Max Verstappen recovered from ninth on the grid to overtake team mate Sergio Perez and win the Miami Grand Prix.
After a long first stint on the hard tyres, Verstappen made a late pit stop and rejoined just behind his team mate. He quickly overtook Perez to claim the lead and cruise to the chequered flag. Fernando Alonso finished 20 seconds behind the Red Bulls to take his fourth podium finish of the season.
The top seven starters lined up on the grid on medium compound tyres, with Perez taking his pole position grid slot ahead of Alonso alongside. When the lights went out, Perez successfully held onto the lead ahead of Alonso in second, Carlos Sainz Jnr in third and Pierre Gasly fourth for Alpine after he got ahead of Kevin Magnussen, who fell down to seventh.
Verstappen started from ninth on hard tyres and passed Esteban Ocon for eighth. When DRS was activated on lap three, Verstappen used his Red Bull’s DRS along the pit straight to overtake both Charles Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen to move up to sixth for the start of lap four.
On lap eight, Verstappen gained fifth place from George Russell, passing the Mercedes driver for fifth place into the turn 17 hairpin. One lap later, Verstappen gained fourth place by passing Gasly into turn one, with Russell following the Red Bull through by the Alpine to demote Gasly to sixth.
Verstappen caught and passed Sainz at the hairpin on lap 13 and was soon on the back of second-placed Alonso. Using DRS, he slipped by the Aston Martin into turn 11, completing his comeback through the field to sit around three seconds behind his team mate.
Perez eventually pitted at the end of lap 20, switching to hard tyres, which allowed Verstappen through into the lead. The pole-winner rejoined in fourth behind Ocon, but eventually passed the Alpine to take third and slowly begin to shorten the gap to team mate Verstappen ahead.
Sainz pitted earlier than Alonso to successfully undercut the Aston Martin and move into a net third place. However Alonso soon caught up to the Ferrari after pitting five laps later, overtaking him to reclaim that third position. Behind, Russell was allowed past team mate Lewis Hamilton, then dived by Sainz to take fourth place from the Ferrari at turn 11.
Out front, Verstappen very slowly built out his lead over team mate Perez to just over 18 seconds, remaining out for over three-quarters of the race distance on his hard tyres and eventually pitting at the end of lap 45 for medium tyres. He rejoined 1.6…
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