@Max33Verstappen recovers from ninth to clinch sensational #MiamiGP victory. #F1

Verstappen Miami GP victory – Max Verstappen recovered from ninth to clinch the Miami GP victory in a solid drive ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez in a Red Bull one-two as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso completed the top three.

 

 

The Dutchman won from ninth after losing out in qualifying due to not posting a time and denied one final flyer due to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc’s shunt, which brought out the red flag.

 

Verstappen began the race on the C2 white harder compounds in an alternate strategy to pole-sitting Red Bull team-mate Perez, who started on the mediums, and the Mexican made sure to keep ahead of Alonso.

 

When the 57-lap Miami GP began, pole-sitter Perez got a great getaway ahead of Alonso with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly up into fourth making his way past Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen.

 

At the end of the opening tour, Perez held a 1.104 second gap in-front of Alonso with Sainz third, Gasly fourth, Mercedes’ George Russell fifth, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc sixth, Magnussen seventh and championship leader Max Verstappen who was down in ninth, found his way past Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas into eighth.

 

Race leader Perez made his way out of DRS range from Alonso with a 1.205 second gap on lap four, meanwhile his Red Bull team-mate Verstappen performed a spectacular double overtake on both Leclerc and Magnussen taking the inside line into turn one to grab sixth place as he continued his recovery drive.

 

On the beginning of lap seven, Perez held a 1.588 second gap over Alonso with Sainz in DRS range behind his fellow Spanish-compatriot in third, Gasly fourth, Russell fifth and Verstappen holding sixth with the fastest lap to his name.

 

On lap eight, Verstappen got in DRS range and made his way past Russell on the inside into turn 17 to take fifth place.

 

On lap nine, Verstappen also made the same identical move that he done on Russell to overtake Gasly into fourth place.

 

On the tenth lap, Perez increased his lead to 1.975 seconds over Alonso with Sainz third, Verstappen fourth place and flying on the C2 harder compounds as Russell completed the top five.

 

Lap 14 saw Verstappen make his past Sainz into third place with his mighty DRS advantage into turn 11.

On the 15^th tour, Perez was comfortably ahead, but now has his team-mate Verstappen up into second place, after getting his way ahead of Alonso into turn 11 to take second place as Red Bull hold the top two positions.

 

On lap 18, Russell and Leclerc both pitted for a fresh set of hards whilst the latter emerged behind Magnussen again down in 15^th.

 

The 19^th tour saw Sainz getting close behind Alonso in the battle for third, but the Ferrari driver came in for a set of hards and came out crucially in-front of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon in seventh.

 

On lap 20, Perez held a 1.413 second lead ahead of flying team-mate Verstappen with Alonso third, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (yet-to-pit) in fourth and Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg in fifth.

 

On the 21^st tour, Perez pitted from the lead for a set of hards as Verstappen claimed the lead off his Red Bull team-mate with the former emerging in fourth place behind Ocon.

 

Lap 22 saw Verstappen’s tyres appearing in bad shape, but the Dutchman was complaining on the team radio with the upshifts in his RB19 racer.

 

On lap 23, Perez overtook Ocon into third place meanwhile Sainz is under investigation for speeding in the pit-lane by the race stewards.

 

On the 25^th lap tour, Verstappen was comfortably in the lead whilst Alonso pitted from second, taking on a set of hards and emerged behind Sainz in fourth. Sainz however, was hit with a five-second timed penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.

 

On lap 27, Verstappen yet-to-pit held a 16.477 gap to team-mate Perez who is second with the fastest lap to his name, with Ocon third, and Alonso made his way ahead of Sainz into fourth place after making the move stick into turn 11.

 

Lap 29 saw Alonso breeze his way ahead of Ocon on the inside of the Alpine into turn 11 to take third place.

 

The 30^th tour saw Verstappen with a 15.596 second lead to team-mate Perez with Alonso third, Sainz taking fourth place over Ocon as both Mercedes of Hamilton and Russell were fifth and sixth respectively.

 

On the 36^th lap, Verstappen grabbed the fastest lap and held a 15.951 second lead to team-mate Perez with Alonso a distant third, Sainz holding a five-second timed-penalty in fourth and Mercedes’ Russell completing the top five.

 

Lap 37 saw Russell overtake Sainz into fourth place with passing the Ferrari onto the inside of turn 11.

