The Hard Rock Stadium home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins is a venue well used to hosting champions – even if the Dolphins themselves haven’t come close for a generation.
Playing in the same division as Tom Brady and the New England Patriots for 20 years, hosting the Super Bowl on multiple occasions, as well as the Miami Open tennis tournament, the venue has witnessed countless outstanding performances by some of sport’s greatest champions over the years.
It was perhaps fitting, then, that Formula 1’s inaugural Miami Grand Prix held around the stadium grounds would see reigning world champion Max Verstappen claim victory in what may well have been his best performance of the season so far.
It was not supposed to be Verstappen’s turn. He and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had traded wins over the opening four races: Leclerc, Verstappen, Leclerc, Verstappen. And the pattern appeared likely to continue in Florida after Leclerc and Ferrari exploited an error by the Red Bull driver on his final lap in qualifying to secure pole and a front row lock-out for Sunday’s race.
But despite the strong starting position, Ferrari were all too aware about the threat Verstappen posed with Red Bull’s clear top speed advantage over them down the two longest straights over the 5.4 kilometre course.
“It’s going to be very difficult,” Leclerc admitted after qualifying. “We’ve got this advantage in the corners, hopefully they will be too far to have an opportunity of overtaking us in the straight.”
Verstappen may have been in contention to challenge the Ferraris from third on the grid, but he was the least prepared for a race than he had been heading into any Sunday so far in 2022. Overheating troubles on Friday hadn’t just cost him valuable laps in practice, they had denied him the opportunity to carry out any practice starts from the grid over the weekend.
“I didn’t even do a start,” Verstappen later…