Thanks to a wobble throughout his first run throughout Saturday’s third qualifying session, and a late purple flag attributable to a crash by Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen was pressured to begin ninth in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix.
No matter.
Verstappen picked his manner by the sector, rocketing to the entrance on a set of exhausting tyres. He moved into P2 by Lap 15, and when race chief Sergio Pérez got here into the pits on Lap 20, Verstappen pulled into the lead.
Thanks to his quickness on the monitor and pit stops from the remainder of the sector, Verstappen prolonged that lead over his teammate — and challenger atop the Drivers’ standings — Pérez. It can be sufficient, as Verstappen pulled away from his teammate, and the remainder of the sector, to win the second Miami Grand Prix.
That makes two wins in two probabilities for Verstappen, who gained final yr’s inaugural Miami Grand Prix.
Pérez completed second, because the Bulls completed 1-2 for the fourth time in 5 races this season. Fernando Alonso continued his spectacular begin to 2023 along with his fourth third place end — and fourth podium — of the marketing campaign.
To get a way of how spectacular Verstappen was on Sunday, at one level he posted the quickest lap of the race. It got here on Lap 35, as he was operating on 35-lap-old exhausting tyres.
Verstappen lastly got here into the pits on Lap 45 to make his necessary tyre change, but when something that solely strengthened his place. He was capable of change to the medium compound and, mixed with the decrease gas load at that stage of the race, made his RB19 even quicker.
If that may be believed.
He got here again onto the monitor behind Pérez, and simply 1.620 seconds behind his teammate. With simply over ten laps to go, Verstappen was on the assault. Red Bull versus Red Bull for the victory in Miami, and for the highest spot within the Drivers’ Championship.
Unfortunately for Pérez, he was on exhausting tyres that have been 25 laps outdated, and Verstappen was on the brand new mediums.
On Lap 48, Verstappen was again into first place. The two Red Bulls have been side-by-side at the beginning/end line by Turn 1, however ultimately, Verstappen’s capacity to search out extra grip on the circuit was sufficient, and Verstappen pulled into the lead.
Here’s a glance from Verstappen’s vantage level of the transfer on Pérez:
He completed the lap by setting a brand new quickest lap of the day.
As famous, the Red Bull duo completed 1-2 for the fourth time this season, and to get a taste for the way dominant the RB19 has been this yr, Alonso was over 20 seconds behind Pérez in third place.
Can one of many different groups discover a solution for the Bulls? We have been questioning that this whole younger season.
At the second, it appears like we is perhaps questioning that properly into 2024.