MIAMI – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took another victory this season at the Miami Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday afternoon. His teammate Sergio Perez managed to take third place, while Charles Leclerc held on and finished the race in second place.
The biggest story of the sprint, however, was Daniel Ricciardo, who took a forceful fourth place, holding off the charging Carlos Sainz throughout the race. Sainz gave Ricciardo a thumbs up immediately after crossing the finish line, showing his gratitude for the tidy, hard-fought fight they put up during those fast-paced 19 laps. Several times it looked like Sainz had a chance to make a move, but Ricciardo managed to hold him off even without using DRS for most of the race.
Lewis Hamilton was in his own battle for the final points-paying eighth place in the sprint. It started with a fierce fight between him and Kevin Magnussen. Haas was given a 10-second penalty for cutting the corner and was also penalized for violating track restrictions. As they battled, Yuki Tsunoda managed to sneak past them before Hamilton rallied and passed Tsunoda on the final lap. Unfortunately for Hamilton, it was all in vain as he received a pit lane speeding penalty, which meant 20 seconds of extra time added to his result. This placed Tsunoda in last place, gaining one point.
Hamilton’s excessive speed in the pit lane also did not give him an advantage, as the entire field passed after an incident on the first lap, which excluded Lando Norris from the race. The McLaren driver’s bad luck saw Hamilton enter the first corner a little too scorching, forcing Fernando Alonso to run over his teammate Lance Stroll and ultimately causing Stroll to clip into Norris’ rear wheel. This is the second disappointing result in a row for Norris, following a subpar result of finishing ninth in qualifying for the sprint race. His teammate Oscar Piastri salvaged sixth place after being stuck behind Ricciardo and Sainz throughout the race.
The first sprint in Miami saw a lot of close racing, but there wasn’t a lot of passing or jockeying for position like we’ve seen in previous sprints. The teams will take to the track again this afternoon to qualify for Sunday’s main event, the Miami Grand Prix.
