Weather: air 32, track 40
All the cars bar three line up on Medium tyres. The two Aston Martins start from pitlane.
Start
As the lights go out, Charles keep the lead, while Carlos is overtaken by Max Verstappen.
Lap 9
Verstappen passes Charles to take the lead.
Lap 24
Leclerc stops to switch from Medium to Hard tyres and rejoins fourth.
Lap 27
Verstappen pits so Carlos leads the Grand Prix.
Lap 28
Now Sainz and Perez change tyres. Verstappen leads, followed by Leclerc and Sainz.
Lap 41
There’s contact between Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris. Virtual Safety Car followed by the real Safety Car.
None of the top three pit, but Perez does, going from Hard to Medium tyres.
Lap 47
The race resumes. Charles tries to pass Verstappen but cannot manage it, even though the pair are incredibly
close in terms of pace.
FinishCharles keeps trying until, with two laps to go, he decides to bring home the 18 points for second
place, while Carlos put up a heroic defence to fend off Sergio Perez and his new Medium tyres. Verstappen
wins from Charles and Carlos. Scuderia Ferrari and Leclerc keep the lead in their respective championships.
Charles Leclerc #16
All in all, we had a good weekend here in Miami, so of course I am disappointed to miss out on first place.
While we had good pace on the Hard tyres, it was more tricky for us on the Mediums which our competitors
were just faster on today, so we couldn’t close the gap in the first stint. I thought we’d have a shot at taking
back the lead after the Safety Car, but it just wasn’t enough today.
I thought the atmosphere was amazing this weekend and there was a really great show around the race and I
look forward to coming back!
Carlos Sainz #55
After a couple of eventful GPs, it’s good to be back on the podium and to have both cars up there for the
team. In general, it was a solid race but also a very tough one. The neck is still not 100% and half way
through the race it became a limitation.
Defending from Checo (Perez) who was on new Mediums after the restart was also very tough and the
slightest mistake would have meant losing P3. I managed to fend him off well and the podium was the reward.
I think I needed a race like this to reset a bit and build on it for the upcoming races. Up next is my home GP
and we’ll make sure we get there in the very best. Miami has been a unique weekend. Thanks to all the fans
out there for their support!
Mattia Binotto, Team Principal & Managing Director
We can’t be completely happy with today’s race because, although the F1-75 was competitive, our rivals were
a few tenths per lap quicker than us. If you consider how many points we are taking home from here, we can’t
be too disappointed, given that we are leading both championships, but it’s clear we now need to respond.
We are keen to get the job done and there are still a lot of races to go.
I want to congratulate both our drivers for the way they raced today. After a splendid pole yesterday, Charles
left nothing on the table in his efforts to win while, from qualifying onwards, Carlos made up for Friday’s
setback and this afternoon, he produced a solid performance, especially in the way he fended off Perez in
style in the closing stages.
Finally, I want to thank the American fans for their enthusiastic welcome and my congratulations to F1 and
the Grand Prix organisers for putting on an incredible show, both on and off the track.
George Russell
It’s mixed feelings to be honest because obviously based on where we were yesterday, today was a good
result but if you’d told me after Friday we’d finish P5 and P6 and that far behind P1, I’d have been pretty
disappointed. We have a fast race car in there, we just don’t have the key to unlock this performance. And we
don’t really understand why that is so there’s work to do. Towards the end of the race today, when you’re
battling with your teammate, you’ve got to show respect, a bit more room than normal. The move was a bit
tricky, I went a bit wide, but it’s so dirty offline around this circuit. Obviously it was clear I went off the track
and had to do it all over again. I enjoyed it and I think there’s good respect between us. But Lewis was
unlucky today, when you are on 20 lap old Hard tyres there’s not a lot you can do really. It was brutal race
out there - so hot, sweating, my eyes were stinging, I had sweat pouring into my eyes, so I need to find a way
to get around that.
Lewis Hamilton
We got good points as a team today, so we’ll take them and move on. I was unfortunate with the safety car
and I’m waiting for a change in fortune but until then, I’ll just keep working as hard as I can. George did a
great job in that first stint on the Hard tyre, in hindsight the Hard tyre was probably the better race tyre for
today but George did well to recover from his position and we got fifth and sixth which is good points for the
team. I was a bit of a sitting duck in our move but George did great, was very fair and on old tyres, there
wasn’t much I could do. Even running in our positions, it’s still racing, it just changes your perspective. I
thought the track was great, I don’t think the chicane is ideal but that’s the only weak point on this circuit.
