In the season standings, Alonso also is the lone occupant of the big gap between the Red Bulls – Verstappen 119, Pérez 105, Alonso 75, Hamilton 56. Then it’s Sainz 44, Russell 40, Leclerc 34.
Will Pérez be able to regroup and challenge his teammate? Will Mercedes give Hamilton a chance to at least become a regular podium finisher and challenge Alonso for third? I’m going to guess “no” and “maybe,” but we have a long way to go to find out.
Thanks for riding along with us today, here’s Giles Richards’ full report for your reading pleasure:
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The crowd gives Pérez a nice roar as he steps up for his runner-up interview, lamenting tire strategy a bit.
Alonso is in great spirits, saying it was a lonely race today in between the Red Bulls and everyone else.
Final standings
1 Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Pérez (Red Bull)
3 Alonso (Aston Martin)
4 Russell (Mercedes)
5 Sainz (Ferrari)
6 Hamilton (Mercedes)
7 Leclerc (Ferrari)
8 Gasly (Alpine)
9 Ocon (Alpine)
10 Magnussen (Haas)
11 Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
12 Stroll (Aston Martin)
13 Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
14 Albon (Williams)
15 Hulkenberg (Haas)
16 Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
17 Norris (McLaren)
18 De Vries (AlphaTauri)
19 Piastri (McLaren)
20 Sargeant (Williams)
Verstappen made the biggest improvement, of course, going from ninth to first. Second-best was Hamilton, up seven places. Tsunoda and Stroll both moved up six but couldn’t break into the points, while Magnussen barely managed to hang on.
Max Verstappen wins the Miami GP
The two-time defending champion made winning out of ninth position look easy. There’s no question Red Bull has the fastest cars out there, but that’s also a flawless drive.
Pérez finishes 5.384 seconds back.
Updated
Lap 57/57: And something dramatic happens! Just kidding. Verstappen posted the fastest lap just for fun, breaking the 1:30 mark.
Lap 56/57: “What’s the quickest time?” Hamilton asks. “Can I get it?”
Signs point to no. His last lap was a full second behind. But he does have clean air ahead, with Sainz more than 14 seconds ahead.
Lap 55/57: And Hamilton is now past Leclerc, zipping through a tiny gap between Leclerc and the curb.
Not a bad drive from Hamilton today. And for all the talk that this track didn’t lend itself to overtaking, we’ve seen quite a bit of it today. Most of it by our leader, Max Verstappen.
Lap 54/57: Hamilton dives inside of Gasly and moves into seventh. He’s within DRS range of Leclerc.
Lap 52/57: We’re seeing some shuffling just outside the points right now, with Bottas and Stroll coming close together. Tsunoda is also in the mix here. They’re all trying to reel in Magnussen, who started fourth and is now trying to get the American team Haas at least a point here.
Oh, Verstappen just posted the fastest lap.
Lap 51/57: Hamilton has an outside shot at fifth here. He’s on medium tires and should be able to zip past Gasly and Leclerc. He won’t catch Sainz, but could he get within five seconds so that the penalty comes into play?
Lap 49/57: Alex Albon and Lance Stroll are battling for 13th, and the fact that we’re getting a long look at this on TV gives you an idea of the scant drama remaining now.
Pérez will finish second. Alonso will take a nice podium place. Russell is fourth. Sainz will hold fifth despite his unserved 5sec penalty.
Maybe we’ll get some battles for sixth between Gasly, Leclerc and Hamilton.
Lap 48/57: Oh, and Verstappen just posted the fastest lap.
Lap 47/57: It’s over.
Verstappen is almost immediately on Pérez’s tail. The Mexican driver defense valiantly through several corners, but Verstappen is simply faster, and there’s nothing he can do.
Death, taxes and Max Verstappen. Started ninth and now almost certain to win.
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Lap 46/57: Yes, I’m a bit surprised that Hamilton couldn’t do what Hulkenberg and Stroll did, posting the fastest lap on new medium tires.
Verstappen pits! It was 3.1 seconds, so slightly slower than Pérez.
Pérez has the lead now by 1.5 seconds, but Verstappen has a distinct tire advantage. If Hulkenberg and Stroll can post the fastest lap on new tires, imagine what Verstappen can do in one of these Red Bull vehicles.
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Lap 45/57: Pérez posts fastest lap! He’s not done yet! He races around the track in 1:30.897.
And right away, Lance Stroll, of all people, takes the fastest lap: 1:30.862.
