Max Verstappen dominated proceedings at the Miami Grand Prix on Saturday, as expected, taking victory in the sprint race before qualifying on pole for Sunday’s main feature race. But the day was overshadowed by some stinging criticism of Lewis Hamilton by rival Fernando Alonso, who accused the Briton of “ruining a lot of people’s races” after a first-corner shunt in the short-format sprint.
In a remark which could well attract the attention of the sport’s governing body the FIA, Alonso also alleged Hamilton only avoided a penalty from the stewards for that incident because he was “not Spanish”.
Hamilton, starting P12 in the Sprint after a difficult qualifying session on Friday, got away well in the 19-lap race. But as he flew up the inside of his rivals into Turn 1, he could not avoid contact with the Aston Martin of Alonso outside him.
Alonso, finding himself squeezed between Hamilton and teammate Lance Stroll, also made contact with the latter, with the Canadian in turn clipping the rear wheel of Lando Norris’ McLaren.
The incident, which brought out a safety car, caused both Stroll and Norris to retire from the race, a particularly painful outcome for Norris who had looked as if he had the pace to qualify on pole on Friday.
Alonso, meanwhile, picked up a puncture, eventually finishing 17th.
And the Spaniard, who accused Hamilton over his radio of having arrived at T1 “like a bull”, did not hide his feelings afterwards, laying blame for the collision squarely at the door of the Mercedes driver and suggesting darkly that stewards would have penalised the seven-time world champion had he been Spanish rather than British.
“We’ll see what they [the stewards] decide,” the two-time world champion said, apparently unaware they had already looked at, and dismissed, the incident. “I imagine they won’t decide anything, because he isn’t Spanish. But I think he ruined a lot of people’s races, especially Norris – who has a very fast car.”
Speaking after the sprint race, Norris agreed with Alonso that it was “obvious” who was responsible for the crash. “Lewis dived up the inside and caused the incident,” Norris told the official F1 channel. “Nothing I could do about that.”
The stewards, explaining their decision to take no further action, noted that the first collision actually took place between Alonso and Stroll, rather than Alonso and Hamilton. But they added that the “fast arrival” of Hamilton had certainly contributed to the pileup.
“However,” they continued, “we were not able to identify one or more drivers wholly or predominantly to blame for the various collisions or any one of them. Also keeping in mind that this was in Turn 1 of Lap 1 where greater latitude is given to drivers for incidents, we took no further action.”
Hamilton’s mood would not have been helped by how his Sprint race ultimately panned out.
Although the 39 year-old survived the first-corner contact, he spent most of the ensuing 19 laps stuck behind the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
The Dane picked up no fewer than three penalties in a desperate bid to hold off Hamilton, all of them “well deserved” by Magnussen’s own admission, so as to allow his teammate Nico Hulkenberg to escape up the road.
And when Hamilton did finally manage to pass the Haas, and Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpine, to finish eighth, and pick up a solitary point, the Briton’s misery continued as he was hit with a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Given he could not serve it as the race was over, that converted into a 20-second post-race time penalty, dropping Hamilton to P16. Ironically one place ahead of Alonso.
It’s getting CLOSE between Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda takes advantage! 🫣
The Haas driver already has a 10-second penalty for going off track earlier ⚠ pic.twitter.com/M2q87WO5B5
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 4, 2024
Hamilton’s teammate George Russell did not have much more luck, getting stuck in a DRS train and finishing 12th having started 11th.
At the front of the race, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen held off Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with a minimum of fuss to extend his lead in the drivers’ championship.
“Well done, Max. First win of the weekend done,” commented the world champion’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase after the chequered flag dropped.
Verstappen certainly looks odds on to make it a sprint weekend double, as he did in China last time out. The Dutch driver beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to pole in qualifying for the main race later on Saturday afternoon. Verstappen was 0.141 seconds quicker than Leclerc. Carlos Sainz made it a Ferrari two-three ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
McLaren’s Lando Norris could not quite find the pace he showed on Friday but the 24 year-old will line up fifth for the race ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri.
