Verstappen Resists Late Leclerc Charge For Miami Win
Calum Gill 22:48 08/05/2022
Max Verstappen emerged victorious from Formula 1’s inaugural Miami Grand Prix after surviving a late safety car that allowed points leader Charles Leclerc to pressure him.
Verstappen had dominated the race prior to a late-race safety car that was triggered by a collision between Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris. But when the race restarted, Leclerc was right on the back of Verstappen and when DRS was enabled, it appeared Leclerc might have an opportunity to overhaul him. However, Verstappen fended off his advances and broke clear in the final laps to secure his third F1 victory of the 2022 season and cut Leclerc’s championship lead to 19 points. Poleman Leclerc had held the lead at the start while Verstappen passed Leclerc’s Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz to move into second place and set about chasing down Leclerc.
It only took nine laps for Verstappen to make his move, with the Red Bull driver slipping past Leclerc into Turn 1 to seize the race lead. Thereafter Verstappen built a comfortable margin, pumping in several fastest laps to extend his gap to around eight seconds, until Gasly - recovering from a whack from an overzealous Fernando Alonso into Turn 1 - ran wide through Turn 8 and collided with the McLaren of Norris on the exit. Norris was spent spinning across the track and into retirement. The debris from his car inevitably required a safety car that set up a last 11-lap shootout. Alonso was handed a five-second penalty for his contact with Gasly, while the AlphaTauri driver, who was unaware Norris was on his left, was forced to retire before the safety car restart.
On the restart, Verstappen held off Leclerc while Sainz was able to repel Sergio Pérez’s advances to take the final space on the podium. Pérez had to battle power issues throughout the race and did briefly pass Sainz into Turn 1 with five laps left, but ran too deep and had to concede the place. George Russell claimed fifth for Mercedes from 12th on the grid. He ran a long first stint on the hard tyres, opting to wait for a safety car which Gasly and Norris provided. Russell restarted in seventh place and an error from Valtteri Bottas allowed Russell and his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to pass him. Russell had to pass Hamilton twice as his first overtake was deemed to be off-track.
He took fifth place ahead of Hamilton, Bottas and the Alpine of Esteban Ocon who stormed from the pitlane to eighth place. Ocon was promoted ahead of his team-mate Alonso who dropped to ninth after his five-second penalty. He’ll also face a post-race investigation for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. Alex Albon earned his second points finish of the season for Williams by completing the top 10. Mick Schumacher blew a golden opportunity to earn his maiden F1 points finish as he slammed into the side of his mentor Sebastian Vettel into Turn 1, having run eighth. The contact ended Vettel’s race after he had charged from the pitlane to the fringes of the top 10.
It wasn’t the only Haas-Aston Martin collision as Kevin Magnussen and another pitlane starter Lance Stroll collided in the closing stages. Guanyu Zhou’s race ended after just seven laps when Alfa Romeo called 2022’s sole rookie into the pits with a terminal issue.
