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Charles Bradley

F1 race results: Max Verstappen wins Miami GP from P9 on grid

His team-mate Sergio Perez led from pole position, running medium tyres like the majority of the field, while Verstappen started ninth on hards after his qualifying woes restricted him to ninth on the grid.

As expected, Verstappen worked his way through the field, and led the middle stages of the race after Perez pitted.

After Verstappen stopped, he rejoined just behind Perez, but quickly passed his team-mate to ensure his third victory of the year.

2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix results

Cla Driver Laps Gap Interval Points
1 Netherlands Max Verstappen 57     26
2 Mexico Sergio Perez 57 5.384 5.384 18
3 Spain Fernando Alonso 57 26.305 20.921 15
4 United Kingdom George Russell 57 33.229 6.924 12
5 Spain Carlos Sainz 57 42.511 9.282 10
6 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton 57 51.249 8.738 8
7 Monaco Charles Leclerc 57 52.988 1.739 6
8 France Pierre Gasly 57 55.670 2.682 4
9 France Esteban Ocon 57 58.123 2.453 2
10 Denmark Kevin Magnussen 57 1'02.945 4.822 1
11 Japan Yuki Tsunoda 57 1'04.309 1.364  
12 Canada Lance Stroll 57 1'04.754 0.445  
13 Finland Valtteri Bottas 57 1'11.637 6.883  
14 Thailand Alex Albon 57 1'12.861 1.224  
15 Germany Nico Hulkenberg 57 1'14.950 2.089  
16 China Zhou Guanyu 57 1'18.440 3.490  
17 United Kingdom Lando Norris 57 1'27.717 9.277  
18 Netherlands Nyck de Vries 57 1'28.949 1.232  
19 Australia Oscar Piastri 56      
20 United States Logan Sargeant 56      

How the 2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix unfolded

Perez held his pole position advantage into Turn 1, leading ahead of Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari). Behind them, Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and George Russell (Mercedes) passed Kevin Magnussen (Haas) to run fourth and fifth respectively. Further back, Lando Norris (McLaren) was tagged from behind by Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) at the first corner, dropping them to the tail of the field.

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) passed Magnussen for sixth at Turn 11, while Verstappen stayed in ninth on lap one, having started on the hard tyre. But he leapt ahead of both Leclerc and Magnussen at the start of lap 4 to run sixth, with Magnussen taking advantage to vault back in front of Leclerc as they briefly ran three-wide.

Perez pulled clear of the DRS range of Alonso out front, while Sainz ran a close third. Verstappen outbraked Russell into Turn 17 on lap eight and repeated the move on Gasly a lap later to take fourth. Russell also passed Gasly a few corners later, at Turn 1 at the start of lap 10.

Verstappen was 4.6s behind leader Perez at this point and set about closing the gap to Sainz. Verstappen DRS-ed past Sainz into Turn 11 on lap 14 and repeated the move on Alonso a lap later to make it a Red Bull 1-2 by lap 15 – with the lead gap already down to 3.7s.

In the battle for best of the rest, Sainz was right on Alonso’s tail when he pitted on 19 – locking up his brakes as he entered the pitlane – and rejoined in heavy traffic. He had to battle past Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), but was pinged for speeding in the pitlane anyway, and received a 5s penalty.

Perez was the first Red Bull to pit on lap 21, with a 2.2-second stop that allowed Verstappen to lead. Alonso pitted from second on lap 25, having extended his stint on mediums, rejoining behind Sainz on the road, but running ahead with his penalty taken into account.

Alonso passed Sainz anyway, at Turn 11 just before half distance, and moved ahead of the long-running Esteban Ocon (Alpine) a couple of laps later to reclaim third. Russell came into the frame again, passing Sainz for fourth on lap 38.

Verstappen proved faster on much older tyres than Perez was on new hards, and pitted on lap 46 – although his stop was a relatively slow 3.1s – and Max rejoined behind his team-mate on fresh mediums. But Perez was on hard tyres that had 25 laps on them, and although he tried his best to defend, Verstappen passed him with 10 laps to go at Turn 1 and pulled away to win by over 5s.

Alonso finished a distant third, ahead of Russell and Sainz. Hamilton surged to sixth in the closing stages, passing Leclerc and Gasly. Ocon and Magnussen rounded out the point scorers.

2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix fastest laps

Cla Driver Lap Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Netherlands Max Verstappen 56 1'29.708     217.184
2 Spain Fernando Alonso 57 1'30.519 0.811 0.811 215.238
3 Mexico Sergio Perez 57 1'30.560 0.852 0.041 215.141
4 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton 57 1'30.669 0.961 0.109 214.882
5 Canada Lance Stroll 44 1'30.862 1.154 0.193 214.426
6 Germany Nico Hulkenberg 36 1'30.901 1.193 0.039 214.334
7 United Kingdom George Russell 57 1'31.015 1.307 0.114 214.065
8 Japan Yuki Tsunoda 56 1'31.038 1.330 0.023 214.011
9 France Esteban Ocon 56 1'31.143 1.435 0.105 213.765
10 Spain Carlos Sainz 55 1'31.362 1.654 0.219 213.252
11 Monaco Charles Leclerc 57 1'31.434 1.726 0.072 213.084
12 Netherlands Nyck de Vries 57 1'31.562 1.854 0.128 212.786
13 Denmark Kevin Magnussen 53 1'31.691 1.983 0.129 212.487
14 China Zhou Guanyu 56 1'31.736 2.028 0.045 212.383
15 Finland Valtteri Bottas 56 1'31.838 2.130 0.102 212.147
16 Thailand Alex Albon 55 1'31.852 2.144 0.014 212.115
17 France Pierre Gasly 55 1'31.971 2.263 0.119 211.840
18 Australia Oscar Piastri 56 1'32.006 2.298 0.035 211.760
19 United States Logan Sargeant 50 1'32.384 2.676 0.378 210.893
20 United Kingdom Lando Norris 47 1'32.401 2.693 0.017 210.854

2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix tyre strategy

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