Updated
Lap 44/57: With all but one driver having pitted once, let’s check those standings …
Verstappen
Pérez +18.5
Alonso +33.3
Russell +41.1
Sainz +43.7 (+5sec penalty)
Gasly +53.2
Leclerc +56
Magnussen +60.6
Hamilton +62.3
Ocon +63.6
Updated
Lap 43/57: My fearless prediction has not come to pass.
Stroll pits. Verstappen is now the only driver still on his first set of tires.
Lap 42/57: Everything is coming up Verstappen now. He has stretched his lead to more than 18 seconds. If he were to pit now, he’d come out a little bit behind Pérez, but he’d be on fresh medium tires while Pérez nurses the hard tires he has had for 21 laps.
Updated
Lap 41/57: Fearless prediction – Hamilton, now on the medium tires and with some space in front of him, will post the fastest lap in the next 2-3 laps.
Lap 40/57: Stroll and Ocon, like Verstappen, have yet to pit. When they do, they’ll drop behind Hamilton, who will therefore get into the top 10. Hamilton doesn’t want to wait, and he’s aggressively getting past former teammate Bottas.
Lap 39/57: After all that, Lewis Hamilton emerges from pit road exactly one place ahead of where he started. He’s 12th. He’ll have a shot at the points on medium tires, which helped Hulkenberg post the fastest lap a short while ago.
And as the TV commentators have noted, Verstappen will be able to pop in for medium tires pretty soon.
Lap 38/57: George Russell passes Sainz the hard way, snaking his way through one of the more difficult sections of the track and emerging in fourth.
Lewis Hamilton pits at last. We’ll see if he’s in the top 10 when he returns.
Lap 36/57: Fastest lap to Pérez! That’s 1:31.192 … and now he loses the lead in that competition to Hulkenberg, oddly enough. But more importantly, Verstappen simply isn’t getting away.
Lap 35/57: Verstappen again posts a blazing lap of 1:31.225, but Perez responds with 1:31.326 to remain within 16 seconds. A Verstappen pit stop would still give Pérez the lead. So can Pérez stay out until he sees the checkered flag?
(Or “chequered,” or however some would prefer to see it spelled?)
Lap 34/57: Verstappen laps Sargeant, whose debut on his home-state track will not yield any elusive F1 points.
Lap 33/57: On the 32nd lap on hard tires, Verstappen just posted the fastest lap. Go figure.
“The longer we can extend this, the better,” his race radio says.
Lap 32/57: The Mercedes radio crackles again with the team telling Hamilton that his teammate is just behind him, and we’re not racing him, we’re racing Ocon. Hamilton duly concedes his spot, probably wondering if he’ll ever pit.
Updated
Standings: Lap 31 of 57
Verstappen (not yet pitted)
Perez, 15.1secs back
Alonso, 27.4
Sainz (still has 5sec penalty), 28.8
Ocon (not yet pitted), 30
Hamilton (not yet pitted), 32
Russell, 33
Hulkenberg, 36.6
Tsunoda, 37
Gasly, 37.8
(margins approximate)
Updated
Lap 30/57: It’s windy. That’s all to report at the moment.
Lap 28/57: How goes Lewis Hamilton, you ask? The good news is that he’s in sixth place. The bad news is that he has not yet gone to the pits, and the drivers behind him are bunched up and drooling at the thought of taking his place.
Lap 27/57: Russell easily passes his way up to eighth, and Alonso blasts his way past Sainz.
Perez is chipping away at Verstappen’s lead. If Verstappen were to pit now, he’d likely emerge 10 seconds or so behind his teammates.
Lap 26/57: Lance Stroll asks his team for an update. The Canadian, whose McLaren team gambled on soft tires early, is seven places to 11th. His team reassures him that he’s doing well.
Lap 25/57: Verstappen gets on the radio again. His team tells him to shut up and drive. Not an exact quote, but it was quite direct.
Lap 24/57: In between the two Red Bulls likes one Fernando Alonso, the only driver still on medium tires. Oops, never mind, he just went into the pits. Red Bull 1-2. As usual.
Lap 23/57: Penalty for Sainz for speeding in the pit lane. That’ll be five seconds, please.
Perez has the fastest lap now and is only 17.5 seconds behind his teammate Verstappen. Red Bull does fast pit stops, but that won’t be enough time for Verstappen to keep the lead whenever he finally seeks out new tires.
