Sprint race at noon then, at 4 p.m., qualifying session for the event contested tomorrow were on the program for Formula 1 drivers this Saturday in Miami Gardens, as part of the third edition of the Miami Grand Prix, the 1107th F1 World Championship event. Under the sun and warm weather, the Sprint was absolutely peaceful at the front. Throughout the 19 laps and 31 minutes of racing, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) encountered no opposition.
At the first corner, a collision with 4 drivers forced Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Lando Norris (McLaren) to retire after Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), very optimistic in braking, collided with Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), whose the deviation in trajectory led to contact with his Quebec teammate, himself then hitting Norris. The latter rightly blamed Hamilton for this incident but the officials closed the whole thing without further action. Victim of a puncture, Alonso found himself last at the restart, after 4 laps under neutralization, while Hamilton, 8th, continued his journey under the influence of a 10-second sanction, applied to his final result, for having rolled too quickly in the pit line behind the Safety Car.
Lewis would talk about him again in the second half of the event, this time in a magnificent duel, sometimes even outside the limits of the track, with Kevin Magnussen. In his defense against the seven-time world champion, the Haas driver exceeded the limits several times and the race management finally awarded him a 35-second penalty, for all his work during this battle which saved the spectacle of this sprint!
Because in the lead, Max Verstappen who complained about the wear of his rear tires, still won with 3.3 seconds over Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), the Monegasque ahead of an equally lonely Sergio Pérez with the second Red Bull . Behind this calm trio, Daniel Ricciardo (RB) had a very good race, resisting Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) to finally score his first points of the season. Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) and Yuki Tsunoda (RB) complete the Top 8, i.e. the drivers scoring points in this racing format still criticized for its lack of usefulness in a Grand Prix weekend . For the full ranking, click here.
To close the day, we found the qualifying session for the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, which will start tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. The first segment (Q1) saw the two Saubers (Valtteri Bottas 16th and Guanyu Zhou 20th) be eliminated, as well as the only American driver registered, Logan Sargeant (17th with his Williams), Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo, who complained of not having found the same grip this afternoon as with the tires used at midday for the sprint race.
Note regarding Sargeant that the Williams team confirmed this Saturday that it had indeed asked the FIA for a waiver to run the young Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli in one of its single-seaters during the next Grand Prix at Imola. If the request is accepted (Antonelli is under 18 and drives in F2), this does not mean that Sargeant will be fired since on the side of Mercedes, which manages Antonelli’s future in F1, Toto Wolff indicated in Miami that the intention is not to have the young Italian prodigy race for the moment, but only during free practice.
In Q2, both Aston Martins were eliminated. Although so far having had a better weekend than Alonso (15th in this segment), Stroll had to settle for 11th place, only 22 thousandths of a second from the Top 10. The Alpine of Pierre Gasly (12th) and Esteban Ocon (13th) as well as the Williams of Alex Albon (13th) also failed to reach Q3.
A Q3 which held no surprises, Max Verstappen winning his 38th pole position in F1 on his first attempt, his 7th in a row, 141 thousandths of a second ahead of Leclerc. Sainz, Pérez, who took pole on the same Miami circuit last year, and Norris completed the Top 5 ahead of Piastri, Russell, Hamilton, Hülkenberg and Tsunoda. For the full ranking of this qualification, click here.
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