Toto Wolff
We maximised our points today - with George’s starting position, we could afford to roll the dice on a long
stint on the Hard and it worked out for him with the safety car, while it was unfortunate for Lewis. We were
third-quickest on the road, this is where we are, we don’t sometimes show it in qualifying but in the races,
we’re generally better. We had a good Friday but didn’t quite understand why that was. We will be looking at
all the data we’ve generated this weekend, working through the sessions on Friday to better understand the
strong performance, and take those learnings back to Europe.
Andrew Shovlin
We maximised the result that was possible today and both drivers did a good job. Lewis was unlucky with the
safety car but both did well to get ahead of Valtteri. The car showed signs of promise on Friday on low and
high fuel so it’s disappointing to see that the gap to the front was no smaller today. However, there may be
something to learn from that running so we’ll pick through the data to see if we can see understand what may
have changed. It was encouraging to see that pit stops and reliability were strong as good operations have
helped us keep the points gap to the leaders to a minimum so far this season. However, we’re under no
illusion that we must close that lap time gap down in the next few weeks if we are to present any kind of
challenge to Red Bull or Ferrari.
Esteban Ocon
“What a race! A big thank you to the team for all the hard work overnight putting back together what was a
pretty broken car after that big shunt in practice on Saturday. They are the real stars this weekend. For me, it
feels great to come away with points after starting from the back of the grid and I’m definitely leaving happy
after such a tough day yesterday. The car and the strategy were great, it was a well-managed race and we’re
capping off an exhilarating first race weekend in Miami in style. Now we need to keep that momentum as we
head back to Europe for the next round.”
Fernando Alonso
“I’m happy to be back in the points today. In the race I made some good moves at the start and gained some
positions. We were a bit unlucky with the timing of the Safety Car and some others were quite fortunate. We
were probably in the fight for seventh or eighth without it. I then made a mistake when I tried to overtake
Pierre [Gasly], which was my fault and I apologise. Overall, I think our race pace seemed to be good. It was
also very hot and humid, so it was quite challenging physically for us. We’ll take the points today as I think
we deserved it.”
Laurent Rossi, CEO Alpine
“We’re satisfied with today’s race as it’s been a decent recovery effort to save our weekend. We come away
from Miami by returning to the points, which was important after tasting disappointment in Imola. Credit to
Esteban for driving a strong race to go from the back of the grid to eighth place. This would have not been
possible without his car crew’s exceptional work in preparing a new chassis after yesterday’s incident. To
score points is a just reward for everyone’s efforts. Fernando too drove a solid race, especially at the start to
move himself into points scoring contention. Miami has proved to be an excellent event both on track and off
it, so congratulations to everyone at the team for their hard work this weekend. We must build on our points
haul and we now look forward to Barcelona where we return to more familiar grounds. We’re hungry to restart a
points-scoring streak over the next string of races.”
Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal
“It shows how much progress we have made this year that we’re actually a bit disappointed with P7 – which is
a really good result in itself. We were really strong out there today and we ran most of the race comfortably in
P5, just behind the two Red Bulls and Ferraris: the timing of the Safety Car really affected us, nullifying
Valtteri’s advantage over the two Mercedeses. Still, bringing home six points is a positive result and another
gain for our championship standings, but we know we can improve even more. It was disappointing to lose
Zhou early in the race with a water leak, as we feel he would have also been in the battle for some points: we
will need to address the issue that stopped him and make sure we come back stronger on this point, too. The
direction we are headed, however, is clear and it’s positive. We know we can be competitive every weekend
and we aim to keep fighting to achieve more success in the next rounds.”
Valtteri Bottas #77 7th Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN C42 (Chassis 01)
“I am happy with our performance, it was a strong race although, in the end, we were penalised by the timing
of the Safety Car. I was managing the gap over Lewis [Hamilton] and P5 would have been possible, but once
the race was neutralised, the gap was gone and George [Russell] was on fresh tyres behind us, so keeping
this place would have been difficult. I was trying to brake late to defend my position, overshot the braking point
slightly and sadly the nature of the track here means that if you go off the line a little and into the dirt, you’re
off and you hit the wall. I was lucky nothing broke on the car and I could continue. Still, we bring home some
good points which will be super important for the championship, and we showed we can fight on a par with
everyone in the midfield. It’s all very close and the way we keep developing will be important to stay ahead in
this fight.”
Zhou Guanyu #24 dnf Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN C42 (Chassis 02)
“It’s a shame to be forced to retire when we were making good inroads: I feel we had all it took to achieve a
positive result today. We are still investigating what the issue was, all we know is that it was a water leak but
we’ll need to identify the causes and address them. It’s frustrating, of course, but it’s part of racing. My short
race wasn’t bad, I was three places up from where I started when I retired and I felt the car was really good.
Now my focus is all on the next race: I want to turn things around and be where we deserve to be, but to do
so we need to put everything together across the weekend.”
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