Max Verstappen is a sniper: aware of Red Bull’s superiority on the straights he built a historic victory in the Miami GP. The Americans were able to discover what the talent of the world champion is: third at the start, the Dutchman forced Carlos Sainz at the first corner to follow Charles Leclerc, closing him. The Spaniard, in order not to collide with his teammate, had to lift his foot, immediately giving up the place of honor. And already on the first lap of the 57 scheduled, the challenge between the two contenders for the title began.
The Monegasque seemed to be in control of Red Bull until Ferrari’s front right began to suffer from graining on the medium compound. Charles was forced to reduce his pace after a long one and Verstappen slipped it on lap 9, showing the superiority of the RB18. From that moment Max was in control of the race, staging a beautiful battle with Charles for the fastest lap: the world champion took the additional point on lap 54 with a time of 1’31 “361, reducing to just 19 lengths the advantage that the Ferrari driver can still defend.
Verstappen repeats himself after the slap in Imola and collects his third success of the season, in the race in Florida that seemed to go in the direction of Ferrari, with two reds in the front row. The result, on the other hand, indicates that in Maranello they have to accelerate the development of the F1-75 because the Red Bull proved to be better than the Cavallino car not only in terms of speed at the speed trap, but also in the management of the tires, which, on paper, had to be the strong point of Maranello.
It was not so. Ferrari became too vulnerable in the melee: Leclerc didn’t do anything wrong, but he had to surrender to Max, paying a couple of tenths a lap. The bang on lap 40 between Lando Norris at full speed and Pierre Gasly with a recalcitrant AlphaTauri, already “torpedoed” previously by Fernando Alonso’s Alpine, forced a safety car that brought the group back together. The Frenchman could not dematerialize and Norris the very slow AT02 was found in a dangerous point.
Leclerc asked the wall if he could make a pit stop, but the team ordered him to stay out because he wouldn’t have a new medium train available. And, then, the scenarios did not change with the restart of lap 46. Max did not take long to get his RB18 out of the risk of an attack with the DRS and Leclerc had to settle for a place of honor. It is not a defeat, even if it burns a lot. Red Bull is superior and Charles had to make up his mind.
Ferrari put two cars on the podium, but Red Bull in the Constructors’ championship is only six points behind the Cavallino. Carlos Sainz with the third place removes a boulder from his back: he finally managed to finish a race again and did so by countering the comeback of Sergio Perez who mounted a train of new mediums in the safety car.
The Spaniard seemed destined to succumb and, instead, Carlos was able to close the door to the Mexican until the compound advantage was zero. The podium is well deserved and allows Sainz to turn the page after three crashes in the last three weekends (the last in free practice on Friday).
The Cavallino team is fighting for the titles, but must quickly churn out updates in Barcelona because now the RB18 is certainly the reference car. The battle of the developments could be decisive in the beautiful challenge between the two pilots.
Mercedes confirmed third strength with George Russell fifth, ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The Englishman has twice stripped the seven-time world champion: George has risen from the middle of the group choosing the hard tires. He waited for the safety car to make the pit stop and his stop was halved just like that of Esteban Ocon who, starting last, finished eighth after a good comeback.
As had happened in Bahrain, Hamilton was overtaken by Russell to help neutralize the race, but there is no doubt that the younger teammate proved to be faster than Lewis. It’s now a fact: he doesn’t like the W13 and it shows.
Valtteri Bottas is seventh with Alfa Romeo: he went to kiss the wall while he was checking the two Mercedes in battle behind him and lost two positions in one fell swoop. It is a pity, but the Finn continues to bring valuable points to the Hinwil team.
Ocon has taken away the pleasure of preceding Fernando Alonso: the Asturian has taken a penalty of 5 seconds for having rammed Pierre Gasly. The provision was right, while Esteban with a new chassis made a very good comeback with the Alpine.
The points zone is completed by Alexander Albon’s Williams. The Anglo-Thai driver was able to benefit from the contact between Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. The Kaiser’s son has exaggerated with the Haas ruining his race and that of his compatriot. Aston Martin could return to the points after the two AMR22s started from the pit lane due to a fuel temperature problem.
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