Max Verstappen shrugged off a disappointing qualifying to storm his way back to the front of the field despite a long first stint on hard tyres, to clinch victory in the 2023 Miami Grand Prix over Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez.
Fernando Alonso resumed his now-traditional run of third place finishes for Aston Martin ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell, with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz incurring a pit lane speeding penalty on his way to finishing fifth.
Lewis Hamilton pulled off a late pass on Charles Leclerc as the second Ferrari toiled to seventh ahead of Alpine pair Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, with no retirements or safety cars during the 57-lap race.
The drivers were keen to get the first of this year's three United States-based Grands Prix underway, with the cars lining up in hot but breezy conditions at Miami International Autodrome. After overnight rain, there was a threat of further heavy showers hanging over the grid as the drivers took up their starting positions. The top seven - including pole sitter Sergio Perez and fellow front row man Fernando Alonso - had opted to start on the medium tyres, but key figures starting further back after problems in qualifying - such as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton - had decided to run a long first stint on the hard compound.
When the lights went out, Perez got a good start and swiped across Alonso as a pre-emptive move to stop the Aston Martin making a move into turn 1. Carlos Sainz held on to third place with Pierre Gasly up to fourth ahead of George Russell, and Kevin Magnussen dropping to sixth ahead of Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas. Verstappen was still in ninth despite his hard tyre selection, having got the jump on the similarly shod Alpine of Esteban Ocon, and they were followed by Nico Hulkenberg, Alex Albon and Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes man had been squeezed into a three-wide sandwich at the start, and made light contact with the Haas ahead. Behind him, Oscar Piastri had got a flier off the back row to put the MCL60 into 14th having started on the softs, but his McLaren team mate Lando Norris had been rear-ended at the start by AlphaTauri's Nyck de Vries and run wide, costing him multiple positions.
Three laps in and Perez had already broken clear of DRS range of Alonso with Sainz dropping a further second behind the pair, while Magnussen and Leclerc were having a fierce battle over sixth place. Verstappen had already made easy work of Bottas to move into eighth place and then quickly picked off Magnussen to put himself into an ideal position to inject himself into the Leclerc/Magnussen battle ahead of him. The Ferrari came out worst as Verstappen used DRS to sail past them both and pick up sixth.
Logan Sargeant was into pit lane on lap 3 for a new front wing on the Williams after sustaining damage in the opening laps, dropping him to the back of the field. Also making early visits to pit lane were Piastri and Lando Norris to ditch the soft tyres that once again for the second race in succession were simply failing to work.
Verstappen's next victim was Russell, and the Mercedes was no match for the vastly superior straight line speed of the Red Bull. With Russel struggling for rear grip and reporting "big vibration on the brakes", Verstappen made his move on lap 8 and within a lap was successfully dispatching former team mate Gasly in turn 17 to put himself into fourth place. Russell had managed to hold on to the back of the Bull, and now seized the opportunity to pounce on Gasly.
Aware now that Verstappen was romping his way to the front, Perez finally picked up the pace and set a new fastest lap of the race on lap 11, but he was still less than three seconds clear of Alonso. Sainz was struggling for front grip allowing Verstappen to get closer by the second, having now ditched Russell and Gasly with contemptuous ease. Magnussen had his hands full defending seventh from a combative Leclerc, with Ocon and Bottas still within attack range behind the Ferrari as a DRS train started to develop that caught up Hulkenberg, Albon, Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Lance Stroll.
Sainz was dispatched by Verstappen in turn 11 on lap 14, just before Magnussen bailed out of his battle with Leclerc to pit for hard tyres to go the rest of the 57-lap race distance. It dropped him all the way back to 16th ahead of de Vries, Norris, Piastri, and Sargeant. More of those cars that had started on the mediums chose this moment to pit as well, but Verstappen didn't need to wait for Alonso to clear the field before he flashed past the Aston into turn 11 on lap 15, a spot that was proving to be a happy hunting ground for him this afternoon.
Hamilton had finally managed to pass Albon and was now trying to find the pace to get ahead of Hulkenberg, who was up to eighth thanks to more cars ahead pitting. Sainz was next to peel off from his attack on Alonso to pit on lap 19, coming back out in seventh which put him just behind Hamilton; the Ferrari wasted no time in clinically picking off the Mercedes into turn 1. However in his haste, Sainz locked up coming into pit lane while trying to scrub off excess velocity, and he hadn't done enough - he was handed a five second penalty for speeding in pit lane.
Russell had also pitted, and on lap 20 it was time for race leader Sergio Perez to come in for hards and surrender control of the race to his team mate. Verstappen was in no hurry to change from his starter set of tyres as he established a four second lead over Alonso, with Perez slotting back into third ahead of Ocon, Sainz, Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Stroll and Russell. The Mercedes driver was now concerned about front wing damage on his W14 but was still able to press Stroll hard, picking off the Canadian on lap 24. Alonso finally came in for his pit stop on lap 25 and came back out in fifth to tuck in behind Sainz.
Verstappen's thoughts were turning to race strategy to ensure that Perez wasn't able to take back control of the race when he eventually pitted and switched to the mediums, a prospect that Perez clearly didn't relish. However Verstappen's comments were rebuffed by his race engineer, who told him to concentrate on driving. For now his advantage over Perez was 16s - still not quite enough to make his pit stop and retain the lead. Also yet to stop was Ocon in third, while Alonso had found it surprisingly easy to pass Sainz for fourth place.
The two Mercedes drivers were on different strategies with Hamilton sixth from Russell, followed by Hulkenberg, Tsunoda and Gasly, with Stroll dropping out of the top ten and under pressure from Magnussen. Behind them both was Leclerc, the Ferrari having made disappointing progress, and even Sainz was struggling since the switch to hards.
Moving passed the halfway point of the race, Verstappen's margin over Perez was being steadily trimmed, at one point by almost a second per lap, while Ocon was losing places in quick succession to Alonso and Sainz. Similarly Hamilton was being asked not to hold up Russell on fresher tyres and duly obliged, but not without an edge to his reply. It all suggested that the drivers who had started on the hard compound were getting close to end of life status, and needed to make their stops to switch to the mediums. But Verstappen seemed to have things under control and soon found a second wind, stabilising the gap and even pulling out a few tenths once more, determined to create a suitable gap to make his stop as late as possible in order to have an emphatic upper hand over Perez in the closing laps.
There was a ray of sunshine for Leclerc when he benefited from a mistake by Magnussen to take what was now tenth place; Magnussen battled back and retook the position, but the Ferrari was now in the ascendency and sealed the deal for a second time - this time permanently - next time by. Just as Hamilton was finally making his long-delayed pit stop to undercut Ocon, Russell was able to pass Sainz for fourth, singing "That's how we rolllllll!" as he set his sights on Alonso for the final podium position.
Still to pit, Verstappen was continuing to stretch out his gap on Perez who was struggling despite his newer hard tyres. Alonso was well behind the two Red Bulls with Russell giving chase followed by Sainz, Gasly, Stroll, Leclerc, Magnussen and Hamilton who by now had managed to move ahead of Ocon and Bottas. Verstappen finally pulled the pin on his tyre gambit on lap 46; however the pit stop wasn't the swiftest we've seen from the Red Bull crew and he just missed out on retaining the lead, coming back out on track just outside of DRS range of Perez.
It hardly made any difference: now on the faster fresh medium tyres, it didn't matter what defence Perez threw up. Verstappen ripped up Perez' lead and then blasted his way past down the main straight at the start of lap 48. That was the end of the matter as far as the lead was concerned. Alonso was looking increasingly secure in third ahead of Russell who had dropped Sainz. However Gasly suffered a late lock-up allowing Leclerc and Hamilton to sail past on lap 53, and Hamilton then emphatically found his way past the Ferrari through turn 11 on the next lap to secure sixth.
Now that everyone had completed their scheduled pit stops, Ocon and Magnussen rounded out the top ten with Tsunoda just missing out on the points. Stroll made a successful late move on Bottas for 12th, having already earning approval from Alonso over the Aston team radio by picking off Albon for 12th; however he wasn't able to pull off a last lap pass on Tsunoda. Hulkenberg had taken opportunity of the same move to also jump the Williams, only to fall back behind the Williams in the final minutes. The bottom five consisted of Zhou, Norris, de Vries, Piastri and Sargeant, with all 20 cars making it to the finish and remarkably no retirements or safety cars in this year's race.
With Verstappen also securing the bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the race, the reigning world champion now has a 14 point lead in the standings over Perez, with Alonso and Hamilton already some way back. In the constructors battle, Red Bull now have 224 points compared to 102 for Aston Martin and 96 for Mercedes.
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