Formula 1 News: Verstappen holds off Leclerc to win Miami Sprint

Max Verstappen took the lead at the start and led all 19 laps of the Miami GP Sprint race to win by 3.371s over Charles Leclerc.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Verstappen kept his win record perfect in Miami, he and his Red Bull Honda won the GP the last two years and now this year’s Sprint race.

Verstappen collected the 8 points for the win to increase his point lead over Sergio Perez 118 to 91 with Leclerc in 3rd at 83 markers. “”It wasn’t entirely perfect, we still have some work to do and at least with the new format we can still fine-tune the car a little bit for Qualifying. But a win is good – there are some things to improve.”

Verstappen managed the gap to Leclerc perfectly. He quickly built a 1-second gap to keep Leclerc out of the DRS zone, and then held the gap at around 2-seconds for the majority of the race before extending it to over 3-seconds at the finish.

“Had quite a good start, then I was in the inside into Turn 1 and I didn’t want to take too many risks as if you crash in the Sprint, you won’t get to take part in Qualifying,” said Leclerc.

“It was very close yesterday, hopefully now with a Sprint, I’ve had more laps around this track so I will target pole.”

Sergio Perez came home third in the 2nd Red Bull, 5.095s behind his teammate.  “Yeah, it was hard to get through in the beginning and by the time I got through I was three seconds from Charles and it was tricky to get closer. The fans are amazing, it’s really nice to be here with them and I hope I can give them a good race at the weekend.”

Daniel Ricciardo held off the intense pressure from the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jr. to finish 4th and get much needed points for he and his team.

Nico Hulkenberg grabbed two more points – with some help from his teammate Kevin Magnussen who held Hamilton up .

Hamilton initially scored one point in eighth, but has just lost that place, he’s been given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. That will add 20 seconds to his race time, and thus drop him down the order.

The last point therefore goes to Tsunoda.

There was the start line incident between Hamilton, Alonso, Stroll and Norris that ended the effective chances of everyone bar Hamilton who came into Turn 1 too hot and took out two cars and damaged a third. But it was Lewis Hamilton, the FIA’s ‘pet’ driver, so no penalty.

Asked about the FIA potentially taking action against Hamilton, Alonso told DAZN: “We’ll see what they decide. I guess they won’t decide anything because he’s not Spanish. But, I think he ruined the race for a few people, especially Norris, who had a very fast car, and he was out in that incident.”

Then came the three separate penalties for Magnussen in his fight with Hamilton, two 10-second penalties and a 5-second one. But what the Dane did do is ensure Hulkenberg came home in the points.

“All the penalties were well deserved, no doubt about it but I had to play the game again,” said Magnussen.

“I was vulnerable with Lewis, I had to create the gap like in Jeddah with these crazy tactics, which I don’t like doing but I played the team game. Not the way I like to go racing at all.”

Add in Ocon’s pre-race penalty and Hamilton’s post-race one for speeding on pit lane, and it was a busy afternoon for the stewards.

Up next – GP qualifying. Can Verstappen continue his strong qualifying form with another pole? He isn’t thrilled with his car, and the rest of the field are closing.

Miami GP Sprint Race Results – 19 Laps