Despite starting from position nine on the grid, Max Verstappen made his way to victory at the Miami Grand Prix of F1 in 2023. Due to a mistake by Verstappen in qualifying, pole-sitter Perez had the opportunity to win, which would have given him the championship lead. However, the Dutchman delivered an electrifying drive to win by five seconds and increase his lead to 14 points.
Perez had cut Verstappen’s lead in the championship to just six points with a Sprint and Grand Prix double in Azerbaijan last time out, and a wild qualifying session at the Miami International Autodrome gave him a great chance to overtake Verstappen.
Max Verstappen made a mistake on his first flying lap, putting him in P9. The Dutchman, though, performed a masterful display in Miami, tearing through the field on his Red Bull RB19. The two-time world champion made the most of his form throughout the course of the weekend and outperformed his teammate, Sergio Perez.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished in positions P6 and P4, respectively, as Mercedes surprised many with their surprising level of speed in the main race compared to qualifying. In contrast, the Ferrari drivers struggled in Miami as a result of their tyre degradation issues.
Fernando Alonso placed third overall and will frequently be found standing on the podium in 2023. The Spaniard avoided Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and finished the race alone under Miami’s cloudy sky.
“It was a good race. I stayed out of trouble at the beginning and then just had a clean race, picking the cars off one by one. Then I could stay out really long on the hard tyres, and that’s where I think we made the difference today,” race winner Verstappen stated.