The battle for the top spots in the 2022 Miami Grand Prix looked likely to again be between Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull, with their four drivers taking the top four positions. Given their form this season, the Charles Leclerc vs Max Verstappen was of course the main focus ahead of the race, but Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez have also shown they could be close to their team-mates this weekend.
In terms of their cars, Scuderia Ferrari have been much faster through the corners but Red Bull on the straights. That’s also what we saw back in Jeddah – a similar street track to this one and on that day Red Bull was victorious.
As the cars were taking their places on the grid, the P10 spot of Lance Stroll and P13 of Sebastian Vettel were empty, as the team confirmed they would start from the pit lane due to an issue with the fuel. The drivers all made their way onto the starting grid and unsurprisingly, nobody opted for the soft tyres. Most were on the medium, including Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, with a handful further down the grid (Stroll, Russell, Vettel, Latifi and Ocon) on the hardest compound.
It was a great start from Charles Leclerc, who kept P1, but Max Verstappen did get ahead of Carlos Sainz around the outside of Turn 1! A brave move from Max, as the Ferrari one-two became a Ferrari one-three. Unfortunately, not long after getting DRS, Max Verstappen led the Miami GP after using his straight-line speed and diving up the inside of Turn 1! On lap 13 the Monegasque driver went very, very wide at Turn 17 and the gap to Max Verstappen was suddenly 2,6 seconds.
The Maranello team did not have any response to Red Bull’s speed, as the Dutchman was able to extend his lead, while Carlos Sainz came under pressure from Sergio Perez. However, after a few laps, the Mexican lost him crucial time: He was within a second of Carlos and he was then 6.9s behind due to a temporary power loss. After setting the fastest lap of the race, Charles Leclerc was called in by Ferrari: it was a 3.2s stop and he came out ahead of Bottas with 25 laps gone. Red Bull immediately responded by pitting Verstappen, who further extended his lead after a 2.4s stop.
It is then Carlos Sainz’s turn to head to the pit lane but it was a 5.4s stop for Ferrari after a problem with the front right wheel nut. Sergio Perez was therefore able to cut Carlos Sainz’s advantage to 5s due to that slow stop. There was a big crash for Lando Norris on lap 41: the Virtual Safety Car was deployed and this played right into George Russell’s hands, as the Mercedes driver was the only one not to pit. However, the full Safety Car was then deployed and so the field bunched together.
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Sadly, this has played beautifully into Sergio Perez’s hands: the top three decided to stay out on track while Perez pitted for fresh mediums. Just 0.5s between Charles and the Red Bull after the restart as the Ferrari driver was really hunting the win here! During the first five laps after the restart, the Monegasque was able to put Verstappen under pressure, constantly remaining in the DRS zone. However, in the last few laps, the Dutchman extended his hap to more than a second, which made it impossible to Charles to attempt a late move.
Sergio Perez took a chance to pass Carlos Sainz but he locked up on the brakes and the Ferrari was able to get back ahead. Despite having the faster tyre, Perez could not get past the Spanish driver, who scored a solid third place for the Maranello team.
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