Max Verstappen was able to continue his 100% win rate at the Miami International Autodrome on Saturday (May 4) with a dominant win in the Formula 1 Sprint.
Verstappen led every lap from the pole. Second place Charles Leclerc was able to stay within a couple of seconds throughout the 19 lap race, but couldn’t gain any ground on the three-time F1 champion.
Sergio Perez was able to make it two Red Bulls on the Sprint podium by finishing third.
On lap 1, in turn 1, there was an incident where Lewis Hamilton dove into the inside of Fernando Alonso, making it four wide through the turn. There wasn’t enough room, however, and Alonso went into Lance Stroll. The Aston Martin, after being pushed by the other Aston Martin, went up into and spun out a McLaren.
Lando Norris spun and stalled out, causing a safety car before the end of the first lap. Stroll also had to retire from the Sprint due to damage. Owing to where the wreck was, the safety car had to go lead the field down pit road to avoid debris and Norris.
Daniel Ricciardo was able to secure a fourth place finish as a result of the attrition, a huge gain for his campaign to stay in the RB after this week. Carlos Sainz spent the entire Sprint trying to get around Ricciardo but the Spaniard just couldn’t get by the Honey Badger and finished fifth.
“It felt awesome,” Ricciardo said to F1 TV. “Obviously fighting towards the front is all nicer. And, of course, seeing a Ferrari in your mirrors… alright, challenge accepted. ‘Let’s do what we can.’ And of course, every lap I was able to hold Carlos off I was like, ‘OK,’ gave myself a little pat on the back every lap. Then we were coming up to the finish, I thought we could actually do this.
“It was a sprint race, in all forms of the word. Nothing else I could give, no tire saving or nothing. Just going for it. I knew that’s what it would take to actually hold on to that. It feels good, the team deserves that. We’ve gone through a bit of, I can’t swear, gone through a bit of ‘stuff’ to get here, and it’s also nice to remind some people.”
Oscar Piastri brought home at least a few points for McLaren by finishing sixth.
After the restart, the story of the race proved to be a familiar one. Nico Hulkenberg ran in seventh and Kevin Magnussen in eighth, and like in Saudi Arabia a couple of months ago, Magnussen spent the race defending like a viking.
Magnussen occurred three…
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