 

With 15 laps remaining, the yet-to-pit race leader Verstappen held an 18.197 gap to team-mate Perez with Alonso third, Russell fourth and Sainz rounding out the top five.

 

On lap 46, Verstappen pitted from the lead for a fresh set of mediums and emerges 1.366 seconds behind team-mate Perez, with Alonso third, Russell fourth and Sainz fifth.

 

On the 48^th tour, Verstappen made his way around the outside of team-mate Perez into turn one to reclaim first place.

 

On lap 49, Alonso holds a decent gap to Russell in third, Sainz is comfortably fifth ahead of Gasly with Leclerc in-front of Hamilton seventh and Ocon eighth.

 

The 54^th lap saw Verstappen increase to a 2.902 second lead over team-mate Perez with Alonso a distant third, Russell fourth and Sainz fifth as both Leclerc and Hamilton made their way past Gasly into sixth and seventh respectively.

 

With three tours remaining in the battle for sixth, Hamilton overtook Leclerc on the inside into turn 11 and made the move stick.

 

Verstappen crossed the line to clinch the Miami GP victory ahead of team-mate Perez by 5.384 seconds as Alonso finished third, Russell fourth and Sainz completing the top five.

 

Mercedes’ Hamilton was sixth and ahead of Leclerc who took seventh, with the two Alpine A523 entries of Gasly and Ocon in eighth and ninth respectively as Magnussen rounded out the top 10 for Haas.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda finished in 11^th and in-front of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who placed 12^th and Alfa Romeo’s Bottas who ended the Grand Prix 13^th.

 

Williams Racing’s Albon came 14^th in the classification and ahead of Hulkenberg who was 15^th and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who took 16^th.

 

McLaren pairing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri ended the race in a low 17^th and 19^th respectively as AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries split them in 18^th and Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant brought up the rear.

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2023 Miami GP – The Top Three

 

 

2023 Miami GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing – Honda-RBPT, RB19:

“It was a good race, stayed out of trouble in the beginning and yeah, has a clean race. I could stay out long on the hard tyres, and that’s what made the difference. Yesterday was a set-back, today we kept it calm, we kept it clean. Winning from P9 is very satisfying.”

 

2^nd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing – Honda-RBPT, RB19, +5.384:

“I gave it my all. The first stint was poor with the graining, and that compromised our race as we had too much of a difference on tyres. Well-deserved win from [Verstappen]. I think the medium initially was really poor, worse than expected. I need to analyse what went wrong, as we had a bad race.”

 

3^rd Place – Fernando Alonso, #14, Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team, AMR23, +26.305:

“The car is amazing, a bit of a lonely race. We did expect stronger opposition, but the Ferraris were worse than expected today. We take the podium, and going into the triple-header, hopefully we can keep on going. We want more, at least a second place, maybe Monaco, maybe Barcelona we have a possibility.”

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Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2023 Race Results Classification (57 Laps)

 

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	57	1:27:38.241	26
2	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	57	+5.384s	18
3	14	Fernando Alonso	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	57	+26.305s	15
4	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	57	+33.229s	12
5	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	57	+42.511s	10
6	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	57	+51.249s	8
7	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	57	+52.988s	6
8	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	57	+55.670s	4
9	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	57	+58.123s	2
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	57	+62.945s	1
11	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	57	+64.309s	0
12	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	57	+64.754s	0
13	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	57	+71.637s	0
14	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	57	+72.861s	0
15	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	57	+74.950s	0
16	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	57	+78.440s	0
17	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	57	+87.717s	0
18	21	Nyck De Vries	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	57	+88.949s	0
19	81	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	56	+1 lap	0
20	2	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	56	+1 lap	0

* Provisional results. Note – Verstappen scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1208/miami/race-result.html

 

Round six of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy for the Formula 1 Qatar Airways Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell’Emilia-Romagna 2023 from Friday May 19-Sunday May 21.

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#MiamiGP Qualifying: @SChecoPerez claims pole as @CharlesLeclerc crashes. #F1

#MiamiGP FP3: @Max33Verstappen leads from @CharlesLeclerc, @SChecoPerez. #F1

#MiamiGP FP2: @Max33Verstappen tops time-sheets ahead of @ScuderiaFerrari duo. #F1

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#F1 Crypto.com #MiamiGrandPrix 2023 Preview. #MiamiGP #Formula1