Verstappen, who started third, gained second at the first corner when he drove around the outside of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. He tracked down Leclerc and passed him on lap nine.
Despite a late-race safety car, that put Leclerc back into DRS range, Verstappen pulled away to win by 3.7s.
2022 Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix race results
What happened in the Miami Grand Prix?
On a dry track, but with a 40% of rain showers, Leclerc held his pole advantage on the run to Turn 1 ahead of Sainz but Verstappen went around the outside of the Spaniard on the exit of Turn 1 to grab second.
Perez ran fourth, ahead of Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – who lost two places after locking up at the first corner and getting boxed in behind Perez and then biffed by Alonso.
Hamilton got one place back when he passed Alonso at Turn 11 as DRS was enabled, after Alonso had run wide at Turn 5, and he later DRS-ed past Gasly into Turn 1 on lap six to regain sixth.
As soon as he got into DRS range of Leclerc, Verstappen grabbed the lead at Turn 1 on lap nine. Leclerc stayed in DRS reach of Verstappen for a couple of laps but then fell out of it and then lost 1.1s with a front-right lock up into Turn 17 on lap 12.
Perez caught Sainz but then suffered a loss of power that cost him 7s while he changed some settings on his steering wheel.
Leclerc was running 4.5s behind Verstappen when he pitted on lap 25, rejoining in fourth. Verstappen pitted two laps later, after Leclerc set a fastest sector time, and Sainz led for a lap before he too stopped – but his stop was a slow 5.4s due to a sticking right-front wheel.
Verstappen’s lead increased to 7.7s during the pitstop cycle. Sainz was now a distant third, 5s ahead of Perez.
Alonso suffered a slow pitstop, when the right-rear wouldn’t detach, but he then caught Gasly. Alonso hit Gasly at Turn 1 on lap 39, which earned him a five-second penalty.
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