From P9 to P1, Verstappen wins the Miami GP
Max Verstappen wins the Miami GP after starting 9th. His teammate Sergio Perez ended 2nd and Fernando Alonso 3rd.
After another demonstration of the Red Bull’s power Verstappen and Perez secure the 4th 1-2 finish with only 5 races. With the battle for first being between the two teammates, the team extends their advantage as the current championship leader.
Qualifying
The Saturday we had the qualifying everything went as expected until Q2. There Lewis Hamilton saw the checkered flag for a second and last time that session. Mercedes made a risky move with both their drivers. Since they were seeing all the improvements the Miami track was having as time passed, they waited until the last moment to reenter their racers. With only one lap to pass George Russell managed to pass being at P10. On the other hand, Hamilton wasn’t able to do the same and finished P13. Both drivers thought that the move was way too risky and that they should have let them do at least two laps.
Now passing into Q3, Max was the first one to start his flying lap, followed by his teammate Checo. Verstappen committed an error and aborted the lap. However, Perez did finish and had the pole for the moment. Verstappen came out of the garage to have a second attempt, but he was unable to even start it since Charles Leclerc found the wall, and a Red Flag ended the session, leaving Max without a time.
The result of Saturday gave us the first Hispanic starting three of the season since Fernando and Carlos Sainz finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Max Verstappen ended 9th without a time.
Race Day
Sunday came around really quickly and the excitement could have been cut with a knife. With the race for the drivers championship being so close between the two Red Bull drivers many Mexicans came to support Perez.
The race was on and both Checo and Alonso had great starts and managed to maintain their positions.
Verstappen was not wasting any time and started to pass everyone one by one. By lap 15 he was already in 2nd place with only Sergio in front. Once Perez had to pit, since he started in Medium tires while Max started in Hards, Verstappen took the lead of the race.
What nobody expected was to see the current world champion extend the life of his tires until lap 47 without losing much time or pace.
Meanwhile, Hamilton and Charles were struggling to pass or even catch up to their opponents in the streets of Miami.
Max and Checo clashed at lap 48 when Verstappen was exiting the pit. They battled for that first position, but little Perez had against his teammate who had fresher and faster tiers.
Max Verstappen came home to win the Miami Grand Prix with Sergio Perez second and Fernando Alonso third.
Is Sergio Perez going to stay close to Max Verstappen during the rest of the season in the driver’s championship? What do you think? Let us know down, in the comment section.