Race weekend review
Some Hollywood stars made appearances in the paddock to cheer the teams on and see some on-track action. There was a some questions asked about the decision to shorten two DRS zone by some drivers, while other drivers like Alonso, was in favour of this decision.
In FP1 Mercedes started off the weekend strong, showing that they came to Miami with pace. Russell and Hamilton were P1 and P2, while Leclerc and Verstappen were P3 and P4. The Aston Martins were 7th and 8th, about a second slower than the Mercedes.
FP2 brought us back to a more usual trio. Verstappen topped the charts ahead of both Ferraris, followed by Perez. Norris had a better session than his first as he managed P6, but Russell found himself lower down the table in P15. Leclerc brought out the a red flag when he crashed late on in the session.
Verstappen stayed on top in FP3 ahead of Leclerc and his teammate, Perez. Alpine showed some pace with both drivers in the top 6 and within nine tenths of the leading cars. It was another difficult practice session for Mercedes as they finished 10th and 13th.
Qualifying
McLaren had another bad qualifying session with both cars knocked out in Q1. The Mercedes drivers left it late to secure their places in Q2. De Vries outqualified his teammate Tsunoda for the first time this season when the dutchman escaped elimination but Tsunoda did not. Another surprise was the elimination of Stroll. Out of Q1: Norris, Tsunoda, Stroll, Piastri, Sargeant
One of the biggest shocks of qualifying was the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton not making it out of Q2. Both he and Russell were in danger with five minutes left on the clock; while Russell narrowly escaped, Hamilton did not. Albon missed out on Q3 by five hundredths of a second. Out of Q2: Albon, Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Zhou, De Vries
Sergio Perez claimed pole position in Miami ahead of Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz, giving us a Spanish speaking top 3. Verstappen and Leclerc both made mistake on their first flying lap with Verstappen backing out of his and Leclerc putting himself to P7. In his final attempt for pole Leclerc went off through the run-off area and into the barriers bringing out the red flag and ending the session early. Verstappen, who didn’t set a time, was P9. Top 10: Perez, Alonso, Sainz, Magnussen, Gasly, Russell, Leclerc, Ocon, Verstappen, Bottas.
Race recap:
Max Verstappen did what he does best at the Miami GP. From P9 he charged his way through the field, catching Alonso for P2 by lap 15 (Alonso guessed 25) and eventually overtook Perez for the lead, in a class of his own during the race. Perez settled for second, having a strong race but his teammate made the hard stint work brilliantly and coasted to the end on medium tyres.
Fernando Alonso was back on the podium for Aston Martin, he too, had a solid race, kept his distance from Russell. He had such a lonely race that he watched Stroll make overtakes on the big screen. Stroll, who started down in P18 was not too shy of scoring points, he finished P12.
Mercedes, after a strong start to the weekend will be glad to end it on a high. Russell captured 4th place, overtaking Sainz for those 12 points while Hamilton had a nice recovery making his way from P13 all the way to P6 ahead of Leclerc.
It was a disappointing weekend for Ferrari in Miami. Sainz who started in the podium places dropped down to P5 as he was hit with a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pit lane and he could not keep up with Russell once past the Spaniard. Leclerc, who struggled behind Magnussen for a large portion of the race finished where he started as Hamilton’s late charge relegated the Ferrari driver.
Alpine had a good day in the office in Miami with a double point scoring finish. Gasly and Ocon finished P8 and P9 respectively. McLaren on the other hand had a race to forget in Miami. No points were scored as they finished where they started in P17 and P19. Their gamble for a soft tyre start in the hope of a safety car didn’t pay off, especially when De Vries made contact with Norris at the start. Both cars soon came in to pit for hard tyres which they finished the race on. Tsunoda displayed his talent with a P11 finish, although he just missed out on points, the Japanese driver showed just how well he’s driving in a slower car. De Vries on the other hand was P18 after making contact with Norris on Lap 1.
Kevin Magnussen hung on to P10, surviving Tsunoda and Stroll’s late charge for that final championship point. The Dane who battled it out with Leclerc will see Haas delighted with the point. Hulkenberg did not have as good a race as his teammate and was stuck with 15th. Logan Sargeant was happy to be back in Miami for his home GP but he finished plum last and a lap down while Albon took P14. Bottas’ tyre strategy didn’t pay out in the end for him as he fell back into 13th and Zhou finished behind Hulkenberg in 16th.
We now take a one week break before we head to Imola for the first of a trio of European races. Stay tuned for more content on the blog and follow our social media for updates.
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