Russell and Hamilton, who unconventionally took medium tyres on their final runs in qualifying, were seventh and eighth.”
Verstappen wins sprint: As it happened…
06:45 PM BST
Qualifying come up
We will be back in a bit for qualifying for Sunday’s race, which kicks off at 9pm BST.
06:42 PM BST
Zizou in Miami
06:39 PM BST
How the sprint race started
06:34 PM BST
Miami having fun in the sun
06:32 PM BST
Lewis reflects on sprint race
“I think that’s pretty honest of him and I think that’s pretty cool.” 🤝
Lewis Hamilton on Kevin Magnussen’s aggressive defensive driving and admission he had to do it for the good of his Haas team’s result. pic.twitter.com/ba7uyDxA17
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 4, 2024
06:28 PM BST
Russell a little disgruntled
06:23 PM BST
Sixth place for Piastri
06:21 PM BST
Daniel Ricciardo a happy man
“It’s a happy feeling. It’s a powerful feeling.” 💪
Daniel Ricciardo reflects on his first top four finish since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix! 👏 pic.twitter.com/j22cg74NXE
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 4, 2024
06:16 PM BST
Ricciardo finishes fourth
06:11 PM BST
Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg speaking to Sky Sports
“We don’t get paid to give up positions, we get paid to race hard” 💰🏎
Nico Hulkenberg on teammate Kevin Magnussen’s tactics which helped Haas score points in the Sprint 👇 pic.twitter.com/PGAXwqpSO7
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 4, 2024
06:09 PM BST
Toto Wolff speaking to Sky Sports
“I don’t think you can expect a lot in a Sprint race. There was not lots of overtaking. You can see a quick car on the straight like Ricciardo is able to hold back the train and end up where he started.
“I think the penalty for pit-lane speeding, these things can happen… these errors. In that respect I think the pace of the car was not so bad today, from the limited amount we were able to see there.
“Setup wise, clearly we need to change direction for qualy. We weren’t working the mediums at all (in Sprint Qualifying). Literally zero grip, and then you get all the snaps and you have no performance anymore. It’s no excuse. We’ve seen it with other teams, McLaren in Q3 on the softs and suddenly going backwards. They remain a little bit of a trick, but it’s the same for everyone.”
06:01 PM BST
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen speaking to Sky Sports
“All the penalties were well deserved – no doubt about it. But I had to play the game again.
“I was in a very good position behind Nico [Hulkenberg, his Haas team-mate] there. In the beginning of the race I gained a lot of positions and was up in P8. I was protecting well from Lewis because I had the DRS from Nico and I had good pace. Then Nico cut the chicane and I lost the DRS. Nico could have given that back to give me the DRS to protect because then we would have easily been P7 and P8.
“Instead I was really vulnerable to Lewis. Started fighting with him like crazy and I had to just create the gap like I did in Jeddah. I started using these stupid tactics which I don’t like doing, but the end of the day I did my job as a team player and Nico scored his points because I got that gap for him so Lewis and Tsunoda couldn’t catch him. Not the way I like to go racing at all but it was what I had to do today.”
05:57 PM BST
Full classification
Max Verstappen
Charles Leclerc
Sergio Perez
Daniel Ricciardo
Carlos Sainz
Oscar Piastri
Nico Hulkenberg
Yuki Tsunoda
Pierre Gasly
Logan Sargeant
Zhou Guanyu
George Russell
Alex Albon
Valtteri Bottas
Esteban Ocon
Lewis Hamilton
Fernando Alonso
Kevin Magnussen
DNF:
Lance Stroll
Lando Norris
05:55 PM BST
Third place Sergio Perez
“It was really hard to get through Daniel at the beginning. Once I got through I was three seconds from Charles and given the short duration of the race it was pretty tricky. I was getting within two seconds but then it was quite hard to get a little bit closer.
“Anyway, let’s look forward for the rest of the weekend. 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 this weekend.”
05:52 PM BST
Second place Charles Leclerc
“I had quite a good start and then I was in the inside of Turn One and obviously I didn’t want to take too many risks because we’ve also got qualifying later on. If you crash in Sprint you probably don’t participate later on! So I tried there, we both braked very, very late with Max, but eventually he got to keep the position.
