Max Verstappen Wins Miami Grand Prix After Starting in Ninth Place

But the world champion made his way in a wonderful way and a completely successful strategy to snatch first place from his teammate, while Aston Martin’s Spanish driver, Fernando Alonso, came third, bringing the former world champion to the podium for the fourth time in five races this season.

Red Bull continued to dominate the championship, achieving its fourth double in five races this season and its fifth win (Verstappen won in Bahrain and Australia and Perez in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan).

Verstappen repeated what he achieved in the Saudi race when he started from fifteenth place due to a mechanical problem, and managed to finish the race in second place behind his teammate Perez.

“I passed cars one by one and then managed to stay long on the hard tyres, and I think I made the difference here,” said Verstappen. “Winning the race from ninth is definitely very satisfying.”

The 25-year-old Dutchman, with his thirty-eighth victory, raised his score to 119 points in the lead, 14 ahead of his colleague Perez, while Alonso ranks third with 75 points in front of former world champion Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (56), who finished the race sixth on Sunday, after starting from the sixteenth place. , behind his colleague and compatriot George Russell and the Spanish Ferrari driver Carlos Science, respectively.

Good start for Perez however
Perez retained his lead at the start, despite the attempts of Alonso, who found himself in a battle with his compatriot Science, while Verstappen was unable to gain positions on the opening lap, but he overtook Finn Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo-Ferrari) after a lap.

On the third lap out of 57, Danish Kevin Magnussen (Haas) succeeded in overtaking Leclerc to sixth place, but the latter responded quickly before Verstappen surprised him and caused confusion on his way, so he became sixth in the fourth lap, causing the Ferrari driver to retreat behind Magnussen.

At this time, Perez began to move away from Alonso, with the difference reaching just under a second and a half after five laps, while Verstappen was the fastest on the track, which entered him into a battle with Russell (Mercedes) for fifth place, and succeeded in overtaking him on the ninth lap and reached the Frenchman. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) also overtook him after just a lap, becoming fourth and all on the hard tyres, while his rivals started the race on the soft tyre.

And the world champion continued to record the fastest time on the track and tightened the screws on Science until he managed to grab third place on the 14th lap, then he reached Alonso and overtook him on the next lap and became second, nearly 4 seconds behind his teammate Perez.

Russell and Leclerc were the most prominent stops to replace the tires with the hard type on the 17th lap, then Science caught up with them on the next lap, at a time when the difference between the two Red Bulls became less than a second and a half with Perez suffering from his medium-soft tires, which led to his stopping on the 21st lap to replace them, leaving The lead for Verstappen.

And Science was subjected to a 5-second penalty as a result of his excessive speed in the pitlane, which increased the troubles of the Italian team, whose other driver, Leclerc, was retreating to the fourteenth place by the twenty-fifth lap.

Despite the passage of 33 laps without replacing his tires, Verstappen was the fastest on the track trying to widen the difference that separates him from his colleague before he stopped to use the medium-soft tires, at a time when Russell was able to overtake his colleague, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton (he did not even make his first stop then) and then Esteban Ocon (Albin) moved up to 5th behind the penalized Sainz by adding 5 seconds to his time after the race, and Alonso.

And he quickly removed Science from his way to fourth place, coinciding with Verstappen moving away more than 17 seconds from his colleague with 17 laps remaining, seeking to get out in front of him after replacing his tires.

But he was not very successful in his choice, as he came out behind his teammate after stopping on the 45th lap, but by a narrow margin, with the preference of the medium-soft tires.

The two colleagues entered into a heated battle until Verstappen managed to regain the lead on the 48th lap and maintain it until the end, achieving his third victory of the season and the thirty-eighth in his career.