An easy victory, but… painful. Max Verstappen dominated the 19 laps of the Sprint race Miami, but he was not at all satisfied with the performance of his Red Bull-Honda. Little grip at the rear, difficulty in making the most of his RB20, these are the difficulties encountered by Verstappen who is now considering whether to ask his engineer to intervene on the car in view of qualifying for the Grand Prix which will be held in a few hours.
However, Verstappen controlled the Sprint well. At the start, Charles Leclerc finished, having an excellent sprint from second place, then keeping the Ferrari driver still a couple of seconds behind, then winning with a 3.3″ lead. Leclerc did well, and didn’t let himself slip away. the second place finish.
In part, help came from a wild Daniel Ricciardo with Racing Bulls-Honda. The Australian, in a state of grace this weekend, immediately overtook Sergio Perez from fourth and this was a significant “hindrance” for the Mexican because it made him waste time. Perez got rid of Ricciardo on the fifth lap, but by now Leclerc had accumulated a good number of seconds and thus managed to avoid a comeback from the Mexican.
Red Bull first and third, not bad at all. Ferrari second and fifth. Carlos Sainz tried several times to overtake Ricciardo from the sixth lap onwards, but he never found the right starting point. And so, Racing Bulls was able to celebrate an incredible fourth position. To this, we also add Yuki Tsunoda’s eighth place which completes the good day for the Faenza-based team.
McLaren-Mercedes achieved sixth place with Oscar Piastri, again behind Sainz. Lando Norris, ninth at the start, was immediately eliminated by Lance Stroll at the first corner. It wasn’t the Canadian’s fault, but Fernando Alonso’s. A nice omelette for Aston Martin. The Spaniard left a gap inside which Lewis Hamilton threw himself into. Alonso then went wide hitting Stroll on his left who in turn ended up against Norris. Lando and Lance had to retreat.
Points for Haas-Ferrari thanks to a solid Nico Hulkenberg as always. The German finished seventh helped by an extremely incorrect Kevin Magnussen, his teammate, who was rightly penalized and thus dropped to the bottom of the standings. The Dane exaggerated in trying to keep Hamilton behind him to allow Hulkenberg to gain ground. It’s not the first time that Magnussen gets his hands “dirty” to help his teammate, but if he goes beyond what is permitted, the game becomes unpleasant as well as dangerous. Kevin admitted that he exaggerated, it would be interesting to find out if the “advice” to behave in that absurd way came from the Haas pit wall.
Hamilton then finished in eighth place, taking the final point with a nice overtaking on Tsunoda in the final corners, but was penalized 20″ for having kept excessive speed in the pit lane. For the accident between Norris and Stroll, the drivers were let through the pit lane to avoid debris at the first corner and that’s when Hamilton made his mistake.
Saturday 4 May 2024, sprint race
1 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull-Honda) – 19 giri
2 – Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 3″371
3 – Sergio Perez (Red Bull-Honda) – 5″095
4 – Daniel Ricciardo (Racing Bulls-Honda) – 14″971
5 – Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) – 15″222
6 – Oscar Piastri (McLaren-Mercedes) – 15″750
7 – Nico Hulkenberg (Haas-Ferrari) – 22″054
8 – Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls-Honda) – 29″816
9 – Pierre Gasly (Alpine-Renault) – 31″880
10 – Logan Sargeant (Williams-Mercedes) – 34″355
11 – Guan Yu Zhou (Sauber-Ferrari) – 35″078
12 – George Russell (Mercedes) – 35″755
13 – Alexander Albon (Williams-Mercedes) – 36″086
14 – Valtteri Bottas (Sauber-Ferrari) – 36″892
15 – Esteban Ocon (Alpine-Renault) – 37″740
16 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 49″347 *
17 – Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin-Mercedes) – 59″409
18 – Kevin Magnussen (Haas-Ferrari) – 1″06″303 **
* Penalized 20″
** Penalized 30″
Retreat
Lance Stroll
Lando Norris
INSIGHTS
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1970-01-01 00:00:00
#Verstappen #precedes #Leclercs #Ferrari #great #performance #Ricciardo
