@Max33Verstappen fends-off @CharlesLeclerc to clinch #MiamiGP victory. #F1

Verstappen Miami GP victory – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to victory at the inaugural Miami GP, winning after passing the championship leader early on then withstanding pressure in the closing stages following a late safety car.

 

 

The other Ferrari F1-75 entry of Carlos Sainz completed the top three ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, with Mercedes’ George Russell rounding out the top five in-front of team-mate Lewis Hamilton after gaining massively from the safety car than overtaking his fellow British-compatriot afterwards.

 

When the 57 lap Miami GP began, pole-sitter Leclerc got a solid run off the line keeping team-mate Sainz behind into the first corner, who did not have a great start.

 

This meant Verstappen squeezed his way past Sainz after braking late into turn one, keeping wheel-to-wheel with the Ferrari on the inside heading into turn two and snuck through into second place.

 

 

By the end of the opening tour Leclerc lead title-rival Verstappen by 0.8 seconds and quickly moved clear out of DRS range by the time they reached the third tour.

 

For the opening proceedings of the Grand Prix, Leclerc would gain three-four tenths each time through sector one before Verstappen’s strong top speed brought the Red Bull driver back into play towards the Ferrari along the long straights in the second two thirds of the Miami International Autodrome.

 

Leclerc reached a gap of 1.4 seconds at the beginning of lap six, but just as he posted the fastest lap in the high 1:33’s, a dark band of rubber appeared on his front-right tyre.

 

Verstappen, told by his team that Leclerc was struggling to preserve his C3 yellow side-walled medium compound all leaders started the race on, then began started charging towards the Ferrari.

 

At the end of the eighth tour, Leclerc slid exiting the turn 17 hairpin and Verstappen was right on the F1-75 racer’s gearbox – moving alongside as they ran down the main straight and the Dutchman took the lead with a simple overtake into the first corner, Leclerc choosing not to fight too hard.

 

On the following tour, Leclerc pushed hard to keep up through the opening sector that favour’s Ferrari high downforce package but dropped as Verstappen flew down every straight and was out of the threat of DRS after two tours.

 

The Red Bull was quickly able to establish a gap, aided by Leclerc suffering a lock-up deep into turn 17’s hairpin on lap 12, which costed the Monegasque driver a second and meant at the end of that lap, Verstappen’s lead hit 2.6 seconds.

 

This increased to 4.2 seconds on lap 21 – Leclerc being told by his Ferrari team, it was switching to “plan D” on it’s strategy, whilst Red Bull reported to Verstappen his front-right tyre management was making the difference.

 

Behind the leaders, Sainz soon dropped back, with Perez at first following the Spaniard closely before losing over five seconds as his Red Bull Power-Trains engine developed an issue, which Red Bull had to issue a steering wheel fix to solve it.

 

Leclerc was able to post competitive lap-times during this stage but could not keep it consistent and with race leader Verstappen able to cover the Ferrari driver off each time, so the Scuderia brought Leclerc in to switch to the C2 white-marked harder tyres at the end of the 24^th tour – just after he reported his F1-75 was “too difficult to drive”.

 

Red Bull left Verstappen out for two laps longer before he swapped onto the hards, gaining another 0.8 seconds with a quicker stop from his pit-crew compared to Leclerc’s.

 

Verstappen lead by 7.5 seconds at the start of his second stint, which Leclerc at first cut down with a string of fastest laps in the high 1:32’s bracket, before the race leader responded with an even quicker effort and restored and kept the advantage.

 

Much like the start of the Grand Prix, Leclerc regularly gained several tenths through the twisty sector one before Verstappen clawed back time later in the tour – the duo switching fastest laps between each other then remaining stable.

 

Heading into the race’s final third, Verstappen had a gap of 7.8 seconds, with Red Bull concerned about the threat of rain, as clouds bubbled up around the Miami International Autodrome.

 

But a stable race to end had no chance to play out due to the deployment of a safety car following a collision between AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Lando Norris on lap 41 – putting the latter out just past after the start of the long acceleration zone that follows the fake marina at the eighth corner.

 

Gasly was travelling slower having just had an earlier collision with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso at the opening corner as they battled in the lower half of the top ten and when the AlphaTauri ran wide through turn eight, Norris moved to overtake on its right-hand side.

 

But Gasly appeared to slide left, unaware the McLaren was coming by, reporting his AT03 “doesn’t turn” with an issue, and the contact spun Norris around and knocked off the MCL36’s right-rear, after which the race was stabilised for five tours, with Perez pitting from fourth place to go back onto the hards.

 

When the race went back to green, Verstappen easily moved clear from Leclerc, whilst Perez pressured Sainz hard on the main-straight but was brushed off on the outside line into the first corner.

 

There followed an entertaining 11-lap dash to the chequered flag, with Leclerc able to keep within DRS range for much of the remaining action and put Verstappen under intense pressure.