“I was pushing very hard but in the first few laps they had a bit more pace. But then we had a similar degradation and so tomorrow, it’s a long race so qualifying will be important to be starting as much in front as possible. Then hopefully we can put them under pressure with strategy.”
05:49 PM BST
Sprint winner Max Verstappen
“My engagement wasn’t good at the start so I had to squeeze him (Leclerc) a bit. Luckily everything worked out in turn 1. Then we had the Safety Car to calm things down a little bit, but after that, steadily we could increase the gap a little bit, but it wasn’t entirely perfect. So we still have a bit of work to do.
“At least now with the new format we can still finetune the car a little bit, so we hopefully we can improve it a little bit for later in qualifying and especially for tomorrow in the race. But a win is good. I’m happy with that and it gives us a good few points to look at to improve on.”
05:49 PM BST
The top three
Let us hear from the top three drivers; Verstappen, Leclerc and Perez…
05:42 PM BST
Top 8 in the points positions
Verstappen 8pts
Leclerc 7pts
Perez 6pts
Ricciardo 5pts
Sainz 4pts
Piastri 3pts
Hulkenberg 2pts
Tsunoda 1pt
05:42 PM BST
Hamilton slapped with penalty
Hamilton was under investigation for a pitlane infringement and he has now received a drive-through penalty, which takes him out of the points as it equates to a 20-second penalty as he cannot serve the drive-through penalty after the race. It seems strange that the stewards did not punish a few drivers at the start for crashing Norris out of the race yet handed out numerous penalties during the rest of the sprint.
05:38 PM BST
Three penalties for Magnussen
Kevin Magnussen has just received a five-second penalty, which means he has received three penalties in the sprint totaling 25 seconds.
05:37 PM BST
Ricciardo fourth
Daniel Ricciardo holds onto fourth place, two tenths of a second ahead of Carlos Sainz. Oscar Piastri comes home half a second behind Sainz. Nico Hulkenberg comes home in seventh. On the last lap Lewis Hamilton managed to get past Yuki Tsunoda for eighth.
05:35 PM BST
Verstappen wins sprint
Max Verstappen comes across the line to win the sprint. Charles Leclerc comes home in second followed by Sergio Perez.
05:34 PM BST
Lap 19 of 19
Ricciardo is holding onto fourth at the moment. We are onto the final lap and it looks like Verstappen is going to secure the sprint win.
05:31 PM BST
Lap 17 of 19- Top 10
Verstappen
Leclerc
Perez
Ricciardo
Sainz
Piastri
Hulkenberg
Tsunoda
Hamilton
Magnussen
05:31 PM BST
Lap 16 of 19- another penalty for Magnussen
The Dane already had one 10-second penalty, but you can now make that two. It is all going to pieces for the Haas driver.
05:29 PM BST
Lap 15 of 19- Magnussen dropping
Tsunoda has got past Magnussen as has Hamilton. Magnussen is down into 10th and has a 10-second penalty.
05:27 PM BST
Lap 14 of 19- ding-dong battle for eighth
Magnussen and Hamilton are having a real fight for the final point in the sprint. Magnussen has been given a black and white flag for track infringements, which means if he does it again he will receive another penalty.
Into turn 11 Hamilton tries to go on the outside as he tries to overtake Magnussen. The Dane holds position on the inside but they both go deep. That allows Tsunoda to get past Hamilton into ninth.
It’s getting CLOSE between Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda takes advantage! 🫣
The Haas driver already has a 10-second penalty for going off track earlier ⚠ pic.twitter.com/M2q87WO5B5
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 4, 2024
05:24 PM BST
Lap 11 of 19- Hamilton battling Magnussen
Into turn 11 Hamilton tries to go on the outside to get past Magnussen, but the Dane holds on. Hamilton tries the switch-back but Magnussen just about holds on. The two drives make contact. But Magnussen has just been slapped with a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Hamilton is now under investigation for a pitlane incident.
