Miami Grand Prix Report

With the second sprint race of the year upon us, there was plenty of action throughout the field as the weather decided to make an appearance at the Miami International circuit. The main story from free practice was a late crash from Ollie Bearman, who dropped it Haas at Turn 11 in a very slow and clumsy accident.

Sprint Qualifying

Queueing in the pitlane is not something any of us F1 fans like to see; the process looks clumsy, it always feels incredible dangerous for the mechanics and the marshals, and of course it isn't very sporting to delay drivers getting out onto the circuit. There is, however, something of an etiquette to leaving the garage and joining the queue because otherwise the teams further down the pitlane (in some cases these are the lower championship teams) would never get out as the top teams could easily just block them. Rather than implement some rule that stops this, the FIA simply say that a car must be over the white line before the next car joins the queue in order to preserve their position. Unfortunately for Doohan, he was blocked by Lawson in the frenzy to get out in SQ1, and this set something of a trend for the rookie throughout the weekend.

The early laps came flooding in, as the drivers began circulating on their medium compounds, with Verstappen and Antonelli trading times at the top of the table. We saw a combination of drivers going through the pitlane between runs to cool their tyres down and some who stayed out on slow laps to bring them back into the window. This created further chaos in the pitlane, with more instances of queueing and cars struggling to turn out of their garage. As the chequered flag fell it was Lance Stroll, Jack Doohan, Yuki Tsunoda, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Ollie Bearman eliminated in the first session. The real surprise there is Yuki, who has been looking pretty good lately, but was struggling with his helmet throughout the session, just didn't seem to ever get the car hooked up like his teammate.

Verstappen was the first of the big runners to go out and set a time in SQ2, the reigning champion putting his Red Bull in the hot seat, but along came Antonelli to beat it by 0.002 seconds. Norris may have been the faster of the McLarens in SQ1 but Piastri definitely set the pace in SQ2, coming along and dethroning the rookie Mercedes driver. With 1 set of tyres less than a normal weekend, many drivers only opted for a single run in SQ2, with many resigned to elimination before the session began. Williams were looking so good, but in the dying moments Sainz has a big lockup and bails on his lap. Drivers eliminated in SQ2 were Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly (who hit the wall on his final run), Liam Lawson, and Carlos Sainz.

And so, onto the sprint shootout we go. We had Max Verstappen vs the two Mercedes cars vs the two McLarens, and you can never truly count out Charles Leclerc in qualifying, plus we also had Alex Albon, Lewis Hamilton, Isack Hadjar, and Fernando Alonso in there too. Max and George felt they clearly had enough tyre sets to go out and set two flying laps while the track was quiet. The Dutchman took the early advantage but Russell beat him by just under 2-tenths. Unfortunately for George, Mercedes never sent him back out again, opting to go out early, avoid the traffic, avoid a yellow flag, and just put in a solid lap time. Verstappen beat George on his final run in SQ3, while the two McLarens went even faster. But it was the young rookie, Kimi Antonelli, who put together what was described as "the lap with fewest mistakes" who took the sprint pole, his first in Formula 1 and at a track he has never driven. Quite the impressive run, considering where Mercedes were last year. The rest of the order was: Piastri, Norris, Verstappen, Russell, Leclerc, Hamilton, Albon, Hadjar, and Fernando Alonso.

Sprint Race

So then, onto the sprint race with Antonelli starting in first place for the first time in his F1 career in only his sixth race. He probably just wants a nice dry track, easy run down to turn 1 ahead of the McLaren, a smooth race with no drama, no incidents, and no safety cars... right? Well tough luck bud, this is F1 and drama is around every corner. It absolutely heaved it down in Miami that afternoon, with the F1 Academy race cancelled due to weather. It rained so much that Charles Leclerc aquaplaned off the track on his way to the grid; to be fair, Ferrari had sent him out on intermediates to see if they were going to work. Race control sent the safety car out and the cars went out for a formation lap, or two, behind the Aston Martin car. We usually see this, and then it peels off, allowing a rolling start - but not this time! No the safety car stayed out for another lap, with the message that the start procedure had been delayed. Then it said that the start procedure had been cancelled, and a red flag was thrown.

This created chaos in the commentary box as Crofty wasn't quite sure if the race began, Ted seemed to think it had, and nobody seemed to know what was going on. Yes the race had begun, but that didn't mean they had to go to the pitlane because the race timer hadn't started, both can exist at the same time. While I'm on that, this level of commentary is becoming a bit of a joke. Sky TV is a lot of money, and for that I would expect commentators who have a general understanding of what's going on, or at least when they don't, not to speculate and sew confusion.