 

Leclerc came the closest to making a move with a look to the inside of the Red Bull into turn 11 at the end of the long, curving run from the marina, but was squeezed to the inside line and lost ground.

 

The Ferrari driver closed in again but clattered the kerbs hard at the chicane on lap 52, meaning he dropped from 0.5 to 0.8 seconds off and as Verstappen’s better top speed then came into play on the main-straight, Leclerc had to settle for second place.

 

On the following tour, Leclerc dropped out of DRS range on the back straight and never recovered from it – Verstappen eased clear to claim the inaugural Miami GP victory by 3.786 seconds.

 

Sainz completed the top three despite his tyres being much older than those on Perez’s RB18, who had closed in again after his restart charge did not pay off.

 

On the 52^nd lap, Perez was still down on power after his earlier problem, made a big dive into turn one, but when Sainz swept right and both nearly tangled, the Mexican locked up and went deep, allowing the Ferrari back into third place, which he held on from there.

 

Mercedes’ Russell rounded out the top five after gaining massively from the safety car intervention – the Briton having started 12^th on the grid on the durable C2 harder compound and ran a very long opening stint in the hope of a disruption during the race.

 

Russell got his wish and was able to put on the mediums whilst the rest were travelling slowly and restarted behind team-mate Hamilton, who recovered from a slow first tour when he jumped over the turn one kerbs and was slightly tapped by Alonso’s A522 at the next corner, costing the seven-time world champion momentum.

 

Hamilton recovered to sixth behind former team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the restart, with the Alfa driver handing the Mercedes pairing a place when he hit the wall exiting turn 17 – after which Russell came out on top of a wheel-to-wheel battle with his Mercedes team-mate going through the turns 11 and 12 sequence.

 

Russell had to re-pass Hamilton at the same spot with DRS assistance when his fellow British-compatriot had got back by late on, but Russell held on from there to cross the line in fifth.

 

Bottas came home seventh and in-front of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who benefitted from an opening corner collision between Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher.

 

The duo had both been running in the points when Ocon attacked Schumacher at the turn 17 hairpin on the 53^rd lap, with Vettel passing both in one move but gave DRS assistance to Schumacher as they ran down the main-straight.

 

Then there was a collision between the Aston Martin and Haas at turn one, which spun Vettel around and broke Schumacher’s front wing – the former later retiring in the pits with damage and latter ended the Grand Prix in 15^th having missed the chance to score his first points in Formula 1.

 

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon was promoted to ninth place and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll to tenth following post-race penalties for Alpine’s Alonso and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo due to leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

 

Therefore, Alonso finished outside the points in 11^th and Ricciardo 13th ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who was promoted to 12^th.

 

The other Williams FW44 of Nicholas Latifi ended the race in 14^th and in-front of the aforementioned Schumacher.

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Zhou Guanyu was forced to retire early due to a technical issue.

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2022 Miami GP – The Top Three

 

 

2022 Miami GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing-RBPT, RB18:

“It was an incredible Grand Prix, very physical. Incredibly happy with winning here in Miami, it was an incredible Sunday for us.”

 

2^nd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, F1-75:

“It was a very difficult race physically. We struggled with the medium tyres and got overtaken but with the hard we were very competitive. I hope now we can do a step up from the next race onwards, but it’s been tight from the beginning of the season and that’s what we like to see.”

 

3^rd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, F1-75:

“After the crash from Friday, I still had neck pain going into the race. I had to fight through it, especially with Checo at the end there. It wasn’t easy at all, with the tyres, with the heat, the car was moving and sliding a lot. We got what we deserved, a decent P3 and we can build from here.”

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Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2022 Race Results Classification (57 Laps)

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING RBPT	57	1:34:24.258	26
2	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	57	+3.786s	18
3	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	57	+8.229s	15
4	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING RBPT	57	+10.638s	12
5	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	57	+18.582s	10
6	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	57	+21.368s	8
7	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	57	+25.073s	6
8	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	57	+28.386s	4
9	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	57	+32.365s	2
10	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	57	+37.026s	1
11	14	Fernando Alonso	ALPINE RENAULT	57	+37.128s	0
12	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI RBPT	57	+40.146s	0
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	MCLAREN MERCEDES	57	+40.902s	0
14	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	57	+49.936s	0
15	47	Mick Schumacher	HAAS FERRARI	57	+73.305s	0
16	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	56	DNF	0
17	5	Sebastian Vettel	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	54	DNF	0
NC	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI RBPT	45	DNF	0
NC	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	39	DNF	0
NC	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	6	DNF	0

 

Note – Verstappen scored a extra point for posting the fastest lap of the Grand Prix. Alonso and Magnussen received five-second time penalties for causing collisions. Ricciardo and Alonso received five-second time penalties for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1110/miami/race-result.html

 

Click here for the 2022 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.

 

Round six of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain for the Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio De Espana 2022 from Friday May 20-Sunday May 22.