05:21 PM BST
Lap 10 of 19- Ricciardo holding onto fourth
Ricciardo has lost the DRS behind Perez and he is under huge pressure from both Sainz and Piastri.
Further back towards the bottom of the top ten Hamilton is behind both Haas drivers.
05:18 PM BST
Lap 8 of 19- Top 10
Verstappen
Leclerc
Perez
Ricciardo
Sainz
Piastri
Hulkenberg
Magnussen
Hamilton
Tsunoda
05:14 PM BST
Lap 5 of 19- Perez passes Ricciardo
With DRS activated, Perez sends it down the inside of turn 11 and takes third from Ricciardo.
05:11 PM BST
Lap 4 of 19- green flag
We are back racing. Before the safety car came out Ricciardo got ahead of Perez and into third place.
05:10 PM BST
Lap 3 of 19- SC conditions
The stewards have decided no further action necessary, which seems absurd considering some of the reckless driving from Hamilton and the Astons. Stroll is out of the race after picking up damage in the incident. Alonso has come in for a change of front wings. The safety car is coming in at the end of this lap.
“I’m not sure I agree with that decision” 🤔❌
McLaren boss Zak Brown reacts to the news there will be no further action on the first-corner clash that saw Lando Norris retire 🟠 pic.twitter.com/MR1Hw92T69
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 4, 2024
05:09 PM BST
Lap 2 of 19- SC conditions
The drives are coming through the pitlane to avoid any debris into turn one. Norris was minding his own business on the outside of turn one, giving huge space to everyone else. Hamilton came recklessly flying up the inside and made contact with Alonso. The two Astons touched and then Stroll collided into Norris.
05:06 PM BST
Lap 1 of 19- Norris out as safety car comes out
The safety car has been brought out as Norris’s car is stationary at turn one. The incident is caused by Hamilton and the two Aston Martins, who then whack into Norris.
05:05 PM BST
Lights out
We are under way in the sprint in Miami. Leclerc tries to down the inside of Verstappen but the Dutchman holds on to first place. There are yellow flags waving at turn one as Norris looks like he is out of the race.
05:00 PM BST
Formation lap
The drives are making their way around the track on the formation lap and we are just moments away from lights out in the sprint.
There are 19 laps in this sprint, with no mandatory pit-stops and a free choice of tyres. Points are available from first down to eighth.
Everyone is on the medium tyres, except RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Williams’ Logan Sargeant, who are on the softs near the back of the grid. Sargeant’s teammate Alex Albon starts from the pitlane.
04:56 PM BST
Lando Norris, starting ninth in the sprint, speaking to Sky
“The car was very good yesterday. We kind of just lost it a bit on the soft tyre in SQ3. I think we know why and we’ll try to resurrect it for qualy later today.
“But I think the pace on the medium was strong and hopefully that shows again today.”
04:49 PM BST
Penalty for Ocon
As a result of that pitlane incident, Esteban Ocon has been slapped with a 10-second penalty. Ocon starts 13th in the sprint.
04:47 PM BST
Starting grid for the sprint
Here is the starting top ten for the sprint:
Max Verstappen
Charles Leclerc
Sergio Perez
Daniel Ricciardo
Carlos Sainz
Oscar Piastri
Lance Stroll
Fernando Alonso
Lando Norris
Nico Hulkenberg
Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton start 11th and 12th respectively.
04:38 PM BST
No serious damage for Leclerc
Charles Leclerc will be relieved that the contact with Esteban Ocon has not caused any serious damage, but it does seem like there is a little bit of damage to the rim and wheel. Ferrari are anxiously checking to see if there is any more areas for concern, including the diffuser.
“Maybe the mechanic did send him out at the right time but he didn’t go fast enough” 🤔
Ted and Danica on Esteban Ocon’s pitlane incident ⬇ pic.twitter.com/jZ3bjZ16HB
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 4, 2024
04:35 PM BST
Incident in the pitlane
As the drivers are making their way out to the grid, there has been contact between Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon in the pitlane. Leclerc was going down the pitlane and Ocon for some reason was released by Alpine into Leclerc’s path. Unsurprisingly Alpine are under investigation for an unsafe release. Ferrari have told Leclerc that there is no damage that they can see but Ocon has damaged his front wing as he collided into Leclerc’s rear wheel. Alpine have a spare front wing which the mechanics have brought onto the grid, but it has to be exactly the same if there is to be no penalty.
