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F1 to 10: Max Verstappen fights to second as a surprise victory rocks Miami
Facing a late safety car, Verstappen showed grit in the battle to second place for Oracle Red Bull Racing. Here’s your Miami Grand Prix 10-point recap from Round 6.
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1. Miami in exactly 75 words*
Max Verstappen’s quest for a third consecutive Miami Grand Prix victory was undone by an ill-timed safety car, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s reigning world champion losing the lead to McLaren’s Lando Norris and finishing second on Formula One’s annual visit to Florida. Team-mate Sergio Pérez finished fourth from fourth on the grid, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc joining Norris and Verstappen on the podium as the McLaren driver took his maiden victory in his 110th start.
* 2024 is the 75th season of the F1 world championship
2. The Miami GP in six pics
Verstappen held sway as the field attacked into the first corner
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
The Max fans were out in force in Florida
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
A post-race penalty promoted Pérez into fourth place
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen's pole was his sixth straight to start 2024
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
3. Safety car, lack of grip hurts Verstappen
Struggling for grip, Max Verstappen slipped from the front of the pack
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
After Verstappen had taken pole for Saturday’s sprint race and converted that to first – and then took pole for the Grand Prix proper and cruised away for the first 21 laps on Sunday – a Miami hat-trick looked to be on the cards, but a rare mistake led to the world champion’s race unravelling.
Verstappen clattered into a bollard at Turn 15 chicane on Lap 22, with the resultant debris on track prompting race officials to call for a virtual safety car period to clean up the circuit. The Dutchman used the VSC period to pit for hard-compound tyres for the remainder of the race before a full safety car was needed on Lap 29, after Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Logan Sargeant (Williams) crashed at Turn 3 and damaged the trackside barriers.
Norris, who had inherited the lead when teammate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz had pitted two laps earlier, then made his sole stop for the race with the field neutralized, and had too much pace for Verstappen when the race resumed on Lap 33, Verstappen struggling for grip in the final stages and falling seven seconds adrift by the checkered flag.
Pérez, meanwhile, nearly shaped the race in a way he wouldn’t have wanted after reacting to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc starting slowly ahead of him and having to take avoiding action to not hit both Ferraris – and teammate Verstappen – at the first corner.
The Mexican’s race became one of regaining ground lost from there, but things never broke his way. He pitted for a second time in the safety car phase to fit medium tires to employ an alternate strategy to leap back up the order, but stalled out behind Sainz and came home fifth, 14.650secs behind Norris. He was later promoted to fourth after Sainz was issued a five-second post-race penalty for contact with McLaren's Oscar Piastri.
In Saturday’s sprint race, Pérez stared and finished third, the Oracle Red Bull Racing pair split on the podium by Ferrari’s Leclerc.
4. Tsunoda’s haul sees him jump into top 10
Tsunoda was a blur as he came through from 10th on the grid to seventh
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
It was a weekend of double points for Visa Cash App RB driver Yuki Tsunoda in Miami, the Japanese finishing seventh in Sunday’s Grand Prix after inheriting eighth in the sprint race 24 hours earlier.
Tsunoda – like Norris – was able to gain places by pitting under the safety car in the 57-lap race, a cooly-executed drive seeing him split Mercedes team-mates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to jump to 10th place in the world championship standings.
Tsunoda had inherited eighth in the sprint on Saturday and a world championship point when Hamilton was penalized post-race for a pit lane speeding infringement.
A tough weekend in Miami for Daniel Ricciardo
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
For team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, Miami was a weekend of extreme and mixed emotions. The Australian was brilliant in the sprint, converted a stunning fourth on the grid to fourth in the short-form race for his first points of the season, but a lack of grip in qualifying for the Grand Prix proper saw him mired in 18th, which became last after a penalty he’d carried from the previous race in China was applied.
From there, points were a pipedream for Ricciardo, who crossed the line in 15th place.
Vida Cash App RB team raced with a striking ‘chameleon’ livery in Miami, with teal, pink, orange and yellow adorning the VCARB01 to go with its usual blue and silver engine cover and its red and white wings.
5. The number you need to know
6: Verstappen’s career-best sixth straight F1 pole position in Miami was the first time a driver had taken the opening six poles of a season since Alain Prost did likewise for Williams in 1993.
6. The word from the paddock
Today was a bit tricky – we were pulling away, but not like it should be. If a bad day is P2, I’ll take it. It definitely wasn’t our strongest weekend. I’m happy for Lando, and he definitely deserves it today.
7. The stats that matter
Drivers' Championship top 5
Position
Driver
Team
Points
Gap
1
Max Verstappen
Oracle Red Bull Racing
136
-
2
Sergio Pérez
Oracle Red Bull Racing
103
-33
3
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
98
-38
4
Lando Norris
McLaren
83
-53
5
Carlos Sainz
Ferrari
83
-53
Constructors' Championship top 5
Position
Team
Points
Gap
1
Oracle Red Bull Racing
239
-
2
Ferrari
187
-52
3
McLaren
124
-113
4
Mercedes
64
-173
5
Aston Martin
42
-195
8. Away from the track
What do F1 drivers like Max Verstappen eat to win races?
© Marcel van Hoorn/Red Bull Content Pool
A Formula One car isn’t going anywhere without fuel, and the human driving it is no different – which is why an F1 driver’s diet is so critical.
So what do F1 drivers eat, when to do they eat it and in what quantities … and they’re allowed a little comfort food once in a while, right?
Get the lowdown on what’s in a driver’s daily food intake (in short: it’s a balance), what’s on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner on a race weekend, how a driver maintains their ideal weight for maximum performance of man and machine … and what drivers like Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda crave when they fancy something that’s a little off-menu.
9. Where to next, and what do I need to know?
Round 7 (Emilia Romagna, Imola), May 17-19
Circuit name/location: Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola
Length/laps: 4.909km, 63 laps
Grands Prix held/debut: 3, 2020 (Imola also held the San Marino Grand Prix from 1981-2006, and the Italian Grand Prix in 1980)
Most successful driver (Emilia Romagna GP): Max Verstappen (two wins)
Most successful team (Emilia Romagna GP): Oracle Red Bull Racing (two wins)
2022 race recap (not held in 2023): 1st: Max Verstappen (Oracle Red Bull Racing), 2nd: Sergio Pérez (Oracle Red Bull Racing), 3rd: Lando Norris (McLaren)
10. Inside the wide world of Red Bull Motorsports
Turkish motorcycle racer Deniz Öncü before the Indonesian Moto3 race
© Gold & Goose/Red Bull Content Pool
Anyone who knows anything about MotoGP knows that life around Deniz Öncü is anything but dull. The Turkish rider is competing for the Red Bull KTM Ajo squad in the intermediate Moto2 class this season – the team Pedro Acosta won the title for last year before making the jump to the premier class – and the 20-year-old stepped up after a three-win Moto3 campaign in 2023, with victories coming in Germany, Austria and Australia.
Öncü’s story goes way further back than that, of course – it was in Malaysia in 2016 when a pint-sized 13-year-old Deniz was snapped for the official MotoGP social media feed shaking the hand of none other than the legendary Valentino Rossi after taking a podium in the Asia Talent Cup, which put him on the pathway to Red Bull Rookies Cup and, ultimately, MotoGP.
Spend a weekend with Öncü as he wraps up his time in Moto3 with his typical livewire sense of humour and cheekiness, reflecting on his path to the top flight, the role five-time World Supersport Champion and Turkish national hero Kenan Sofuoğlu played in the careers of Deniz and his twin brother Can, and how he’s learned to (temporarily) switch off his emotions to achieve the success he craves.
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