Miami gp

Max Verstappen resisted a late Charles Leclerc onslaught to win the inaugural Miami Grand Prix and cut his rival's championship lead.

It was another unfortunately-timed Safety Car for Hamilton, who toyed with pitting for fresh tyres but eventually stayed out - leaving him somewhat of a sitting duck to his team-mate. Russell had started 12th but ran long before the Safety Car played into his hands. They have, though, still gained on Ferrari in both championships. Despite his two DNFs, he has cut Leclerc's title lead to just 19 points. Leclerc was struggling with his tyres and Verstappen built a significant lead, seven seconds ahead after the first stops and seemingly managing his way to victory. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton placed fifth and sixth for Mercedes in more meagre damage limitation for the world champions, with Russell finishing ahead of his team-mate for the fourth race in a row.

Charles Leclerc was unable to reassert his authority in the Formula One 2022 world title race with victory in F1's inaugural race around Miami.

To be honest, we’ve had the pace all weekend - qualifying was the anomaly and we were really frustrated to be P18. We benefited from the collisions in front but we were right there catching the cars in front. “But it’s just a bit unfortunate on the safety car and at least we got points today, we’re finishing, reliability is good. The track kind of kinks to the right and I’m going with the flow of the circuit and it didn’t look like he was. This is where we are, behind the Red Bulls and Ferrari. “I really don’t know, in that scenario I have no clue where everyone is. I thought I did what I normally do but it just ended up a silly accident - quite annoyed I guess as we could have scored a few points today but it happens.”

Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the Miami Grand Prix at the Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, after passing the Ferrari of Formula 1 World Championship rival ...

Guanyu Zhou was the first retirement of the race when his Alfa Romeo broke down. Hamilton finished sixth, ahead of Bottas, Esteban Ocon, the penalised Alonso and Alex Albon’s Williams. With three laps to go, Verstappen escaped Leclerc’s DRS range and sealed his third win of the year. Perez also pitted for a new set of mediums, but none of the front trio stopped. As soon as he got into DRS range of Leclerc, Verstappen grabbed the lead at Turn 1 on Lap 9. Leclerc was running 4.5s behind Verstappen when he pitted on Lap 25, rejoining in fourth.

Max Verstappen won the first-ever Miami Grand Prix having pried the lead off Ferrari's pole-sitter Charles Leclerc early in the race, and defended it on a ...

Alonso – now holding a five-second penalty for contact with Gasly – led Schumacher and Ocon at the back of the top 10. "I think I’ll stick to racing," he said when asked by Willy T Ribbs if he was fit enough to step into the boxing ring, "but I appreciate a lot of boxing. Tsunoda was however promoted to 12th after the post-race penalties for Alonso and Ricciardo. That left Williams driver Latifi in P14. The podium saw the top three celebrate in front of Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino – and his statue. Then, on Lap 41, Gasly – who had previously been tapped at the final corner by Alonso – went wide at Turn 8, rejoined, and clashed with Norris, ripping the McLaren’s rear-right tyre off and sending him into a spin. Leclerc prepared his rebuttal, tailing the Red Bull throughout the next lap – but the reigning champion was now in a commanding position. Leclerc was next to pit, a swap to hards taking 3.2 seconds, as he emerged in P4 on Lap 25. A sensor issue was to blame and Perez was back – but had lost considerable time (and some engine power to boot) to Sainz ahead. Perez attempted to pass Sainz on Lap 52 but locked up, both drivers avoiding contact, while Leclerc was under half a second behind Verstappen in the chase for the lead. On Lap 6, he took P6 off Gasly and the seven-time champion was back where he began. Hamilton lamented the fact that he couldn't pit during the VSC but was promoted to P6 when Valtteri Bottas went wide at Turn 17 on Lap 49. Perez took the opportunity to pit for new mediums from P4, emerging there, with hard-shod Verstappen, Leclerc and Sainz ahead.

Max Verstappen beat Charles Leclerc to victory in Formula 1's first Miami Grand Prix, winning after passing on-track early on and then defying considerable ...

Leclerc came closest to making a pass with a look to the inside of Turn 11 at the end of the long, curving run from the ‘marina’, but was pinched on the inside line and lost ground – never getting alongside the leader. Leclerc was able to set competitive times at this stage, but could not do so consistently and with Verstappen able to cover him off each time anyway, so Ferrari called him in to switch to the hards at the end of lap 24 – just after he had reported his car was “so difficult to drive”. But a serene had no chance to play out after the safety car was called out on lap 41 after Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris collided – putting the McLaren driver out just past the start of the long, meandering acceleration zone that follows the fake marina at Turn 8. The Red Bull was steadily able to build a lead, aided by Leclerc locking up and sliding deep at Turn 17 on lap 12, which cost him a second and meant at the end of that tour Verstappen’s lead had reached 2.6s. At the end of lap eight, Leclerc slid exiting the Turn 17 hairpin and Verstappen arrived right on his gearbox – moving alongside as they ran down the pit straight and then taking the lead with a simple pass into Turn 1, Leclerc opting not to fight too hard. Leclerc had a 0.8s lead at the end of the first lap of 57 and quickly moved to pull clear of Verstappen’s DRS range by the time it was activated on the third lap.

The Red Bull defending world champion overtook pole-position Charles Leclerc early in the race and held the position to the chequered flag.

33/57 Hamilton is in seventh and George Russell is in fifth. 32/57 Verstappen’s lead over Leclerc is 7.5 seconds, and those two look the likely 1-2 come the end of the race. 42/57 Hamilton is coming in while the safety car is out, and on soft tyres. Leclerc is showing the fastest times around the middle section, and in comes Sainz to change his tyres, having led for barely a lap. 38/57 Verstappen has the fastest lap now, worth an extra point, of course. 41/57 Famous last words from Phil as Lando Norris comes a cropper, and there is a safety car. 51/57 Leclerc continues to chase down Verstappen, who is better round the bends even if the Red Bull has the better on the straight. 46/57 The fans in the stands look a bit perplexed by this safety car malarkey, it’s not the racing they came to see. Verstappen gets a jump on Leclerc as Perez chases Sainz. Is there a yellow flag on the play? Perez in fourth, with the Mercs of Russell and Hamilton in fifth and sixth. 53/57 This is close at the front, and any mistake now would surely decide the outcome. 52/57 Leclerc and Verstappen go at it once more.