Lap 22/57: A rare lapse from Verstappen who clips a bollard on a chicane but it bounces off into the middle of the track and doesn’t affect him too much. They may need the virtual safety car while they clear the debris.
Lap 20/57: Your Top 10:
1) Verstappen
2) Piastri
3) Sainz
4) Norris
5) Hamilton
6) Leclerc
7) Russell
8) Tsunoda
9) Perez
10) Ocon
Lap 19/57: Perez is into the pits and Norris moves up into fifth. Perez reenters in ninth. Verstappen’s lead is up to 3.5sec. Leclerc pits and reenters in sixth after a fast pit of just under two seconds.
Lap 18/57: Verstappen maintains his lead of just over three seconds.
Lap 17/57: Norris and Perez’s battle for fifth is the most interesting duel in this race so far. But Perez is holding his place for now.
Lap 16/57: Verstappen’s lead is just north of three seconds for the first time this race.
Lap 15/57: Everyone from Kevin Magnussen in 13th down is now on hard tyres and has pitted. Leclerc records the new fastest lap.
Lap 14/57: Norris has a nibble at Perez, who is sliding around a little in fifth but the Mexican driver holds him off.
Lap 13/57: Verstappen maintains a comfortable lead with a lead of 2.955sec and Piastri looks pretty settled in second too.
Lap 12/57: Russell gets past Hulkenberg at his second attempt and is into eighth, just behind Hamilton. Hulkenberg then pits. Lots of drivers going in early for tyre changes.
Lap 11/57: Alex Albon is the first driver to pit – he goes on to hard tyres. Russell tries to overtake Hulkenberg after Hamilton passes the German but he holds him off.
Lap 10/57: Hamilton nips ahead of Hulkenberg. The top 10 so far:
1) Verstappen
2) Piastri
3) Leclerc
4) Sainz
5) Perez
6) Norris
7) Hamilton
8) Hulkenberg
9) Russell
10) Tsunoda
Lap 8/57: Perez is being investigated for a possible false start. Verstappen’s lead over Piastri is now up close to three seconds. And news come in: Perez is off the hook for that possible false start.
Lap 7/57: Hamilton, who was down to 10th at one point, has fought back to eighth with some brave overtaking.
Lap 6/57: Verstappen may be managing his tyres in this heat because he has a decent lead – just over two seconds – but he’s not as far out as he is accustomed to.
Lap 4/57: Piastri is up to second! His best finish this season is fourth and he looks like he’ll better that today. Perez, who almost took out Verstappen on the opening turn of the race, has slipped to fifth.
Lap 3/57: Piastri records the fastest lap of the race so far and is flying along. Verstappen has a lead of 1.877sec.
Lap 2/57: Lewis Hamilton elected to start on hard tyres and he’s struggled for grip and is down from eighth to 10th.
Lap 1/57: Perez nearly takes out Verstappen on turn one but the world champion survives and is in the lead after the opening lap, it will be tough to catch him now. The big mover though is Oscar Piastri who flies up from sixth to third. Leclerc hangs on to second.
The main hope for the chasing pack is that Verstappen suffers a mishap on turn one on a track where it’s incredibly hard to overtake. We shall see how that pans out soon enough: the drivers are coming to the end of their formation lap.
The top 14 on the grid – apart from Lewis Hamilton – are all on medium compound tyres. It should be a one-stop race, with those drivers changing to hard later.
Just a reminder that Max Verstappen has never lost in Miami. As if he needs the help.
The cameras flash to a mural of Ayrton Senna, who died 30 years ago this week. Here’s a tribute to the man and his legacy from our own Giles Richards:
We posted this earlier but a reminder once again of the starting grid:
1 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1min 27.241secs, 2 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:27.382, 3 Carlos Sainz Jr. (Spa) Ferrari 1:27.455, 4 Sergio Perez (Mex) Red Bull 1:27.460, 5 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1:27.594, 6 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:27.675, 7 George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:28.067, 8 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:28.107, 9 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Haas F1 1:28.146, 10 Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) RB 1:28.192, 11 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:28.222, 12 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:28.324, 13 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Alpine 1:28.371, 14 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:28.413, 15 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1:28.427, 16 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Kick Sauber 1:28.463, 17 Logan Sargeant (USA) Williams 1:28.487, 18 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) RB 1:28.617, 19 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:28.619, 20 Guanyu Zhou (Chn) Kick Sauber 1:28.824.
