Verstappen bats away boos with 'simply lovely' Miami GP win: F1 race report

Booed by some beforehand, booed by some afterwards, but Max Verstappen delivered another masterclass in Miami to respond to Sergio Perez’s latest challenge.

Saturday had set the race up superbly, with Perez on pole position and with a golden opportunity to take the championship lead for the first time in his career, sitting six points behind Verstappen who would start ninth.

Amid high anticipation, the sell-out crowd for Miami’s second edition were treated to an additional introduction period on the grid that saw each driver presented in reverse championship order, and there were audible boos for Verstappen.

Not that such a response would ever shake his confidence, but the Dutchman did drop a spot off the line starting on hard tyres, as he opted for a cautious approach before quickly making progress.

Perhaps he was expecting chaos with a mixed-up grid, but after Kevin Magnussen dropped from fourth to sixth off the line the only points of note were Nyck de Vries punting Lando Norris wide and Logan Sargeant picking up front wing damage and needed to make a pitstop. There was little for Verstappen to benefit from.

“I was just really staying out of trouble in the beginning because the people around me try to gain positions as quickly as possible on lap one but knowing that you have a quick car once it all settles down you just try to pick them off one-by-one,” Verstappen said. “That worked out quite well, I had even a three-wide on the straight which was quite entertaining!”

The three-wide moment demonstrated one of Red Bull’s strengths in such situations, as he used DRS on the squabbling Magnussen and Charles Leclerc to get down the inside before Turn 1 starting Lap 4, promoting him to sixth.

Next up was George Russell, but any hangover from Baku was easily avoided as Verstappen pulled an impressive late move on the brakes into the Turn 17 hairpin on lap eight, doing the same to Pierre Gasly a lap later as Russell followed the Red Bull through.

Even with all of that action while Perez led Fernando Alonso at the front, Verstappen was still within five seconds of the lead as the medium-tyre runners tried to nurse their softer rubber.

“It started well but very early on I saw that the medium was very fragile initially, so I had to protect the tyre quite a lot just to make lap 15 or so, so it was really hard to lean on that tyre,” Perez said. “Basically the whole right hand side was really difficult and I could see that Max was closing up on the hards and from that point on I knew the race was looking difficult.”

Emerging within two seconds, Verstappen took just one lap to be in DRS range and attacked towards Turn 17, with Perez defending the inside line and holding on initially. Verstappen had another go towards Turn 1 though, and while Perez again made him go the long way round – trying to outbrake his team-mate – it was a fruitless exercise as Verstappen swept into the lead on the exit.

“I call that simply f*****g lovely,” was his immediate response over the radio after taking victory.

Aftet the race, he elaborated further: “We had good pace, I could look after my tyres and then once I was in clean air it was about getting to that lap number we targeted, that’s why maybe in the middle of that stint I was not entirely sure if I was going to make it, but then as soon as I was getting close to that number I was like ‘OK this is good’.

“So then I started pushing and could extend the gap again, which really made my race today I think. Because once we pitted then of course I had the fresher tyres to the end but also the tyres which were a bit more fragile today.

“I had a good battle with Checo. We were free to race which was said before, and we had a good go at it. Of course most important is that we don’t touch but that all worked out really well.”

From Perez’s point of view, as much as he wanted the victory that would have taken him into the championship lead he toed the line between risk and reward against the sister Red Bull.

“Obviously at the end of the day we have to put the team ahead of us,” Perez said. “We are two drivers but there are so many people back home working really hard, so we have to stay respectful and at the end we had a really good fight between us and a bit more would have been contact, and I don’t think that would have been fair for any of us. Only for Fernando.”

Alonso was a distant third ahead of Russell, with Sainz similarly unable to challenge from fifth. But there was more late action in the fight for sixth as Leclerc forced Gasly into a mistake at Turn 1. That allowed Hamilton a run on the Alpine to clear him within a lap, and then with just over two to go he wedged his car between the wall and Leclerc’s Ferrari to cap a solid recovery drive.

“It was mega,” Hamilton said. “It was really great to have pace, see the cars up ahead and seeing the progress, knowing that I’ll be battling with people. I had a couple of great overtakes as well. That’s what I live for.”

Demoted to eighth late on saw Gasly end up where Alpine’s pace ultimately suggested, with Ocon backing him up in ninth and Kevin Magnussen holding onto tenth. It was a result that earned him the final point despite Yuki Tsunoda threatening to close him down after another strong drive from the AlphaTauri driver that was highlighted by a great move on Bottas at Turn 17.

There was ultimately no reward for Tsunoda but as the top three headed for the podium, Verstappen was subject to a little more hostility from those not wanting to see him run away with the title.

“I think if I would be driving in the back nobody would do anything in terms of reaction,” Verstappen said. “It’s normal when you are winning and they don’t like who is winning. It’s something for me that is absolutely fine. As long as I stand on the top that is the most important. I take the trophy home and they go back to their houses and they can have a nice evening.”

It’s a trophy the Dutchman fully earned, because this time Perez had no response to him.

2023 Miami Grand Prix race results

*Includes point for fastest lap
**Includes 5sec penalty