The cars came into the pitlane, lined up, changed tyres if they needed to, and generally just sat around on the pit wall waiting for the race to begin. The rain began to slow down and we finally had a start time for the sprint race! With no more rain expected, everyone expected the safety car to lead the cars around and peel off into the pits, either leading to a standing or rolling start. A standing start, and 1 lap fewer, is what we were given, and finally they can get racing. 16 laps of racing left, after all that safety car action, in an 18 lap race (should have been 19), so we are technically three laps short here, why couldn't they have refueled during the red flag? Anyway, the race start...

Antonelli got a bad start, and Piastri a good one, the two went barreling towards the first corner with Oscar on the inside; the two almost touch as Antonelli is forced off the track on the outside of turn 1 and drops down the order. The Italian is furious, shouting about how unfair it was and asking throughout the race if Oscar was going to get a penalty. It's Piastri from Norris from Verstappen as the championship leader begins to pull away from the pack. There's chaos all the way down the field, with Alonso looking quick and reigning champion under investigation for being out of his starting box.

As the clouds began to clear, the question was, would anyone gamble on the dry tyres? It's a risk, because yes you will be lightning fast compared to the others, but you lose over 20 seconds in the pitlane and one wheel on the wet stuff and you might find yourself in the wall. Yuki Tsunoda took the first gamble onto the dry tyres, with nothing really to lose and everything to gain, but when Lewis Hamilton, from sixth place, pitted onto the soft tyres with 6 laps to go, he was followed in by Sainz and Stroll who also felt it was time to take the risk. McLaren obviously had a bit of a dilemma, with two cars close together at the front, what do they do? Piastri pitted and Norris stayed out, as he did, Liam Lawson decided he wanted to punt Alonso into the wall while they were battling and Sainz decided he wanted to hit the inside wall at the chicane under the bridge, and thus the safety car was deployed. Perfect timing for Norris, who seems to just have the luck of the draw in Miami with safety cars.

That was kind of the end of the race, Norris didn't even have to pit, because the safety car brought the cars over the line to finish a very dramatic sprint race. There were, as is the way with modern day F1, plenty of post-race penalties to be investigated. The main drama though, was the collision between Antonelli and Verstappen in the pitlane. The Dutchman was released too early into the path of the Italian, who avoided wiping out his mechanics very well but wasn't able to pit. Max was handed a 10-second penalty for that one, and rightly so, which meant he dropped down the order behind the safety car and finished outside of the points, the first time he has done so since Belgium 2016.

The final order was Norris, Piastri, Hamilton, Russell, Stroll, Tsunoda (what a mega driver), Antonelli, and Gasly to round out the points. Unfortunate for Williams who were looking good for points, but received a post-race penalty for Albon, which dropped him down the order.

Qualifying

We didn't have to wait too long before the mildly delayed qualifying session on Saturday evening (UK time). The track had well and truly dried out by then, so it looked like it could be a repeat of sprint qualifying. But of course, the rain giveth and the rain taketh away, and it took away all the rubber the F1 cars had set down on Friday. After being investigated in the sprint, Alex Albon wasted no time opening up another investigation in qualifying, this time for potentially jumping the queue in the pitlane. Piastri and Verstappen traded times at the top of the table, but it was Williams, and more specifically Sainz, who took the top spot in the first round of laps. Ultimately though, it was the usual drivers making an exit in Q1: Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll (Q1 elimination number 76), and Ollie Bearman were the drivers knocked out in Q1.

Onto Q2 then and it was looking like we might have all 8 of the top drivers make it through to the top 10 shootout. Piastri and Verstappen continued to trade times at the top, while Russell, Doohan, Ocon, Lawson, and Hadjar all slipped down the order. Lewis went out on used tyres in his first run too and was quite far off the pace, dropping down to eighth. As the final push laps came in, only Piastri stayed in the pitlane, safe with his mega lap at the top. Ocon and Tsunoda improved on their final laps and dropped Hamilton down to eleventh, the 7-time champion could not improve and slipped into 11th once his former teammate George Russell put in a lap to take him through to the next round. Isack Hadjar, Lewis Hamilton, Gabriel Bortoleto, Jack Doohan, and Liam Lawson were all eliminated in Q2.

But that means we have a double-Williams appearance in Q3! That's right, the Williams team have been under a lot of investigation this weekend, but there is no denying that there is pace in that car. Verstappen once again went to the top of the board ahead of Norris, the Mercedes boys struggled to make it off the third row, and the Williams cars were showing some serious pace. In the final laps, it looked like Max had made a massive mistake, running wide at turn 1. But you can never count the Dutchman out, and he put in one of the best sector 2 and sector 3 lap times we have seen all weekend to take pole position. Lando Norris slotted into second, just 0.065 seconds behind his title rival, followed by Antonelli in third, Piastri down in fourth, Russell, Sainz, Albon, Leclerc struggling for pace, Ocon, and Yuki Tsunoda.

