The 2023 F1 Miami GP was a thrilling street circuit race that runs around the Hard Rock Stadium. The race saw Max Verstappen claim his third win of the season and reinforce his f1 standings after a brilliant recovery drive from ninth place on the grid.
The Red Bull driver gambled on starting on the hard tires and made his way through the field with some stunning overtakes, before catching and passing his teammate Sergio Perez, who had started from pole position, in the final laps.
Perez held on to second place to complete a Red Bull one-two, while George Russell scored his first podium for Mercedes in 2023 after finishing third.
In this article, we will recap the highlights and results of the 2023 F1 Miami GP, the fifth round of the championship and a new addition to the F1 calendar
2023 Miami GP – 5th May to 7th May
Max Verstappen drove an incredible race from 9th on the grid. After a difficult qualifying session he stormed past the rest of the field with a Red Bull car that was unmatched by anyone else.
His car used the opposite strategy(hard tire at the start) to the other side of the Red Bull garage. Perez started on the medium compound.
Sergio drove a great race and managed to stay in front of Fernado Alonso who was alongside him on the first row.
Max dropped back to 10th after Valtteri Bottas who started next to him got away faster!
2023 Miami GP – Max Proved His Dominance
Verstappen demonstrated how unflinching brutal he is when he has the right car. he quickly passed the cars that were ahead before the end of the second lap. These were followed by passing Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen. They didn’t fight the inevitable because they were fighting for 6th place.
Max was merciless as he got a tow from George Russell and then with DRS actively shot passed the young Mercedes driver.
Pierre Gasly was next to feel the tornado and was easily overtaken on the following lap at the popular Turn 17 hairpin. By this time Verstappen fourth and at least looking to get onto the podium..
Getting behind Carlos Sainz took a little more patience but with the help of DRS on lap 14 he soon overtook. He was now in 3rd place.
2023 Miami GP – Fernando Alonso Continued Their Surge
2nd place was won from Alonso on the next lap. Sergio Perez was 3.6s ahead at this point, but was starting to think that he had the wrong tire strategy. The front right tire was starting to give up as the mediums began to chafe in the hot Miami conditions.
Verstappen reduced the gap to 2.2s before Perez pitted to change his worn medium tires for a set of hards on lap 20. Max went into the lead.
Chasing Max from behind Perez has a very difficult task to reduce the 18-second disadvantage to Verstappen.
By lap 32, Max’s tires were deteriorating and Sergio Perez had reduced the gap to 14.8s. As if toying with Sergio. Max sped up and managed to ensure the gap and never let the lap become less than 13 seconds.
Max Pits And Comes Out Behind Sergio
12 laps from the checkered flag Verstappen pitted to for his medium tires. Before pitting he grew his lead 18.3 seconds. When he came out of the pits the gap between the two was only 1.6s.
Max was now on mediums and had no need to look after them. The result was that on the 47th lap, at turn 17 his DRS advantage was almost impossible to fight against. Perez did move to the center of the track but it was a short reprieve.
The Final Miami GP Results
There was no stopping the Dutchman and he blasted past into Turn 1 on the next lap to secure his winning position.
To add salt to the wound, Max scored the fastest lap on the second last round.
Perez finished 5.3s behind Max. Alonso achieved his fourth podium of the season, even though he was 20.9s behind.
George Russell persistently worked his way through the pack and for his efforts finished 4th.
Lewis Hamilton overtook Leclerc on the 55th lap to at sixth. To achieve this he had to move up from his dismal 13th position on the grid. Afterwards he seemed to be happy to have moved forward so decisively.
Leclerc spent a large part of the race behind Magnussen and converted seventh on the grid to the same position by the end, ahead of the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Ocon.
Magnussen completed the top 10, 1.3s clear of a rapidly closing Yuki Tsunoda by the end of the race.
The Final Miami F1 Results
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 57 | 27:38.2 | 26 |
| 2 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 57 | +5.384s | 18 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 57 | +26.305s | 15 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | 57 | +33.229s | 12 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 57 | +42.511s | 10 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 57 | +51.249s | 8 |
| 7 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 57 | +52.988s | 6 |
| 8 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 57 | +55.670s | 4 |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 57 | +58.123s | 2 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 57 | +62.945s | 1 |
| 11 | Yuki Tsunoda | Alphatauri | 57 | +64.309s | 0 |
| 12 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 57 | +64.754s | 0 |
| 13 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 57 | +71.637s | 0 |
| 14 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 57 | +72.861s | 0 |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 57 | +74.950s | 0 |
| 16 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 57 | +78.440s | 0 |
| 17 | Lando Norris | Mclaren | 57 | +87.717s | 0 |
| 18 | Nyck De Vries | Alphatauri | 57 | +88.949s | 0 |
| 19 | Oscar Piastri | Mclaren | 56 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 20 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 56 | +1 lap | 0 |
