Max Verstappen wins Miami Grand Prix Sprint

Round 6 of the season, Miami Grand Prix sprint and qualifying took place at Miami International Autodrome.

Max Verstappen of Oracle Red Bull Racing, supported by Honda as a Team Partner, won the sprint race. Sergio Perez of the same team finished 3rd.

Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team's Daniel Ricciardo finished 4th, Yuki Tsunoda finished 8th.

In qualifying after the sprint race, Verstappen took pole position. Perez was P4, Tsunoda was P10, Ricciardo was P18.

Max Verstappen

The car felt better after the changes that we made, but we have found that there were quite a few combining factors that make it very tricky to drive around this track. It has been difficult over the weekend with the tyres, as they have quite low grip, overheat quickly and we have also struggled with the balance of the car. It has just been quite unpredictable, and everyone has found that it has been difficult to put a lap in. Despite this, ultimately the most important thing is that we put it on pole and that this is seven poles in a row, which is something to be proud of. We have the changes in place to make it more of a straightforward race tomorrow and it was good to get the win in the Sprint race earlier today too. Once the tyres stabilise in the race when they are hot, it will feel a bit more normal to drive. The strategy will be a bit simpler tomorrow, so hopefully that will bring my tyre degradation down too. We will see what the race brings.

Sergio Perez

It was a very tricky session, it was all too much with the grip, it was too hot and too on the limit. We didn’t maximise the potential, I think we could have had a shot at pole but I made a mistake on my final lap at turn eight, which probably lost me the front row. Unfortunately, I am on the wrong side of the tenth today, but we go again tomorrow. We will analyse our session because we were fast and we had more than we showed. Other than that, I think everyone had the same struggles today, some laps I was struggling to match myself from Q1. It will be a very demanding race and quite a challenge in the heat but the pace is there and anything can happen. Hopefully the changes we made to the car today from the Sprint will translate into race pace.

Daniel Ricciardo

It was a very tough Sprint race, but I felt awesome, fighting towards the front just feels so much nicer. I saw a Ferrari in the mirror for almost the whole race and I thought, alright, challenge accepted, let’s do what we can! Every lap I was able to hold off Carlos (Sainz), so when I saw the end of the race coming near, I really thought that maybe we could maintain the position. It was a Sprint race in all forms of the word and was without any tyre-saving. I’m proud of myself and the team, of all the people who stood behind me and believed in me. There’s happiness for sure, but also some powerful emotions, especially looking at the first few races of the season. Thanks to the people for having some patience and then being awarded with a result like this. We all deserve this result as we went through a bit of stuff to get here, so it’s even nicer.

Yuki Tsunoda

First of all, happy for the team, and congrats to them and Daniel for today’s Sprint race! For me, it’s very mixed feelings; I lost the battle against Lewis (Hamilton) in the end. If he didn’t get a penalty in the Sprint, I would be P9, and even though the final result was P8, he did a very good job of overtaking me. If I had defended better, I think I could’ve finished ahead of him at the chequered flag. It is frustrating as a driver to lose a battle, but I did enjoy it, and something I can learn from. As a driver, I’m not fully happy, but I’m happy to pay back to the team and score a point, especially after not being able to put it all together yesterday to extract the performance of the car.