Grand Prix

Finally it was race day, Max and Lando lineup on the front row, Antonelli showing some serious pace, Piastri a little lower than he would like, two Williams in the mix, and Lewis down the order. What a setup for a great race. The main drama of the race happened right at the start, and were we in any doubt that it would? Max got away well and had Lando up the inside, the Dutchman locked up into turn 1, ran a little wide and Lando got alongside. Into turn 2, Max gets a little bit of oversteer, unless you believe the British media and then he wildly turned right into Lando, pushing the McLaren driver off the track and onto the very wet run-off area. This did give Antonelli a bit of a run at Max into sector 1, but it never really materialised.

The McLarens, though, looked very quick indeed. After a brief VSC for an incident between Jack Doohan and Liam Lawson at the start of the race, they both gained places, with Piastri now setting off after Max ahead. Max defended for his life, running the inside line into the heavy braking zones to force Oscar the long way around. It didn't take too long, though, until Oscar had it all figured out, let Max run deep into turn 1, did the switchback and took the lead of the race. The battle between the two of them allowed Norris to catch back up. It took him a little longer to get through on Max, and Lando showed a little bit of immaturity, giving his "friend" the middle finger after some fairly aggressive defending. In the end, it was an easy DRS overtake for the McLaren driver as he breezed through in sector 2. This time, Oscar was also able to benefit from a little VSC and take an easy pitstop. From there he controlled the pace as the two McLarens pulled a 30 second gap on the rest of the field to finish 1-2. Oscar Piastri becomes the first McLaren driver to win 3 races in a row since Mika Hakkinen and one of four drivers to win 3 races in a row in the turbo-hybrid era, matched only by Lewis, Nico Rosberg, and Max.

The VSC also helped Mercedes, with George able to leap Max during the pitstop phase and use his medium compound tyres to pull away. Max gave him a chase all the way to the end, and was even hoping George would get a penalty for failing to slow for a yellow flag. The penalty never came, and the podium stood. Another consistent weekend from Mr. P3. George does have this habit of being able to pull out podiums when the odds seem against him. Speaking of having a reasonable weekend, it's another points finish for Yuki Tsunoda in the Red Bull. No, he didn't impress massively, and yes he did get a speeding penalty, but he held on to tenth and secured points, which is all Red Bull want from him right now.

It seems Williams sailed a little under the radar in the Grand Prix, with most of the focus on the fight between Max and the McLarens at the start of the race. Sainz had a little dive up the inside of Hamilton on the last lap, and it was ambitious at best, but he did avoid a penalty. He secured ninth place, and some more points to add to his tally. But it was teammate, Alex Albon, who really impressed. Alex secured fifth place, just 9 seconds behind Max Verstappen, and 7 seconds ahead of Antonelli. That is an absolutely incredible drive from Alex to just maintain a great qualifying result and secure 10 points for Williams.

Ok, let's talk about it, because you all know my allegiances lie with the Scuderia, and this weekend was a bit of a shocker. Lewis' radio messages to the team felt like he was letting out all of our frustrations for the world to hear. This is how Ferrari has been for many years, but it seems that the mainstream media are finally getting ahold of it because it's Lewis. The real problem was two-fold: firstly, Lewis started on hard tyres with Leclerc on mediums; secondly, the car had very little pace to differentiate through the pack so they both ended up together on track. This meant, Lewis caught Charles on the softer compound after the pit stops, and wanted to get through. In China, when the reverse happened, Lewis let him go and attack ahead. But Ferrari never asked Charles. Hamilton asked, and was told no. This prompted some rather interesting radio messages, culminating in a "not good teamwork" messaged from Lewis, before the call was made to Charles to let him go. When Lewis' tyres faded later in the race, Charles was allowed through almost instantly. Lewis joked after the race that "most of it was sarcasm", but it certainly didn't feel like it. At a race where his former team is taking poles and podiums, Lewis must feel he has made the wrong choice.

To round up the results, Piastri took the win, with Lando and George on the podium, ahead of Verstappen, Albon, Antonelli, Leclerc, Hamilton, Sainz, and Tsunoda in the points. Hadjar just missed out in eleventh, not quite having enough to capitalise on Yuki's penalty, followed by Ocon, Gasly, Hulkenberg, Alonso, and Stroll the last of the finishers. Lawson, Bortoleto, Bearman, and Doohan all retired. Lawson and Doohan collided at turn 1, causing too much damage to both their cars, with Ocon and Bortoleto retiring due to power-unit issues.