MAX MIAMI HEIST
Verstappen snatches win from Leclerc to narrow the title lead
MAX VERSTAPPEN became the first driver to win the Miami Grand Prix after surviving a late onslaught from title rival Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen was cruising home after passing Leclerc early in the race but a late safety car brought them back together for a restart with 10 laps to go.
Leclerc pushed, but Red Bull’s Verstappen held his nerve to cut the Frenchman’s championship lead to 19 points as his title defence took a turn for the better.
But, preditably, Lewis Hamilton’s struggles continued after placing sixth.
Hamilton continues to watch Verstappen and Leclerc slug it out – with the two title rivals in a league of their own once again in America,
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz hung on to third for the final podium position ahead of Sergio Perez and Mercedes’ George Russell, who pipped Hamilton.
Basketball great Michael Jordan, Grand Slam tennis champions Serena and Venus Williams, former England captain David Beckham, Hollywood’s Matt Damon and pop star Pharrell Williams led the cast on a celebrity-fuelled and manic prerace grid.
But Zhou Guanyu’s early retirement looked to be the only withdrawal on what appeared an almost incident-free afternoon in the Florida sun.
That changed on the 41st lap of 57, however, when Lando Norris collided with the unaware Pierre Gasly, the former’s basketballthemed helmet failing to provide much fortune on the day. That sparked the late charge for Leclerc but Verstappen held on.
It is a different story for Hamilton, who started sixth and finished in the same position after he was usurped by Russell with nine laps to run.
“Strategy has not been kind to me, man,” he said over the radio.
Russell has now finished ahead of Hamilton at every race bar one, with the seven-time world champion 68 points behind Leclerc after just five rounds.
Hamilton has won six times and sealed two of his seven titles in the US. But those triumphs will feel like a distant memory. Britain’s recordbreaking star was involved in a jewellery row in the build-up to the race, threatening to pull out, and when Russell made his late move to deal Hamilton another blow, he might well have wished he had.