Lap 22/57: “Upshifts are not that smooth,” Verstappen says over the radio. The 18 drivers not in a Red Bull car are surely breaking out their tiny violins in support.
Speaking of Red Bull, Perez neatly overtakes Ocon.
Lap 21/57: Perez pits; Verstappen leads.
But it’s a 2.2-second stop, so Perez won’t be too far back. He returns to the fray in fourth place behind Verstappen, Alonso and Ocon, none of whom have pitted. Alonso is giving the medium tires a nice long ride here.
Updated
Lap 20/57: Back up at the front, Verstappen is now with 1.5 seconds of Perez. Passing here might not seem like much, given that Perez will need to pit soon.
Lap 19/57: Sainz pits and doesn’t drop too far back. He comes out in seventh, and no one ahead of him has come in as yet. He could end up in very good shape here.
Lap 18/57: Pitting – Bottas, Leclerc, Gasley, Russell.
Now everyone’s on hard tires except Perez, Alonso, Sainz and Albon.
Hamilton has climbed up to seventh, though he has yet to visit the pits.
Lap 17/57: “My front right is starting to give up a bit,” Perez says over the radio. He’s on medium tyrires, so he’ll surely be in before Verstappen, giving the two-time defending champion at least a temporary lead.
Lap 16/57: Max Verstappen is, quite obviously, a fantastic driver. But the difference in machinery is so evident in the straightaways here. His car is making others look like traffic cones.
Pit stops are going to shake up the standings now.
Lap 15/57: Magnussen pits, continuing his plummet after a promising fourth-place position on the grid.
And … Verstappen passes Fernando Alonso.
Verstappen went from ninth to second … in 15 laps.
Lap 14/57: Verstappen is up to third.
The Red Bulls are running wild.
Updated
Lap 13/57: The radios are crackling with conversations about whether to come in for an early tyre/tire change. Verstappen is the one driver in the top eight on hard tyiyiyres, and he has just reclaimed the “fastest lap” crown for now.
Lap 11/57: Well, would you look at who just posted the fastest lap! It’s our leader, Pérez, and for all of Verstappen’s furious work behind him, there’s every indication that we will indeed see a change atop the standings today between the two Red Bulls.
Lap 10/57: Via email, Anne Williams asks me if it’s “tires” or “tyres.” I’m a relatively unsophisticated guy from the American South, so it’s the former.
Lap 9/57: Make that fourth. It’s too easy for Verstappen, who casually drives up alongside Gasly and turns ahead of him like me passing a 50-mph driver on the Capital Beltway.
Lap 8/57: Verstappen gets within DRS range of George Russell, and we get the familiar sight of a Red Bull car streaking past a Mercedes. The two-time defending champion and season leader is already up to fifth after starting ninth.
Lap 7/57: Piastri, who gained several places at the start, has also pitted.
Alonso, running a solid stop, indicates on the radio that he wants to come in early.
The top three are unchanged from the start, Gasly has inherited fourth after Magnussen’s weak start, and Russell is trying to hold fifth against the hard-charging Verstappen, who has the fastest lap thus far.
Lap 6/57: Hamilton is a bit agitated on the radio. Something doesn’t seem quite right.
Lando Norris has joined his fellow North American in taking an early pit stop. Not sure of the reason, but it’s a quick one.
Lap 5/57: A replay of the start from Lewis Hamilton’s perspective shows a couple of cars drifting toward each other to cut off his path. He reports to his team that he hit someone, but the response on the radio is that everything’s fine.
Lap 4/57: “Hi! We’re battling for sixth place against each other!”
“What fun! Let’s go for it!”
“Hey, who’s that guy?”
zoom …
Max Verstappen whips past two drivers into sixth place. Already up three places.
Sargeant, meanwhile, has apologized to his team on the radio for whatever brought him into the pit early.
Lap 2/57: Miami-area native Logan Sargeant is already in the pit, and it’s a long stop of nearly 30 seconds.
Lap 1/57: Verstappen is playing the long game, opting for hard tires, but he’s already up one place to eighth.
Lights out!
Pérez holds his position well! Magnussen drops immediately from fourth to seventh, and Piastri has leapt from 19th to 14th. De Vries is the biggest loser of the start, though, getting in a bit of a scrape and dropping to last place.
Other than that, it’s a clean start, and all of the big names are away with little fuss.
Updated
Conditions
79 degrees, which in Celsius is “warm.” It’s also windy. But we don’t see much of a threat of rain.
