An excellent drive by Max Verstappen, a great comeback by Lewis Hamilton, another disappointing race for Ferrari, back in the points for both Alpine's and McLaren are back towards the rear of the field.
Max Verstappen achieves back-to-back Miami wins
After a disappointing qualifying for Verstappen where he qualified P9 after he was unable to complete a competitive lap in Q3 before Leclerc ended the session as he found himself crashing his Ferrari at the same corner he crashed at in FP2. Verstappen had therefore given himself a challenge to win the Miami Grand Prix from P9. No one had won from P9 on the grid since Niki Lauda in 1984.
Verstappen's race got off to a bad start as the Dutchman dropped to P10 after the opening few corners of the race but by the end of lap 2(out of 57), Max was up to P8. On lap 4, Verstappen made a sensational overtake on both Kevin Magnussen and Charles Leclerc as he went past both at turn 1 and was then up into P6.
By lap 15, Verstappen was up into P2 and only a few seconds behind his teammate Sergio Perez on an alternative strategy. Perez and Verstappen were trading fastest lap for almost every lap until Perez pitted on lap 22 where they continued both setting fastest laps. When Verstappen eventually pitted on lap 44, he was just 1.7 seconds behind his teammate on fresher medium tyres and by lap 48, Max took the lead over his teammate on aging hard tyres. Verstappen extended his lead to win comfortably from his P9 grid start and also won driver of the day.
A Good Day for Mercedes
After having an awful qualifying, Hamilton found himself down in P13 whereas his teammate George Russell qualified P6. Hamilton struggled on the opening lap of the race as he came on the team radio asking the team to check the front wing and even saying he didn't think he'd last the race! After being reassured by his team, Hamilton drove forward on his alternate strategy after starting on the hard tyre. Hamilton found himself P8 with just a few laps to go and Magnussen and Leclerc weren't too far up the road. In the closing laps, Lewis overtook them both to finish an amazing comeback drive to finish P6 with Russell finishing P4.
Another Disappointing Day for Ferrari
Charles Leclerc didn't have the best weekend after crashing at the same corner twice in FP2 and Q3. Sainz on the other hand did have a good qualifying as he qualified on the second row in third alongside the Haas of Kevin Magnussen. Sainz retained fourth for a while but when he pitted, he sped in the pit-lane resulting in him getting a 5 second penalty. He was also overtaken for fourth in the closing laps by Russell. P5 for Sainz wasn't a 'disaster' but Leclerc found himself battling with the Haas of Magnussen for most of the race which is not who Ferrari expected to be fighting I'm sure. Leclerc finished P7 in the end behind Hamilton.
Grand Prix Rating: 6/10
DRIVER OF THE DAY: MAX VERSTAPPEN
MY DRIVER OF THE DAY: LEWIS HAMILTON