After a thrilling and busy Sprint race on Saturday which saw both Max and Checo finish atop of the podium, Sunday’s race didn’t end in victory like we’re used to seeing, but Oracle Red Bull Racing gained crucial World Championship points thanks to the four Top 5 finishes in Miami. The Team extended its lead to 52 points in the Constructors’ World Championship race.
At lights out, Max got away well to take the lead on the short run towards Turn 1. However, just behind him, Charles Leclerc bogged down and under pressure from Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz, the Monegasque driver moved right to try to fend off the attack.
Checo, seeing a gap, made an ambitious attempt down the inside, but the Mexican carried too much speed into Turn 1 and he arrowed off track in front of Sainz, narrowly avoiding a collision with his teammate, Max. That allowed Leclerc to recover and retake second from Sainz but as the Spaniard and Checo rejoined, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took advantage to sneak ahead of both and take P3.
At the front, Max began to pull away. Piastri, showing the first signs of McLaren’s strong pace, began to close in on Leclerc and on lap four, used DRS to overtake the Ferrari driver on the long run to Turn 17.
That change of position ended the immediate jockeying for position and the leaders then began to settle into their first stint. By lap 10 Max had carved out a three-second lead over Piastri, while the McLaren driver had a similar advantage over the Ferrari’s of Leclerc and Sainz.
Checo, meanwhile, was holding onto fifth place, 1.7s behind Sainz and just ahead of Norris. However, on lap 15 and struggling slightly on Medium tyres, he slipped back to within DRS reach of the McLaren driver. Checo’s defence was strong, though, and with the capability of his RB20, good use of his battery, and clever car positioning, the Mexican was able to keep the Briton at bay.
Further back in the field, there was contact. With the cars bunching into Turn 14 at the restart, VCARB’s Daniel Ricciardo was forced to brake hard to avoid running into McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, and the result was that Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll ploughed into the rear of the VCARB. Both were able to continue but when a handful of corners later Yuki Tsunoda was hit by Kevin Magnussen, the Safety Car had to be deployed for a second time. Ricciardo would eventually be forced to retire, while Stroll and Magnussen were handed 10-second time penalties for the incidents.
The Safety Car left the track for the second time at the end of lap 31 and once again Max used the hairpin to kick off the restart and propel his RB20 away from the pack. He comfortably pulled away from Norris and Leclerc on exit as Checo began to plot his assault on the Ferrari and the McLaren.
At the end of lap 18, Checo became the first of the front-runners to make a pit stop. He switched to Hard tyres in a superb 1.9s stop and rejoined in P10. Leclerc was next in, two laps later, but there the pit stops halted as Max, Paistri, Sainz and Norris maintained good pace on their starting tyres.
However, while Max looked comfortable in the lead, the Dutchman was complaining about front grip and on lap 21 his race the Dutchman bounced through the chicane and on his way across the kerbs clouted an off-track bollard.
While it caused minimal damage, the bollard was left on the racing line and a Virtual Safety Car was briefly deployed. Once the debris had been cleared, Max pitted for checks on his front wing and for a set of Hard tyres.
The pit stop put Piastri into the lead ahead of Sainz and when both made regulation stops on lap 27, Norris inherited the lead ahead of Max.
With Norris requiring a fresh set of tyres, the expectation was that Max would soon return to top spot, but then, on lap 29, the complexion of the race changed. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen tangled with the Williams of Logan Sargeant sending the American into the barriers.
The Safety Car was immediately deployed and after the team quickly pitted Checo for a set of used Medium tyres, Norris took a free stop, bolted on a set of Hard tyres and resumed in the lead ahead of Max, with Leclerc in third ahead of Piastri, Sainz and Checo.
The SC left the track at the end of lap 32, and despite pressure from Max, Norris controlled the re-start well to hold the lead. With Max defending P2 from Leclerc, the McLaren then was able to quickly break DRS and in the following laps Norris carved out a 1.5s gap to Max.
Behind them, Sainz began to put heavy pressure on Piastri and on lap 39 the Ferrari driver muscled his way through. There was contact and the front wing damage sustained by Paistri allowed Checo to pounce and he roared past the struggling McLaren to get back fifth place.
Max again felt a lack of front-end grip, which allowed Norris to tighten his grip on the lead. By lap 45 he was four seconds ahead of Max and with the champion eventually settling into management mode ahead of Leclerc, Norris was able to stretch his lead to seven seconds at the flag.
Max Verstappen, following a good P2 result said, “Today was just a bit tricky, I think already on the mediums, it didn’t feel fantastic. We were pulling away, but not like it should be. And then once we made the pit stop, and I heard what the lap times the McLarens were doing, I was like, ‘wow, that’s pretty quick’. Once they then switched on to the Hard tyre, they just had more pace. And especially Lando, he was flying. It was incredibly difficult for us during that stint. I’m very happy for Lando. It’s been a long time coming. And it’s not going to be his last one. Yeah, he definitely deserves it today.”
Sergio Pérez, finishing in P5, said, “We were struggling on both mediums throughout the race, we came back a little bit towards the end but I couldn’t get into the rhythm until late in the race.”
Up next, Oracle Red Bull Racing travel to Imola on 19 May.