Contact between Esteban Ocon and Charles Leclerc in the pitlane! 💥😲
The stewards are looking at the incident ⚠ pic.twitter.com/N77C7aLGgG
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 4, 2024
04:31 PM BST
The difference between pole and second
04:27 PM BST
Sky’s Jenson Button on McLaren’s upgrades
“When you look at the previous updates that they’ve had, the correlation has been really good. They put it on the track, and it does as it says on the tin, which is quite unusual in a Formula 1 team, because it’s difficult.
“We saw their pace in SQ2 and it was mighty. I think they’re in a really good place. Once they get it all together and work out which bits work and which bits don’t from the upgrade, they could be close to fighting with Red Bull.
“I know that everyone is going to say, ‘well, you’re just saying that because you want to see a fight.’ Yeah, I do want to see a fight, but this is real.”
04:22 PM BST
Sky crew discuss Mercedes’ woes
“It’s year three of these ground effect regulations, what have we got to do to dial a car in?” 😬
Martin Brundle on Mercedes’ woes, with both cars out of the top ten in Sprint qualifying 👇 pic.twitter.com/uFalfh8C7u
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) May 4, 2024
04:16 PM BST
Changes to the grid
There have been a couple of changes to the grid for the sprint. Valtteri Bottas has received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri going into turn one, so he drops from 16th to 19th. Williams’ Alex Albon will start from the pitlane after making some set-up changes, which breaches parc-ferme rules.
04:10 PM BST
Drivers arriving
04:06 PM BST
Max’s sprint pole lap
03:40 PM BST
Preview
It is a busy Saturday in Miami as we have both the sprint race and qualifying for Sunday’s race all on the same day. First up, we have the sprint at 5pm BST, with qualifying for it taking place yesterday. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will start the sprint on pole after qualifying just over a tenth of a second ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez will start third with RB’s Daniel Ricciardo securing a very surprising fourth place.
It was a disappointing SQ3 for McLaren, who showed great pace in the first two sprint qualifying sessions as Lando Norris topped both SQ1 and SQ2. Norris looked destined to challenge Verstappen for sprint pole but, after a poor opening sector, he finished up in ninth. His his final two sectors in SQ3 were the fastest, but the damage was done by his poor first sector. Norris’ time in SQ2 would have seen him take pole but his time in SQ3 was nine tenths slower than his SQ2 time. Norris was annoyed with the mistakes he made on that lap in SQ3.
“I just pushed too hard, simple as that,” Norris said. “The car was feeling very good. Just silly, to be honest – a couple of mistakes in Turn One and then a big spiral from there. A shame because the team have done a good job. The upgrades are working, happy with everything but not with one thing.”
McLaren have brought a raft of upgrades this weekend and, after showing great pace in the opening two sprint qualifying sessions, they will be disappointed with where they will be starting the sprint. Norris has all of the upgrades on his car whereas his teammate Oscar Piastri, who will the sprint in sixth, has half of the upgrades. Piastri will have all of the upgrades on his car in Imola next time out. Pole-sitter Verstappen admitted after sprint qualifying that he was surprised to be on pole for today’s sprint.
“To be honest, it felt really terrible. Maybe that last session was just incredibly difficult to get the tyres to work. I didn’t really improve a lot on the soft but somehow we were first. Practice felt really nice, it felt like the car was in a really good window but in qualifying it didn’t feel like that any more. I was really not happy.
“In Q3 I saw I was only going 0.2secs faster and I was sliding around, no grip and they told me it was P1 and I thought it must be a joke but we’ll take it.”
Mercedes have a huge amount of work to do as both George Russell (11th) and Lewis Hamilton (12th) were knocked out in SQ2. After the sprint, we will have qualifying for Sunday’s race, which will take place at 9pm BST.
Strap yourselves in for a bumper Saturday in Miami.
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