Max Verstappen passed championship leader Charles Leclerc in the opening laps and withstood a fightback from the Ferrari driver to win F1’s first Miami Grand Prix.
Verstappen overtook the pole-winner on lap nine and managed to keep ahead of the Ferrari for the remainder of the race, despite a late Safety Car bunching the leaders up in the closing stages.
Carlos Sainz Jnr finished third after fending off a late challenge from Sergio Perez after the last restart.
Before the field had even taken off on the formation lap, trouble struck Aston Martin as both Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel failed to make it to grid. The team later explained that a fuel temperature problem was affecting both cars ahead of the race, with the pair having to start from the pit lane instead.
When the lights went out, Leclerc got a good start and took the lead into turn one, while Verstappen challenged Sainz for second around the outside. Sainz held firm, but being on the outside but Verstappen to the inside for turn two and the Red Bull took second place. Sainz settled into third, with Sergio Perez retaining fourth position ahead of Valtteri Bottas.
Fernando Alonso gained four places at the start to take seventh, passing Lewis Hamilton by making wheel-to-wheel contact with the Mercedes at turn two. However, a mistake at turn six on lap three allowed Hamilton to tuck into the Alpine’s slipstream, before passing him on on the approach to turn 11. Hamilton then chased down sixth placed Pierre Gasly, passing him on lap six.
Zhou Guanyu was called into the pit lane and into retirement at the end of lap seven, the rookie Alfa Romeo driver’s first retirement of his career.
Leclerc was unable to pull away from Verstappen behind in the early laps, the Red Bull driver eventually able to get within DRS range of the Ferrari. At the end of lap eight, Verstappen got a far superior exit from the turn 17 hairpin and with the benefit of slipstream and DRS, pulled…