@Max33Verstappen takes comfortable #MiamiGP #F1Sprint victory. #F1

Verstappen Miami Sprint Victory – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen beat Charles Leclerc to take the Miami GP Sprint victory as the thrilling action was behind the leaders.

When the 19-lap 100km Sprint began, pole-sitter Verstappen got a solid start as the Dutchman covered the Ferrari of Leclerc into turn one.

Behind them, Perez suffered a lock-up into turn one and fell a place behind Ricciardo.

A bit further back, McLaren’s Lando Norris had his Sprint ended early after being take out on turn one’s inside line – the Briton was an innocent victim in a chain of events involving Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton braking very late on the inside and hitting Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who was close to his team-mate Lance Stroll, and they also tangled, which put the AMR24 into Norris.

As Norris’s McLaren was left stuck on the inside – with Stroll later forced to retire in the pits the next time by.

The safety car was deployed after the collision to clear Norris’ MCL38 entry and the race was neutralised.

Alonso pitted for a fresh set of hard tyres following the puncture from the incident as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon also came in to serve his 10-second time penalty for his collision in the pit-lane with Leclerc before the Sprint.

When the Sprint resumed on lap three, Verstappen got a comfortable get away into turn one.

At the beginning of lap five, Verstappen’s lead was up to 1.082 seconds over Leclerc with Ricciardo third, Perez fourth as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz completed the top five.

Meanwhile with DRS assistance, Perez made his way ahead of Ricciardo on the inside of turn 11 to jump into third place.

Behind them, the Alpine of Pierre Gasly was all over the back of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda in the battle for tenth.

In the fight for fourth, Ricciardo has Sainz and Piastri for company – but at the moment Ricciardo has DRS assistance from Perez to keep the Ferrari and McLaren at bay.

Norris is currently under investigation by the stewards for walking on foot on track to the pit-lane.

Replays showed Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen miss the apex at turn 14 in the battle for the final points place, which Hamilton reported to his team that the Dane left the track and gained an advantage.

The stewards noted the incident between the duo.

On lap 10 in the fight for fourth with DRS assistance, Sainz attempted to try and find a way through on Ricciardo, but the latter covered the SF-24 into turn 11.

Lap 11 saw Hamilton and Magnussen’s battle intensify, into turn 11 as the former had a look to get by but the Haas covered the Mercedes.

Then Magnussen left the circuit as both ran wheel-to-wheel through turn 12 as both drivers collided and then Magnussen once again kept Hamilton behind him.

Meanwhile the stewards hit Magnussen with a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage with his battle against Hamilton.

Magnussen was also hit with a black-and-white flag for exceeding track limits.

With five laps remaining, Verstappen’s lead was at 1.892 seconds over Leclerc with Perez third, Ricciardo fourth as Sainz completed the top five runners.

Meanwhile with DRS assistance, Hamilton attempted an overtake around the outside on Magnussen on the back straight as the latter forced both drivers to ran very deep into turn 11 as Tsunoda made his way past Hamilton into ninth.

Once again, Magnussen was given another 10-second time penalty, this time for exceeding track limits.

Verstappen crossed the line to win take Miami GP sprint victory by 3.371 seconds over Leclerc as Perez completed the top three.

Ricciardo kept the fast charging Sainz and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri at bay to finish fourth as Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh.

Hamilton was handed a 20-second post-race penalty for speeding in the pit-lane meaning Tsunoda inherits eighth and the final points place for RB.

Magnussen was hit with another five-second time penalty for a track limits violation as the Dane ended up finishing at the rear due to the penalty time additions.

Alpine’s Gasly was promoted into ninth following the post-race penalties and ahead of Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant who completed the top ten.

Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu placed 11^th and in-front of Mercedes’ George Russell who placed 12^th in the classification and Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who started in the pit-lane and ended the Sprint in 13^th.

The second Sauber and Alpine entries of Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Ocon followed in 14^th and 15^th respectively, ahead of the aforementioned Hamilton as Alonso settled for a low-17^th.

You can see the full Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2024 F1 Sprint Race Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1234/miami/sprint-results.html

2024 Miami GP F1 Sprint – The Top Three

2024 Miami GP F1 Sprint Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20 – (8 Points)

“It wasn’t entirely perfect; we still have some work to do and at least with the new format we can still fine-tune the car a little bit for Qualifying. But a win is good – there are some things to improve.”

2^nd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-24, +3.371s – (7 Points)

“Had quite a good start, then I was in the inside into Turn 1 and I didn’t want to take too many risks as if you crash in the Sprint, you won’t get to take part in Qualifying. It was very close yesterday, hopefully now with a Sprint I’ve had more laps around this track so I will target pole.”

3^rd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20, +5.095s – (6 Points)

“Yeah, it was hard to get through in the beginning and by the time I got through I was three seconds from Charles, and it was tricky to get closer. The fans are amazing, it’s really nice to be here with them and I hope I can give them a good race at the weekend.”

Click here for the 2024 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings