MIAMI – Red Bull‘S Max Verstappen picked up another win this season at Miami grand openingThis Saturday afternoon’s sprint race. His teammate Sergio Perez claimed third place, while Charles Leclerc held on and finished in second place.
The big story of the Sprint, however, was Daniel Ricciardo, who finished strongly in fourth place, holding off Carlos Sainz for the entire race. Sainz gave Ricciardo a thumbs up shortly after crossing the finish line, showing appreciation for the clean, comprehensive battle they had over the course of those quick 19 laps. There were a number of times it looked like Sainz had a chance to make a move, but Ricciardo managed to keep him at bay even without the benefit of DRS for much of the race.
Lewis Hamilton is fighting its own battle for the final points-paying position of eighth in the Sprint. It started with a challenging battle between him and Kevin Magnussen. Haas was given a 10-second penalty for corner cutting and was given an additional credit for violating track limits. During their fight, Yuki Tsunoda managed to sneak past both of them before Hamilton regrouped and passed Tsunoda on the final lap. Unfortunately for Hamilton, it was all for naught as he was given the pit lane skirunning penalty, adding 20 seconds of extra time to his result. That put Tsunoda in position for the final point, giving him a single point.
Hamilton’s acceleration in the pit lane also did not give him an advantage, because the entire grid had run over after a first-lap incident that took Lando Norris out of the race. The McLaren The driver’s bad luck was the reason Hamilton entered the corner a bit too hot in the first corner, forcing Fernando Alonso into his teammate Lance Stroll and eventually causing Stroll to clip Norris’s rear wheel. This was Norris’ second consecutive disappointing result after a less-than-stellar ninth place Sprint qualifying results. His teammate Oscar Piastri claimed sixth place after being stuck behind Ricciardo and Sainz for the entire race.
The first Sprint in Miami brought a lot of close racing, but there wasn’t a lot of passing or jockeying for position like we’ve seen in previous Sprints. The teams will compete again this afternoon to qualify for Sunday’s main event, the tournament Miami Grand Prix.
