Polesitter Max Verstappen won the Miami Sprint this afternoon followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and in third Sergio Perez.
As Verstappen and Leclerc got close at the start, Perez almost took the opportunity to make a move that was unsuccessful. RB’s Daniel Ricciardo took the opportunity and nabbed P3 away into turn 2.
The Safety Car was triggered when McLaren’s Lando Norris was left stranded in turn one after an unfortunate collision with both Aston Martins and Lewis Hamilton.
After the Safety Car came in, Verstappen led the grid to the restart with Leclerc and Ricciardo right behind him. Perez got DRS and was able to overtake Ricciardo into turn 11 on lap 5.
Perez took the chequered flag and finished in P3, the same place as he qualified, ending up 1.7s behind Charles Leclerc.
“Yeah, it was hard to get through Daniel the in beginning. I got through quite quickly, but I was 3 seconds from Charles and given the short duration of the race, it was pretty tricky.
“I was like getting within two seconds, 1.8, but then it was quite hard to get a little bit closer. So, anyway, Let’s look forward for the rest of the weekend.”
He also thanked the amazing fan support he has been receiving in Miami, a location in the United States that is relatively close to his home country of Mexico.
“Yeah, the fans are amazing. It’s really nice to be here with all of them, and I really hope I can give them a great race.”
When asked how he would perform in qualifying, the Red Bull driver said he was quite optimistic that he could perform well as he looks to continue his fine start to 2024.
“Yeah, I think we will be able to be strong. So I definitely look forward to it.”