Daniel Ricciardo will start 20th on the grid: “I’m going to try and do something special,” he says. Which will be important considering where he’s starting.
Ferrari’s Frederic Vasseur tells Martin Brundle that the first lap will be important on a track where it’s hard to overtake: “We know track position will be crucial”.
Here comes Martin Brundle for the grid walk. He chats to Miami’s very own Camila Cabello who reveals she’s here because she likes “fast cars” – good choice to come to a Grand Prix. He swerves Patrick Mahomes though, clearly not a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Then Brundle avoids Zinedine Zidane because he can’t speak English – what’s he got against all-time sporting greats? Brundle then chats to Susie Wolff for a bit before observing Lewis Hamilton’s car has a large exhaust pipe – this is the kind of inside stuff you get when you’re on the grid.
Bernie Owen emails in with a prediction: “Here’s the result. Verstappen wins, the rest in any order you like 39 seconds plus behind. It’s so exciting.”
Seeing as this track is very hard to overtake on, Max is in pole and recent F1 history, you’re probably right.
Let’s look at some pictures of famous people! Ed Sheeran played a few songs before yesterday’s qualifying. Glad to see he’s wearing a cap, given his skin type – Miami is not a safe place for gingers
Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler earned $45m this season, making him one of the few people who can afford the hospitality package at this year’s GP. And he even got to look at some cars with it.
It’s hot in Miami (for a change) with temperatures at around 28C/82F with reports of tyres overheating on the track today. Ted Kravitz on ESPN reckons that means drivers will probably employ a one-stop strategy for today’s race, starting on medium tyres before going to the hard ones – that overheat the least – for the longer, second stretch.
Lando Norris is on ESPN answering very important questions, the first of which is: does he think he could take George Russell in a fight. He thinks he can: no doubt somewhere Jake Paul has seen who his next moneyspinning scheme will be against.
Just a quick reminder of our starting grid today. Plucky up and comer Max Verstappen is on pole, which may surprise you:
1 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1min 27.241secs, 2 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:27.382, 3 Carlos Sainz Jr. (Spa) Ferrari 1:27.455, 4 Sergio Perez (Mex) Red Bull 1:27.460, 5 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1:27.594, 6 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:27.675, 7 George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:28.067, 8 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:28.107, 9 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Haas F1 1:28.146, 10 Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) RB 1:28.192, 11 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:28.222, 12 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:28.324, 13 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Alpine 1:28.371, 14 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:28.413, 15 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1:28.427, 16 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Kick Sauber 1:28.463, 17 Logan Sargeant (USA) Williams 1:28.487, 18 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) RB 1:28.617, 19 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:28.619, 20 Guanyu Zhou (Chn) Kick Sauber 1:28.824.
Tom will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how qualifying went on Saturday:
Max Verstappen remained determinedly very much on top of qualifying, continuing his unbeaten record for the season with another comfortable pole for the Miami Grand Prix. But in his wake Fernando Alonso is set to square up with Formula One’s governing body, the FIA. Alonso was angry and frustrated that they had failed to punish Lewis Hamilton after a controversial incident in Saturday morning’s sprint, claiming Hamilton had “ruined a lot of people’s races”.
For Sunday’s GP Verstappen once more holds all the cards with his sixth consecutive pole this season, beating the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz into second and third by just over a tenth of a second, having already taken victory in the sprint race.
He won the 100km dash with relative ease from pole to flag in what was something of a procession enlivened by an incident at the opening corner. Hamilton made an opportunistic move up the inside at turn one from the start, a dive that caused Alonso to clatter into his teammate, Lance Stroll, who then collected Lando Norris’s McLaren and took him out of the race.
You can read the full article below: