became apparent that Verstappen had the upper hand on track. He was already up to second place by Lap 15 and then focused on maximising his opening stint on the hard tyres. Perez was on an alternate strategy, running mediums first and then switching to hards.
By the time Verstappen pitted and rejoined the track, he was just 1.6 seconds behind Perez on tyres that were 24 laps fresher. Using this advantage, he comfortably cleared Perez with 10 laps to go. A race win and fastest lap mean he’s now extended his championship lead to 14 points from his teammate.
“I had a good little battle with Checo [Perez] at the end. We kept it clean and that’s the most important – it’s a great win today. Yesterday was, of course, a bit of a setback, today we just kept it calm, kept it clean, and for sure winning a race from P9 is always very satisfying,” said Verstappen.
Alonso defeats Sainz
Alonso and Aston Martin have become a standard fixture on the podium this year, and Miami was no different. He initially lost ground to Carlos Sainz in the pit stops, but the Ferrari driver was handed a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane. That didn’t make much of a difference, though, since Sainz ended up being overtaken by Alonso and Mercedes’ George Russell on track.
Both Mercedes drivers had decent races; Russell finished fourth and Lewis Hamilton climbed from 13th on the grid to finish sixth, behind Sainz. Charles Leclerc was next in seventh, followed by the Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen took full advantage of this opportune P4 starting position and converted it into a points-finish in P10.
After a two-week break, we’re in for three back-to-back races, starting with the Imola GP on May 19-21. That’ll be followed by the Monaco GP on May 26-28 and the Spanish GP on June 2-4.
2023 Miami GP results
Suraj Viswanathan