The top seven are on medium tires. Then it’s mostly hard tires except for the McLarens in 16th and 19th, who’ve gone soft.
Formation lap now … the next post will be the start …
The grid
1 Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) - the Mexican driver is only six points behind his Red Bull teammate Verstappen in the season standings. The points system goes 25-18-15-12-10, plus one point for the fastest lap, so a win would guarantee him at least a tie for first on the season so far.
2 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) - the champion in 2005 and 2006, rarely a podium contender in the past seven years, hasn’t finished outside the top four this season
3 Carlo Sainz (Ferrari) - the Spanish driver was third in Miami last year behind Verstappen and Leclerc
4 Kevin Magnussen (Haas) - the Danish driver gives the American team an unusually high placement on the grid
5 Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
6 George Russell (Mercedes)
7 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - can he shake off the qualifying mishap yesterday?
8 Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
9 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - how many people can he overtake?
10 Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
11 Alexander Albon (Williams)
12 Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
13 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - when will the frustration end?
14 Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
15 Nyck De Vries (AlphaTauri)
16 Lando Norris (McLaren)
17 Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
18 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) - more North American representation (Canada) on the grid
19 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
20 Logan Sargeant (Williams) - the hometown hero is still very much a newcomer at this level
The track
Celebrity spotting
Miami is a rather glitzy city, even by F1 standards, and the Sky Sports crew (whose feed is picked up by ESPN here in a country that is awakening to F1, perhaps at the expense of the more provincial NASCAR and IndyCar series), and the task of everyone with a camera today will be to find famous people.
So far, we’ve seen Roger Federer, Timbaland, will.i.am, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Cruise and LL Cool J.
Also, Danica Patrick is on the Sky broadcast team.
And Sky has just chatted with Paolo Banchero. He was the near-unanimous NBA Rookie of the Year, but more importantly, he played for my alma mater in college.
(Update: It appears Serena Williams doesn’t have time to chat with Sky Sports, and F1 legend Jackie Stewart is leaning through a security detail to try to get Roger Federer’s attention. After a struggle, Federer has graciously come over to talk for a second before the driver announcements, which will feature LL Cool J and a small orchestra.)
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How did Pérez end up with this opportunity?
Rewind one week to a big win in Baku …
Then yesterday, Verstappen got caught out when a Charles Leclerc crash brought qualifying to a premature end before the two-time defending champion could take his last shot at improving his time.
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Preamble
If you’re looking for coronations that unfold at a languid pace, you may need to be satisfied with yesterday’s proceedings at Westminster Abbey.
Max Verstappen, who followed up his controversial 2021 championship with a dominant 2022 run, no longer seems to be the sure bet to complete his hat trick and continue what’s likely to be a career-long procession toward the record of seven season championships, currently held by Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton.
Among constructors, the changing of the guard is truly complete, and that explains why Verstappen’s likeliest usurper is his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Pérez, who won last week in Azerbaijan and sits on the pole for today’s race around Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, usually the home of the Miami Dolphins but refashioned today as the central hospitality area for the globetrotting road show of Formula 1. See this video to get a tour of all the spectator areas.
While Pérez gets his shot at leading the whole way on a track not known for easy passes, Verstappen must work his way up from ninth.
Could be worse. Hamilton starts 13th, waiting impatiently for his Mercedes team to get him a more competitive set of wheels.
Lights out: 3:30pm local, 8:30pm BST, 5:30 am AEST
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how the weekend so far has unfolded:
Max Verstappen faces the toughest test of his season after being punished for a mistake in qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix. The race desperately wants some fireworks to go with the grand spectacle it is so determined to present and Red Bull’s world champion must now very much light the blue touch paper in Florida.
With his teammate Sergio Pérez taking pole and Verstappen managing only ninth, the Dutchman’s slender championship lead of six points over the Mexican is under genuine threat on Sunday on a track where an inexorable march back to the front from the Dutchman is far from guaranteed and where any errors will be punished even more harshly.
On form and on the back of a dominant world championship victory last year, Verstappen will not have expected to come under the cosh from Pérez so early in the season, yet at the Miami International Autodrome it was the world champion found wanting, while Pérez took advantage.
Though Verstappen was unlucky, too, he had to abort his first hot run in Q3, having gone wide after being untidy through turns four and five, putting him under pressure for the final quick laps, with Pérez having nailed his lap and holding provisional pole.
Verstappen needed a perfect run on his final shot but was denied it when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed out, overcooking it through six and seven and going into the barriers.
