MADRID, 4 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Dutch driver Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) took the Sprint of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix this Saturday, the sixth round of the World Championship, after leading from start to finish a race where an aggressive movement by the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes ) weighed down the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) to seventeenth place, while his compatriot Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) finished in fifth position.
In the presence of the singer Camila Cabello and the former soccer player Zinédine Zidane, this test began with 19 laps of the Miami International Circuit. Verstappen made a good start, but not his teammate, since the Mexican Sergio Pérez blocked tires when taking the first corner and gave way to the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and then to the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (Visa Cash App RB ).
From behind, Hamilton attacked outside of a usual line and with greater speed than apparently correct. The Englishman’s car touched Alonso’s, Alonso’s touched that of his teammate, Canadian Lance Stroll, and Stroll’s touched that of fellow Englishman Lando Norris (McLaren).
That carom knocked out Stroll and Norris, leaving the Spaniard as the last of the 18 drivers still on the track. At the same time, the safety car came out, leaving at the beginning of lap 4, an instance that led to Hamilton being penalized for speeding in the pit lane.
At the top of the classification, Ricciardo soon lost his earned place and was just ahead of Sainz, fifth. Despite having DRS enabled for lap 5, the man from Madrid did not manage to overtake the ‘Aussie’; He did get close enough to try during the 12th, on that occasion from the outside, although without success.
While Verstappen enjoyed his lead without any scares of any kind, in the middle of the grid the eyes of the Grand Prix stewards fell on the maneuvers of the Dane Kevin Magnussen (Haas), penalized for having exceeded the limits of the track up to four times, although he continued fighting with the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (Visa Cash App RB).
It was of little use to the Dane, to whom those sanctions were applied in the form of slowness as soon as he saw the checkered flag, dropping from tenth to eighteenth place and remaining just behind Alonso. This Sprint under conditions of full sun and without breakdowns was a new example of dominance by Verstappen, winner (31:31.383) ahead of Leclerc (+3.371) and Pérez (+5.095).