The Grand Opening in Miami brought a tough battle for the podium and fierce midfield battles! Who dominated the fifth race of the season?

The Miami Grand Prix was the first time in F1 history that the Queen of Motorsport has visited the USA, but it is the eleventh time she has done so. The race in Miami brought great misery for McLaren culminating in a crash, a convincing win for Max Verstappen and plenty of midfield battles!

All five lights on the Miami circuit went out at exactly 21:30, but it should be noted that the starting grid was depleted by two cars.

This is because both of Aston Martin’s two monoposts were struggling with fuel temperature issues, leaving the team to work on their cars before the start of the actual grand prix. Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll had to start from pit lane.

Leclerc, Sainz, Verstappen, Pérez, Bottas, Hamilton, Gasly, Norris, Cunoda, Alonso – that’s practically the top ten order at the start of the Miami Grand Prix. It was Stroll who officially started in tenth place.

However, by having to start from pit lane due to the aforementioned problems, his starting slot remained empty, whereupon eleventh-placed Fernando Alonso had a clear path ahead of him.

Charles Leclerc managed to hold on to his first place after the start, with a very solid start from Verstappen, who moved into second place ahead of Carlos Sainz. Alonso also had a fantastic start to the race, gaining four positions almost immediately after the start!

On the seventh lap of the Miami Grand Prix, Alfa Romeo driver Guangyu Zhou retired due to as yet unspecified technical problems.

One of the key moments of Sunday’s action came on lap nine. It was then that Verstappen moved into first place ahead of Monaco’s Leclerc and built up a decent lead over the next few laps.

Leclerc later reported problems with his right front tyre to his engineer, which was getting a good workout in Miami. It should be noted that Ferrari had already encountered these problems at the last Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the Imola circuit.

On laps 12 to 19, almost all the drivers went to their mechanics for a tyre change. The entire starting field thus successively put on the hardest specification tyres marked in white.

Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Pérez, Russell, Bottas, Hamilton, Ocon, Gasly, Alonso – this was the order at the halfway point of the race.

The fans in the stands and on the TV screens witnessed a dramatic moment on lap 41. Lando Norris tried to take advantage of Pierre Gasly’s mistake on the run into Turn 8, only to get into the dirt track, causing contact with each other, and then Norris crashed!

Yellow flags were immediately waved on the track and a conventional safety car had to be brought out to the Miami circuit after the virtual safety car.

Frenchman Gasly retired from the race on lap 47 due to somewhat more serious damage to his AlphaTauri. In addition to his collision with Norris, he had already “met” Alonso, after which the team called him to the pits for a pit stop.

Some drivers, namely Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Sergio Pérez and George Russell, took advantage of the safety car exit to pit for further tyre changes.

However, the order did not change significantly after the restart. Verstappen expertly held on to his lead ahead of second-placed Leclerc, but it was the Mercedes drivers who put up a good fight. With six laps to go, Russell had moved past Hamilton into fifth place.

Valtteri Bottas also tried to have a say in the battle, but he hit the wall trying to pass both drivers at once and remained in seventh place. Nothing changed in the battle for third place, which Sainz defended from Mexican Pérez.

Then, at the very end of the race, Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel collided, specifically at the apex of the first corner. The son of the famous legend let another opportunity to score his first career points slip away with this manoeuvre, and he was also responsible for causing the collision with Vettel’s Aston Martin.

Schumacher thus ended his Miami Grand Prix in fifteenth place, while Vettel had to retire from the race due to major damage to his monoposto. However, the sporting commissaires decided that the duel between Schumacher and Vettel would have no repercussions.

As a result, Alexander Albon in the Williams took tenth place, gaining more valuable points for his team!

So this is the final top ten points standings in the Miami Grand Prix. After the race, Ricciardo and Magnussen still received a five-second time penalty from the sports commissioners.

The McLaren driver received this penalty for leaving the race track and therefore exceeding the track limits, while Magnussen received this time penalty for causing a collision with Stroll at the very end of the Miami Grand Prix.

“It was an incredible race and really very physically demanding. Charles and I fought a tough battle, but in the end it’s us who are happy with the win. It’s a great day of racing for us,” Verstappen said in a post-race interview about the Miami Grand Prix.

Source: F1 TV