He was always going to have the pace to reach a podium, but the question at the Miami GP was whether Max Verstappen could get past his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez and take the win? The Dutchman responded in style as he romped to victory in Florida, taking his third victory of the campaign and reinvigorating his title challenge. Perez finished second, with Fernando Alonso in third.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took a stunning victory in the Miami Grand Prix after starting from ninth place on the grid, sealing his third win of the season to extend his championship lead.
His teammate Sergio Perez finished over five seconds behind in second place, with Fernando Alonso achieving his fourth podium finish of the season, as the Aston Martin driver came home in third.
Perez started the race on pole position, as his team-mate Verstappen was forced to work his way through the pack to stand any chance of victory on American soil.
The two drivers went for different one-stop strategies as Perez started on the mediums, and Verstappen on the harder tyres, which proved to be the better racing compound.
Within 15 laps, the defending world champion used the pace of his Red Bull car to make his way up into second place. Five laps later, Perez came into the pits for his only stop of the race, and it was a strategic shoot-out between the pair of them for the victory.
Verstappen extended his opening stint on the hard tyres and stayed out all the way until Lap 45. He came back out just under two seconds behind Perez with just over ten laps to go.
Then, on Lap 48, the Dutchman made the race-winning overtake around the outside of Perez into Turn 1 and never looked back.
An impressive performance from Lewis Hamilton – despite starting in 13th – saw him finish in 6th.
Verstappen extends his championship lead to six points.
