Max Verstappen stuns with victory from P9, as Red Bull made the wrong strategic calls for Sergio Perez

Max Verstappen expresses his delight winning the Miami GP starting ninth on the grid and stomping over his teammate who started on pole but was held back by strategy.

Max Verstappen stuns with victory from P9, as Red Bull made the wrong strategic calls for Sergio Perez

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez congratulating each other after Miami GP (Credits: sporting news)

Max Verstappen has done it again, winning the Miami Grand Prix in his trademark style. The Dutchman started the race in ninth place after failing to set a representative time before the red flags brought in by Charles Leclerc’s crash. However, Verstappen had an amazing race, swiftly climbing up the field and eventually securing victory. At the same time, his teammate Sergio Perez who started on the pole, had to settle for second owing to a strategic failure.

“Yeah, it was a good race. I mean, I stayed out of trouble initially, and then I had a clean race,” the Dutchman said. “I picked them off one by one, and then I could stay out really long on hard tires. That’s where we made the difference today,” Max Verstappen said in his post-race interview hosted by 2009 champion Jenson Button.

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Despite starting on hard tyres and having a sluggish start, Verstappen was posting better lap times than his teammate Sergio Perez on worn out tyres. And by lap 18, he was in second place, and was handed the lead once his teammate pitted for fresh rubber. Max’s win now equals Sebastian Vettel’s record for the most number of wins as a Red Bull driver, 37.

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Max and Sergio (1)
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez

The Red Bull teammates had a differing strategy for their cars with Max starting on hard tyres and Sergio on mediums. However, it was Max’s strategy that won out. “We started talking about it yesterday, we didn’t know what the weather would do, but we were quite confident that this will pay off, and luckily it did today,” Verstappen said.

Red Bull has been having the time of their life this season, building a mighty car that has allowed their drivers to trade victories all through the first five races. Verstappen winning the race from ninth place is a testament to this. It is the first time since 1984 that a driver from ninth place has won a race.

Despite speculations that the Red Bull teammates’ dynamic was out of shape, the duo appreciated each other and lauded each other for their performance. Max had to pass his teammate after he had to pit for fresh tyres, and he seemed to have enjoyed it. “There was a good little battle with Checo at the end, but we all kept it clean, and that’s more important. It was a great win today!”

In the end, Verstappen finished the race with over five seconds ahead of Perez, proving that he was in a league of his own. The Miami Grand Prix saw no incidents and no retirements, making it only the 14th race in the history of F1 with no DNFs. Verstappen, Perez, and Fernando Alonso stood on the podium for this race, and it remains to be seen if Sergio can keep up with Max’s alarming pace.

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